Comtrust

The e-commerce arm of UAE telecoms giant Etisalat and was founded in the year 2000 just as the Internet boom went bust. But with more than 120 customers today Comtrust is the leading e-commerce provider in the Arab World.

Last year online payments in the UAE grew by 400%. This year Comtrust expects 150% growth by the end of 2003.

'We have seen hosting services grow by 60% in the first six months of the year,' says general manager Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar. 'The rapid development of e-government in the UAE is particularly good news for us, and we cater mainly to the needs of large organizations and government entities.

'Comtrust is all about addressing Internet security with public key infrastructure. This addresses four issues: privacy, authentication, integrity and non-repudiation. These combine to provide secure connectivity over the Internet with a digital certificate acting like a handshake on a deal'.

But from its current base Comtrust is set to move forward fast over the next few years, and a number of initiatives are planned in the coming months. By the third quarter of 2003 Comtrust's fully managed Oracle eBusiness Suite will be available as a hosting solution to customers wishing to outsource their application requirements.

'We see enormous room for growth in outsourcing IT requirements,' says Mr. Julfar. 'This offers management a way to operate and maintain the latest in technology and software without the problems of actual ownership. But most customers still choose to keep control of the database to themselves and that access is in no way compromised. Only the customer has access to the data.

'We have experts in every level of IT to bring to outsourcing and this is a true 24-hour-a-day, seven day-a-week service. Clients may also feel happier with a public institution like Etisalat rather than a private firm handling their IT systems'.

From the perspective of e-commerce Mr. Julfar places great stress on the importance of 3Dsecure technology, marketed as Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode. This technology gives the user a PIN number and achieves the highest levels of security for credit card payments over the Internet.

'There is a liability shift to Visa or MasterCard with 3DSecure technology,' explains Mr. Julpar. At the moment the merchant is liable for misuse of cards and the early launch of e-commerce websites in the region was badly hit by credit card fraud.

'3DSecure makes fraud impossible,' says Comtrust's general manager. 'Later this month the first 3DSecure banking deal will be announced, and we are confident that this system will build confidence in e-commerce and online transactions.'

This opens up the development of e-commerce across a whole range of travel and retail products such as airline tickets, hotels, gifts and so on. At the moment e-commerce in the Arab World is worth $3 billion a year in transactions, and that amount looks set for rapid growth.

For Comtrust the early development of its UAE home base puts the company in an excellent position to roll-out its services around the region. There are already solutions partners in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine and Kuwait.

It is the same story with broadband. Etisalat is an early adopter of the high speed Internet and that puts Comtrust in a strong position. 'We remain in a very good position to lead the market,' says Mr Julfar.