Wins the prestigious CommsMEA Award in Dubai Bahrain – 14th October 2006: Batelco, Bahrain’s leading

Telecommunication Company, was recognised as the ‘Fixed Line Operator of the Year’ at the inaugural CommsMEA Awards held at the Fairmont Dubai recently. The prestigious award recognises the operator that has continued to develop and improve its fixed line network and services while growing penetration rates and improving the customer experience.

“We are indeed delighted to have achieved this prestigious recognition as the best fixed line operator in the Middle East and African region,” said Batelco’s Corporate Affairs General Manager Ahmed Al Janahi. “Our strategy to remain technically innovative, while keeping the needs of our customers in the forefront has proven to be successful”, added Ahmed.

The inaugural CommsMEA Awards seek to recognise and reward telecommunication industry professionals and operators that have shown outstanding performance and results in key market segments.

As the most widely circulated and read business-to-business telecoms publication in the Middle East region, it was considered only appropriate that CommsMEA is used as a vehicle to acknowledge and celebrate the significant achievements being made in the regional telecommunications sector and beyond.

The Awards were judged by a high profile panel of telecommunication experts and the winners were rewarded at an elaborate Gala dinner attended by senior executives and personalities from the Middle East and Africa telecommunications industry and other VIPs.

Batelco, Bahrain’s leading telecommunications Company, won two awards at the first Bahrain Web Awards, which took place under the patronage of Shaikh Khalifa bin Hamed bin Isa Al Khalifa, at the Ritz Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa on 20th May.

Batelco’s Aywah Portal, www.aywah.com.bh was placed second in the Entertainment category and Batelco.com, www.batelco.com won third prize for their Corporate Page in the Business category.

Shaikh Khalifa presented the Entertainment category award to Batelco General Manager Consumer, Nick Di Marzo and the Business Category award to Batelco Senior Manager Corporate Affairs, Hatem Altaie, who represented Batelco at the prestigious ceremony.

“Bahrain’s business community owes a big vote of thanks to Shaikh Khalifa for supporting this event which has increased the awareness of website design and its importance in today’s technological society,” said Batelco General Manager Corporate Affairs Ahmed Al Janahi.

“We are very pleased to have won two awards and are now inspired to strive to be the best at next year’s event.”

Batelco has been presented with a high-profile global brand award for ‘Best Business Transformation’ following more than three years of dedication to meeting the challenges of Bahrain’s newly competitive telecoms market. 

Since mid-2002, Batelco has undergone a massive transformation programme designed to help the company face competition from a position of strength and resulting in a successful, responsive, customer-focused and highly competitive communication’s solution company. 

“The transformation – which started with ‘Project Get Ready!’ and has continued through our ongoing Brand Engagement Programme - was challenging and involved massive change across the entire business, with direct impact on customer facing and back-office functions,” says Shaikh Ahmed Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, General Manager – Human Resources at Batelco. “Our current success stems from careful planning, hard work, and the unwavering dedication of each and every one of Batelco’s more than 1500 employees.”

“We effectively took the company, turned it upside down and gave it a good shake before rebuilding the whole organisation with a very clear vision of what we wanted Batelco to become: a company with total and unrelenting focus on meeting and exceeding our customer’s needs.” 

“Today, nearly three years later, our focus continues to be on delivering unrivalled customer experience, innovation and an outstanding range of products,” says Batelco’s new Chief Executive, Peter Kaliaropoulos. “Both Batelco and our customers are reaping the rewards and benefits of our determined approach to continually enhancing our customers’ experience and providing better value, leading edge products and services.” 

“Over the 18 months since we unveiled our new branding, our eye-catching red and white design has become a mark of quality for our customers so that our logo is now synonymous with outstanding customer service and high quality products,” explains Ian Dench, General Manager – Marketing & Sales at Batelco, who collected the award at a special presentation held in Dubai. 

As added testament to the company’s hard work and commitment to customers, Batelco has been given high profile international recognition for the success of its re-branding programme.

Worldwide design and consulting firm, Landor Associates – who assisted Batelco in their re-branding exercise - organised a competition among its 22 offices throughout the world. Challengers in nine different categories were tough and all taken from a list that includes some of the world’s biggest and most successful brands - such as BP, Evian, Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo. 

