Joint venture to offer maritime, land satellite solutions

The joint venture between Zener Group of Dubai, and One Net, Cyprus, was announced on the sidelines of the Gulf Maritime 2005 exhibition held at Expo Centre Sharjah from April 18 to 20, 2005.

Zener One Net LLC, in partnership with Stratos Global Corporation, aims at establishing a name for quality resource for maritime and land satellite solutions as well as a premier communication consultation centre for the Gulf shipping industry.

Stratos Global Corporation is leading provider of a wide range of advanced mobile and fixed-site remote communication solutions for users operating beyond the reach of traditional networks.

'We have found that in the last two years the demand for our services has overtaken the resources we had put in place to serve our clientele in the UAE. The imbalance has been redressed in a number of ways,' said Themis Violaris, Marketing Manager, Zener One Net.

'In the course of next six months, a variety of subtle modifications will be made to our customer service support, to the quality of our response in general and the products on offer. We will be able to offer a service equal to the very best anywhere in the region,' he added.

Zener Group is a Dubai-based fully locally-owned company operating since 1975. Zener Marine, a specialised wing of the group, is one of the leading marine electronics, communications and navigation equipment sales and service providers.

'Since inception, we have shown remarkable progress in our services and have rapidly diversified to become a truly 'one-stop shop' providing a complete range of marine electronics and navigation services,' said Mr Ivan D'Souza, Manager, Marine Division, Zener Group.

One Net was set up in 1997 with the primary aim of offering to Cyprus and regional shipping communities a full range of marine satellite
telecommunication services. One Net has established a very successful working partnership with Stratos Global Corporation by promoting its marine satellite services and products.

'With the opening of a full communications service office, the process of achieving our objectives has begun. Apart from the usual office accommodations, we have reserved a substantial area for demonstrations, briefings and hands-on training. This is an important innovation because it marks a conceptual change in the way we expect to serve our clients in the
future,' said Themis Violaris.

'Our training programmes will be geared to the view that professionalism is important to the survival and growth of our customers and indeed the industry itself. In today's world,international communications have gone beyond being important. They are in fact essential and in many instances mark the difference between getting by and having a distinct competitive advantage. We will, therefore, offer coaching and training which covers the complete range of tasks facing the operators and service users,' said Themis Violaris.

'At a technical level, we will continue to introduce methodology and products which are innovative and cost effective. This means that all our people must themselves undergo continuous training and familiarisation programmes,' he added.

Gulf Maritime 2005 featured over 180 exhibitors from over 26 countries and was organised jointly by Expo Centre Sharjah and Baird Publications of
Singapore.

The displays included the latest in designing and building of different kinds of vessels, equipment for fishing, offshore support vessels, cargo ships, tankers, tugs, ferries, patrol boats, all types of ship repair and port operations products and cargo handling services.