HansaWorld at Gitex 2007 in Dubai

I just came home from Dubai.

I spent a week there for Gitex. The biggest expo of gadgets, parts, services, computers, televisions, phones, computer-programs and more. Seem to be a long time since we thought such expo times were over in my part of the world..... Gitex 07 was not as big as the year before, so perhaps things are changing in the ME as well? At least they did not claim it was bigger, and we all know what that means.

Where was Nokia? Where was Microsoft? Where was Apple? Well apple does not have a strong prescence in the region, but have their own IMC ME (Independent Marketing Company) who was there.

HansaWorld is going global. That is part of why I went to Dubai. To help our local office situated for the time beeing in Internet City, One of many FreeZones to encourage international business in Dubai, one of the seven emirates in the United Arab Emiarates or U. A. E.

Last year we were invited to Nokias stand at Gitex. This time we managed to be able to present our Mac-versions on the stand of IMC ME. It was like a nice hidden surprise. But it was a nice experience, meeting nice and friendly employees from IMC ME and quite a few both interested partners and customers from the whole arabic speaking region. Our best marketing drive was the one thing or gadget that was NOT present, - Apples iPhone. A lot of people came to our stand to ask to see it. I saw two, - both of them inofficial cracked versions to run on the local operator.

I have a story to tell you, one about a company who came back a few times to reveiw our solution. I myself do not speak arabic, but when you demonstrate a fully functioning erp-solution that does it is fun. Our multilanguage versions allow us to change language interface with a key stroke. Most people are impressed when they see the english version turn into their local language. This nice lady was quite impressed, but I could see the small grin on her face when she told me with some sort of polite arrogance: "but arabic is from right to l.....?" Her face broke into a smile when I with another keytroke turned the picture from right to left.

Well, now the hard work starts. Trying to close the deals and get some more new customers in the region and to sign on board new interesting HansaWorld partners for us in the Middle East including opportunities from countries like Saudi-Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, U.A.E, Qatar, Quwait, Lebanon and Yemen.