Batelco was declared overall winner in the "Best Client Business Transformation" category, defined as a branding programme which can be demonstrated to have helped a client achieve business objectives and effect an impressive level of business transformation. Criteria for submission and judging were based on evidence of business results and impact - including financial performance and image research results.

“Batelco beat some very big global brand names including Frito-Lay, Smirnoff, Baileys and Japan Post,” says Ian. “We are delighted with this award and exceptionally proud of the work that went into making our submission a winning one.”

Landor’s Middle East Creative Director John Brash said “At the end of the day, helping our clients transform their businesses is what Landor is all about - and Batelco is a great example of such a transformation. “We are proud of our work, but it is Batelco’s employees who achieved the outstanding results by addressing the re-branding programme as a serious and critically important endeavour.” 

“We are absolutely delighted with this international recognition,” says Peter. The fact that Batelco competed with and came out as winner against some of the world’s biggest brands is a clear testament to the hard work and commitment that everyone in Batelco has delivered in order to create the company our customers see today.”

"Batelco has been awarded the new standard ISO 9001:2000 by the British Standards Institute (BSI) in 2003. This follows its success when it became the first telecommunications company in the middle East to receive the BSI’s ISO 9002 certification for its quality management system in 1996.

"we are delighted to receive this accreditation because it is an international recognition that we meet the highest standards demanded worldwide , " said Batelco information systems and business assurance general manager salah Tarradah .

BSI lead auditor John Glackin commended Batelco’s dedication to quality and praised its employees and management for their commitment to customer satisfaction . Batelco chief executive Tony Hart reiterated Batelco management support of the quality management system and its continued dedication to improving customer satisfaction.

The final four-day long audit was conducted by two BSI auditors.Above , Mr Hart , centre , recieves the certificates from Mr Glackin , fourth from left , with other staff."

Batelco Sets Winning Trend At MEED Awards Ceremony

Batelco created history by clinching the top award for the Business-to-Consumer Service Supplier category at the MEED Awards for Business Excellence ceremony.

The award was presented at a glittering ceremony hosted by the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) magazine to mark its "MEED Awards for Business Excellence," in Dubai on 20th March.

Present were the region’s most senior and high profile business leaders and winners across ten categories representing the region’s most outstanding initiatives in the construction, manufacturing, telecommunications, information technology, aviation, hospitality, and power industries.

The award was given in recognition of Batelco’s regional expansion achievements and local service initiatives as well as the company’s commitment to Bahrain’s social welfare. In making the award, which recognises service excellence in a business unit based in the Middle East, the judges took into account the quality of the service itself, sales trends, competitive performance, overseas sales and innovation.

Having been short-listed for two of the ten categories, Batelco overcame strong competing entries from the National Bank of Kuwait (UAE), Riyadh Bank, Giordano Fashions, and the Royal Mirage Hotel to take the Business-to-Consumer Service Supplier top prize.

Batelco was also short-listed in the Business-to- Business Service Supplier category together with HSBC Financial Services, Kanoo Machinery, Saudi American Bank, STME, and CCC - Consolidated Contractors International Company, which received the award in this category.

More than 23 companies were short-listed from over 100 initial entries for the MEED Judged Awards, which focused on Middle East-based service initiatives in both the business-to-consumer and business-tobusiness sectors. The judging panel for these MEED awards included MEED’s Edmund O’Sullivan as chairman, as well as dignitaries such as Professor John Quelch, senior associate dean, Harvard Business School and Lord James Prior, chairman, Arab-British Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and former UK cabinet minister.

Commenting on the awards, Edmund O’Sullivan, MEED’s publishing director and the developer of the awards concept, said, "Identifying the best businesses in the Middle East was a challenging but extremely rewarding project for MEED. The winners set a new regional standard for excellence in both strategy and management, and created a benchmark by which future contenders will be judged."

Richard Baker, Dubai-based general manager of MEED magazine, said, "The award winners, through their diversity and innovation, have created an enduring example for the entire region."

Batelco, Bahrain ’ s leading integrated communications company won two prizes at the annual Bahrain eContent Awards, organised by the Ministry of Industry & Commerce and Bahrain Internet Society. The award ceremony, which was attended by Industry and Commerce Minister Hassan Fakhro, took place at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre, 13 th June.

