Qatar's Faisal Bin Qassim Holding Company minimizes administration costs with Oracle Collaboration Suite

With holdings in the automotive, transportation, logistics, petrochemical, manufacturing, engineering, tourism, real estate, and retail sectors, FBQHC needed a reliable and affordable centralized communications infrastructure to enable increased collaboration across its different businesses, and their related customers and partners. The Doha-based group opted for Oracle Collaboration Suite based on its capability to give FBQHC's employees a single in-box for all email, files, and fax messages, as well as the flexibility to access messages from Outlook, Web browsers, and mobile phones.

"Given the size and diversity of FBQHC, it was vital that we centralize key communications functions, giving employees the tools they need, such as calendaring and email, while enabling our IT team to manage these applications centrally across all of the different companies. " Mr. Ehsan Idrissi, group IT manager, Faisal Bin Qassim Al-Thani and Sons Holding Company.

The decision to install Oracle Collaboration Suite was made following a full review of the group's current technology throughout its subsidiaries. Realizing the benefits that a fully-integrated, consolidated communications platform could bring to their organization, executives at the FBQHC decided to migrate from Lotus Notes to Oracle technology. One of the key incentives behind the project was the capability of the Oracle Collaboration Suite to consolidate FBQHC 's system around a single server, thereby reducing costs and lessening the impact on network bandwidth.

"The Oracle Collaboration Suite will allow FBQHC to consolidate our servers for file sharing and email, streamline our maintenance procedures, and lower our overall IT costs. Any solution that reduces the complexity of our technology environment, and fosters easier communication internally and with customers, is a lifesaver for a company the size of FBQHC, and the Oracle Collaboration Suite is just that type of solution," Idrissi continued.


"There are three major ways in which Oracle Collaboration Suite will enable FBQHC to reduce its IT-related costs: the cost of the software per user is lower than competing offerings, hardware costs are reduced because FBQHC will need fewer servers to run the Oracle Collaboration Suite, and the solution's centralized management requires fewer administration resources," stated Husam Dajani, Vice President for Oracle Middle East.

"Reducing IT-related expenses in one company can be a challenge, so achieving that goal across the Group is a complex undertaking. There are many diverse trading groups operating across the Middle East, and FBQHC is taking a bold step to lead that sector by consolidating its IT infrastructure. The Oracle Collaboration Suite will enable FBQHC to lower its cost of ownership and operating expenses while easing communication and collaboration capabilities throughout its operations," Dajani added.