Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone has gone live with its SAP business suite to help in its mission to be an investment hub founded on a commitment to total investor satisfaction, said a SAP Mena official.

With sales growth of more than 100 per cent in 2006, and 150 per cent last year, Rak Free Trade Zone requires solutions for customer relationship management (CRM) and real estate management to best facilitate the group’s explosive growth. 
 
Owned and operated by the Government of Ras Al Khaimah, the zone is now one of the largest free trade zones in the Middle East handling about 4,000 companies.

RAK zone chose to deploy Sap Business Suite applications for their comprehensive functionality and auditable, scaleable, and expandable design, said a Rak government official.

“Providing the fastest and most accurate possible processing of customer information is critical to the success of our operation, as free zone investment recruitment and retention is an extremely competitive exercise,” said Jerry Williams, RAK zone's IT manager. 

“SAP’s best-practice experience in real estate management and customer relationship management has brought enormous value to our internal processes, and has been significantly important to our continued excellence in realizing investor satisfaction,” he added.

In addition to implementing SAP Customer Relationship Management, the prime scope of the engagement was also to implement software to run core enterprise resource, planning processes, including financials, controlling, human resources and materials and real state management.

"We fully anticipate continued growth in the number of clients the zone will service over the next few years, and the SAP system we put in place now will largely enhance our ability to handle their demands as customers. The implementation of SAP is integral to the continued success of our operation,” said Zainab Abbas Qambar, Rak free trade zone’s information system manager.

“Rak free trade zone’s ongoing success story is an excellent example of SAP’s ability to apply world-class, industry-proven technology to the Middle East region’s most pressing business challenges,” said Ayman Abouseif, vice president of sales, SAP Mena.-TradeArabia News Service