Vienna, Austria & Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 23 July 2003: After a visit by the CEO of SAIL LABS Technology, one of the leading international companies specializing in Speech Technologies & Media Mining solutions, to Sakhr Software Co, the leading Arabic IT Company, the two companies announced the launch of a strategic alliance servicing the Arab World.

This alliance will enable Sail Labs to offer its solutions utilizing Sakhr's technologies such as the renowned “Idrisi” search engine, NasherNet content management system, the translation engine “Tarjim” and other exceptional Sakhr solutions, all of which integrate seamlessly with all platforms, thereby fulfilling customer requirements and needs. The partnership is reciprocal in nature whereas Sakhr will act as Distributor and System Integrator for Sail Labs' Media Mining System in the Arabic speaking regions.

In addition to previous meetings held in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, Dr Thomas Netousek, CEO, Sail Labs, also conducted during his visit to the region a series of joint events with Sakhr's top management in several other Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. These events included high-level joint marketing meetings with some of the largest institutions in the region and introduced the Media Mining solutions of Sail Labs and Sakhr's information management solutions, based on Natural Language Processing.

Sail Labs, whose headquarters is located in Vienna, Austria, is the developer of OSINT, the multi-lingual Media Mining System that provides immediate real time access to all types of unclassified information sources, including video and audio media.

“Our strong relationship with Sail Labs reconfirms Sakhr's approach to widening our scope of international alliances, extending beyond giant companies like Intel & Microsoft, to reach medium sized companies needing our support & which offer products that fill the needs of the Arabic IT market,” commented Abdulaziz Al-Gharabally, Marketing & Sales Director, Al Alamiah Group/Sakhr Software Co.

He added, “The positive feedback we received from our clients encourages us to invest further into our comprehensive solutions powered by the innovative technologies of Sakhr & Sail Labs & customized to client requirements. We are committed to providing top-notch quality & to achieving the highest standards, thereby placing the best technology has to offer at the disposal of our clients.”

It is a widely accepted fact that the IT market is witnessing an increase in demand for Arabic language solutions. Sakhr has the unsurpassed experience and capabilities to fulfill the requirements of Arab organizations and institutions for automating their business processes. Sakhr's exceptional solutions such as ArabDox, NasherNet & Johaina broadly integrate with Sail Labs systems, enabling the mining of information in an Arabic environment, thus offering the best of data management technologies to Arab organizations & institutions.

As Sakhr is the pioneer in the field of Arabic language based solutions, its Arabic information management solutions integrate seamlessly with Sail Labs Arabic Media Mining & Management solutions, thus offering unique unprecedented Arabic language solutions to institutions, organizations and research centers.

“Our alliance with Sakhr helps us introduce best of breed technologies like the Sail Labs Media Indexing solutions to the Arabic markets. Sakhr has helped us achieve a unique presence for our main product within the Arab organizations & institutions with which Sakhr shares a strong bond,” commented Thomas Netousek, CEO, Sail Labs. He added, “We view Sakhr as an extraordinary partner, for it has the technological superiority which places it among the most important of Arab companies. Sakhr's outstanding solutions such as “Idrisi” search engine, the translation engine and NasherNet, the content management system, broadly integrate with our OSINT systems, which are widely used by some of the largest and most prominent institutions & organizations in the world. We expect that our meetings with our partners will reflect positively on our ability to provide the best to our clients in the Arab World.”

OSINT system is the abbreviation of Government Solutions for Open Source INTelligence; government investigation solutions of open sources, including searching and mining of all types of accessible, acknowledgeable and unclassified information sources.

About Sakhr Software Co.

Sakhr Software Company was founded in Kuwait in 1982, and was relocated in Cairo in 1990. The company is widely recognized as the leading Arabic software company, establishing its reputation worldwide as the first company to develop Arabic solutions and products to fulfill the demands of the Arabic IT industry and the needs of Arab users. Sakhr is in the forefront of the Arabic software with many of its innovative solutions and its research in the field of Arabic Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies. Sakhr inaugurated its branch in the UAE in 2001, which is based at the Dubai Internet City. For more information on Sakhr Software, visit the website http://www.sakhr.com.

Media Department - Sakhr Software Co.
+971–4–391–1556
+971–4–391–1540 (fax)