Farook International Stationary switches to Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains ERP

The deployment, which was carried out by Microsoft partner EMPA Middle East, also includes the complete change over of all of Farook Stationary's IT infrastructure to Microsoft technology.

Dubai-based Farook International Stationary is a manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of stationary for schools and office customers. With operations in more than 65 countries to manage, the new Great Plains solution will help Farook to bring in automated and efficient controls over business processes, freeing up management time for business and product development.

"The Great Plains solution gives Farook Stationary a number of important benefits that are already helping us to meet growing customer demands and needs. The improved flow of information created by the ERP system allows our employees to be more productive, and to make better informed decisions more quickly," said Rami Farook, Vice President, Farook Stationary.

"The better understanding and visibility into our business allows us to be more responsive to customers, and to meet our business objectives with them. Also, better analysis of customer and vendor trends allows to make better decisions and cater to their needs much more responsively - we have already started on the design of some new office and school stationary items thanks to the time saved and the insight that Great Plains has afforded us," he added.

The complete project for Farook Stationary includes the deployment of Great Plains ERP, to replace a previous custom solution, with Microsoft Windows 2003 Server and SQL Server replacing the operating system and databases. The ability to source the complete solution from one vendor, as well as Microsoft Business Solutions ongoing development of the Great Plains range were important to Farook in choosing Microsoft.

"Microsoft's reputation and commitment to the market, plus Great Plains robustness, rich functionality and strong customer base are all very convincing factors when businesses are looking for ERP solutions to fit with their business requirements. Farook Stationary evaluated a number of different vendors, but Microsoft was able to satisfy all of their requirements and has the local presence they want," said Rahb Hamidaddin, President, EMPA.

Microsoft Business Solutions applications are designed to enable small, medium and enterprise scale businesses to integrate their processes and information to improve business agility, increase business insight and become more efficient.

"We are very pleased that Farook Stationary has chosen Microsoft solutions to build its IT infrastructure on," said Rajesh Deepchandani, Partner Engagement Manager, Microsoft South Gulf. "Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains can be closely integrated with other elements of the Microsoft technology platform to create very powerful business tools, and it is this sort of ease of integration, and Microsoft's ongoing commitment to developing our products, that is creating such an attractive proposition to our customers."