House of Development's Oracle-Based Solution To Store and Manage Thousands of Legal Records

RIYADH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - 26 January 2005 - The process of officially legalizing documents in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is moving online as part of a major initiative by the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Saudi CSCCI). Independent software vendor House of Development has used the Oracle technology platform to develop a solution for real-time signature legalization and verification, enabling Saudi-based companies to apply for legalized documents online at their convenience.

The previous process by which documents were authenticated in Saudi Arabia included paper-based preparation of the document, application of the company seal, in-person presentation at the relevant Chamber of Commerce, and record retention at that individual location. Under the new scheme, documents can be prepared and submitted online, authenticated and legalized, and then stored in a centralized database for future access. Each chamber of commerce member in the Kingdom can maintain its legalized documents, company seal and authorized signatures in a secure environment that is continuously available online.

"The trend in public services globally is toward greater efficiency and ease of interaction, said Eng.Fahad Al Askar, Information Technology General Manager, Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce & Industry. "Our new Oracle-based system for document legalization not only saves considerable time and effort on behalf of our Chambers and their member organizations; it also creates a streamlined process and an availability of public services that is unprecedented in the Kingdom.

"Electronic document certification simplifies our procedures, making them more accessible and user-friendly than ever before. To ensure greater peace-of-mind for our members about the security of their electronic signatures,

Developing Online Services for the Kingdom

House of Development, which used the Oracle Database 10g, Oracle Application Server 10g and Oracle JDeveloper 10g in building the electronic certification solution, has now registered its offering for a patent from the Saudi government. The company anticipates considerable demand for its online certification solution as the Kingdom moves toward adopting wider e-government principles.

Abdulrahman Al Thehaiban, managing director of Oracle in Saudi Arabia, commented on this new project: "This is a revolutionary approach taken by the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce & Industry in order to improve its services to the public. We certainly hope that this experience will encourage more government bodies to adopt the Internet and Oracle technology to improve public services."

Ahmed Saeed Badrais, Marketing Manager , House of Development., said: "Delivering on the promise of increased efficiency and cost reduction was our main objective in developing the electronic document certification software. Both public and private sector users in Saudi Arabia are now more accepting of online business processes, especially when they realize the benefits in terms of time, effort and money saved through services like online legalization of records."

"Oracle's leadership in data management, information security and ease of systems management were among the key factors influencing our choice of development platform. It has been our firsthand experience that running Oracle enables companies to maintain a lower total cost of ownership because hardware, human resources and other IT resources are used more efficiently."

In addition to Oracle software, the new document certification solution also includes components from Softpro, a handwriting verification company, and Wacom, a pen-based signature capturing organization. - ENDS -

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Oracle Corporation is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle in the Middle East, please visit our web site at www.oracle.com/me or contact Aly Rifaah on +9714 390 9000.

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