Batelco ’ s aywah Portal, www.aywah.com.bh won first place in the Entertainment category and Batelco.com, www.batelco.com won first prize in the e-Content category for Batelco ’ s 2006 Annual Report. Batelco is leading with innovative technology in presenting its financial records in a variety of multimedia presentations, in addition to the traditional stream of electronic content.

“ We are delighted once again to be collecting two prizes at the Bahrain eContent Awards. We have improved on last year ’ s performance when Batelco Aywah was placed second in the Entertainment Category and Batelco.com won third prize for their Corporate Page in the Business category, ” said Batelco Corporate Affairs General Manager Ahmed Al Janahi.

“ Bahrain ’ s business community owes a big vote of thanks to Mr. Fakhro for supporting this event which has increased the awareness of website design and its importance in today ’ s technological society. ”

“ We are encouraged to match or better our achievement at next year ’ s event, ” he added.

Bahrain ’ s Leading Internet Provider Wins prestigious CommsMEA Award in Dubai

Batelco, Bahrain ’ s leading Telecommunications Company was recognised as the BestInternet Service Provider of the Year at the 2 nd annual CommsMEA Awards held at the Fairmont Hotel, Dubai, UAE, Sunday 2 nd September.

The prestigious Internet Services Provider award r ecognizes the Internet service provider that has driven Internet penetration rates and its own subscriber base by providing excellent connectivity and innovative packages to attract users.

“ We are delighted to have achieved this prestigious recognition as the Best Internet Service Provider of the year in the Middle East and Africa region, ” said Batelco ’ s Consumer Division General Manager Nick Di Marzo who attended the event.

“ Our strategy to remain technically innovative, while keeping the needs of our customers in the forefront has proven to be a successful combination, ” he said.

Thanks to Batelco ’ s ongoing investment and commitment to their Broadband Bahrain initiative which aspires to deliver Broadband to the majority of Bahrain ’ s residents, the Company currently provides Broadband connections to over 58,000 premises throughout the Kingdom. As a result of this achievement the Arab Advisors Group recently announced that Bahrain leads the Arab market in ADSL penetration.

Batelco earlier announced that they are in the final phase of a $57 million (BD21.8m) investment to complete their ambitious Next Generation Network (NGN) project which will deliver automated Broadband access to all residences in the Kingdom and make Bahrain the first country in the world with complete countrywide broadband.

“ Batelco ’ s NGN will deliver our promise to bring affordable broadband access to all of Bahrain ’ s households and enable an e-lifestyle for all residents sharing information, education and entertainment in the future, ” said Mr. Di Marzo.

The CommsMEA Awards seek to recognise and reward telecommunication industry professionals and operators that have shown outstanding performance and results in key market segments.

Batelco, Bahrain’s leading telecommunication company was presented with two awards at a prestigious ceremony held under the patronage of the Minister of Labour Dr. Majeed Bin Mohsin Al Alawi.

Batelco was awarded for its excellence in Training & Development for 2006 and also for its Bahrainisation programme - 94% of the Company’s staff are Bahraini nationals.

Batelco Human Resources General Manager Shaikh Ahmed Al Khalifa was presented with both awards by Ministry of Labour Undersecretary Shaikh Abdulrahman bin Abdulla Al Khalifa.

“We are honoured and delighted to receive these awards, which recognises our ongoing commitment to the development of our staff and our support for Bahrainis,” said Shaikh Ahmed. Batelco annually invests millions in its training and development programmes.

To boost the range of courses on offer, the Company introduced supported e-learning last year and recently celebrated its first successful year with a graduation ceremony for 200 employees who had each completed between 1 and 7 programmes. Currently more than 300 staff are participating in e-learning programmes.

“During 2006 we provided training for over 85% of our workforce with 121,442 hours of training clocked up within the year,” said Shaikh Ahmed. “As well as online programmes, a huge variety of courses were held at our Hamala based Training Centre, locally at various institutes within Bahrain, and also overseas if required.” Batelco was also represented at the event by Batelco Human Resources Development Senior Manager Kamal Al Bahraini and Batelco Training & Development Coordinator Narjes Asadalla. The event took place Wednesday 5th September at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. ”