Comtrust, the e-business infrastructure unit of Etisalat, has appointed Solutions Middle East (SME) and Emirates Business Management (EBM) as its Value Added Resellers (VARs) in the UAE.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will have exclusive rights to market and sell Comtrust's entire range of e-business infrastructure solutions in the country, a Comtrust statement said.

Farooq Hasan, marketing manager, Comtrust, said the alliance with the VARs helped reaffirm Comtrust's commitment to help businesses and governments in the UAE embrace e-commerce on a variety of levels and platforms.

"Comtrust's Value Added Resellers will significantly enhance its market presence through the marketing and sale of a comprehensive line of e-commerce products and services, which cater to all e-commerce customer needs, offering customers a one-stop-shop," he said.

SME is an award-winning IT Solutions Company based in Dubai with operations in the UAE and other GCC countries. It has already successfully implemented a number of e-projects incorporating Comtrust products and services. These include two prestigious websites for www.ajmalperfume.com (e-commerce site built for Ajmal Perfumes, a Dubai-based perfume company) and www.booksarabia.com (e-commerce site for Motivate Publishing).

In the case of www.ajmalperfume.com, the business-to-consumer (B2C) site was built using Comtrust's Quickshop package that provides local organisations with an inexpensive package to quickly and easily develop an e-commerce site. SME was responsible for the consulting, design, commissioning and marketing advice.

The www.booksarabia.com site was built using SME's Ibis product, which is a platform developed in-house for B2C or B2B e-commerce solutions. SME incorporated Comtrust's payment gateway to enable on-line credit card payment.

SME managing director Shaikh Ali observed that e-services brought lower operating costs, increased profitability and a faster time to market for new products and services and consituted the business of the future.

"Our goal is to leverage the strength of both our companies in order to assist organisations with their go-to-market e-strategies"

EBM, a Dubai company offers, among other things, Internet strategy consulting, Website conceptualisation, website designing, website marketing and E-commerce solutions.