Dubai Internet City (DIC), a member of TECOM Investments, announced Financial Architects (FinArch), an international provider of a Finance Resource Planning (FRP) platform, has opened a new branch in Dubai.
Headquartered in Belgium, FinArch has offices in the US, the UK, Luxembourg, Spain, and Singapore. FinArch’s new office in Dubai will focus on the business development, sales and marketing of its risk and financial management software.
“It is our prime objective to affiliate with pioneers in various segments of the ICT sector that will contribute to expanding the range of business partners within our community,” says Malek Al Malek, executive director, Dubai Internet City. “The presence of FinArch in Dubai will immensely benefit regional companies that seek expertise in Finance Resource Planning (FRP). We will continue to focus on partnering with companies that provide niche products and applications. The cluster’s state-of-the-art infrastructure and the community of industry peers have strongly worked in favour of Dubai Internet City despite the current global economic situation. We, therefore, feel extremely confident about setting new milestones in DIC’s development.”
FinArch has implemented applications worldwide for more than twelve years, and has experienced a dramatic increase in demand for its Financial Studio application. To meet this ever increasing demand for its applications and to serve its existing customers more closely, FinArch already recently expanded its Business Development team in APAC, Europe and in the United States. With the opening of this new office in Dubai now, FinArch wants to better serve its strong network of customers in the Middle East, and wishes to increase its local presence in this area.
FinArch’s Dubai office is led by Mounir Baccouche. Prior to FinArch, Mounir Baccouche was General Manager for EastNets and Ejada, two regional application distributors and systems integrators. Other experiences include management positions with several Middle East banks.
“I am very excited by the challenges and opportunities for FinArch in the Middle East,” says Nigel Lee, chief commercial officer for FinArch. “Opening our new office in Dubai is the logical thing to do in terms of supporting our clients in the region and meeting the ongoing increase in demand for our applications.” Lee added: “Our applications are perfectly positioned to enable Middle Eastern banks to exploit the current economic situation. Basel II along with a host of strategic Risk and Capital Management functionality will better position our clients to increase return on capital and risk adjust performance measures to accurately assess the day to day success of their business. With an increase in regulatory control in the region and early adoption of new standards and reporting obligations, FinArch’s FRP based application will provide our customers tremendous economies of scale in choosing 1 platform to serve multiple functional needs.”
“Financial Transformation is the key to creating a more efficient and more effective financial institution. FinArch’s market leading Sub-ledger application will give banks in the region an opportunity to gain greater clarity and greater efficiency in their accounting and Financial MIS activities.” Mounir Baccouche, vice president for regional development, FinArch ME states. “I am proud to open FinArch’s first office in the region. I believe we have the perfect combination of applications, skills and experience to be a valuable strategic partner to banks in the Middle East and to strengthen our commitment to our existing customers.”
During the first quarter of 2009, DIC welcomed 32 new entities to its FirstSteps@DIC Business Center, complementing the 128 companies that joined the cluster in 2008. Hosting most of the 1,300 specialised global industry leaders including many of the Fortune 500 companies, Dubai Internet City has emerged a global ICT hub, while catering to the region’s increasing focus on creating knowledge-economies.
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