31 March 2008 - Dubai - Gulf Craft Inc, a leading player in the global boat and yacht manufacturing industry has been awarded a top IT accolade for its innovative use of Information technology and automation within the industry.

Having invested in an ambitious IT programme in recent years, Gulf Craft has been successful in automating its entire back-office and integrating technology into every aspect of its business, resulting in improved performance by staff as well as increased output.

Selected as one of the region's IT Managers of the Year 2008 by ACN in January 2008, Erwin Bamps, Executive Manager of Gulf Craft Inc, was invited as a keynote speaker at the 5th Middle East IT Service Management Conference held between 23 -27th March at the JW Marriott, Dubai. He addressed a crowd of CEOs and CIOs gathered in Dubai from the entire Middle East on how Gulf Craft Inc has been able to successfully align its IT developments and investments with its overall business strategy.

He highlighted Gulf Craft's ambitious expansion drive and how the company has had to upgrade its ERP software package, and with it its entire IT architecture and WAN networking between facilities in order to prepare for the next growth stage and to support its long-term strategic vision.

Mr Erwin Bamps commented: "In today's dynamic business environment, Gulf Craft Inc cannot survive nor thrive without reliable IT services. Gulf Craft Inc has grown rapidly from a family-owned business with just one main production site to its present size of four production sites and nearly 1,600 staff with a healthy order book."

To meet the demands of a growing client base Gulf Craft Inc adopted and successfully implemented the Focus RT ERP package, a suite of applications that includes finance, sales, manufacturing, human resources, procurement and inventory management modules that optimize the Gulf Craft Inc back-office administration.

In addition, Gulf Craft Inc also introduced bar-coding and real-time data processing at all its decentralized raw material stores, as well as biometric time and attendance monitoring of employees. Both additional applications were then integrated into its ERP backbone software system. The company has been more ambitious than most of its industry peers in terms of IT automation.

"We try to raise the bar with every step of our growth, presently studying further IT Service Management implementations to better service both internal and external clients," says Kalyan Chakravarthy, Head of IT & Network Administration of Gulf Craft Inc. "We are continuously planning and developing new added-value software applications and modules to further enhance our internal efficiencies, focusing on our customers and the services we must be able to supply to the surrounding departments, which all have equally challenging targets to meet."

"Our corporate culture is aiming to make every single employee aware of his impact to the bottom-line whether large or small, making them truly part of the company's short and long-term objectives. This is the real secret that lies at the basis of Gulf Craft Inc's success story," concluded Erwin Bamps.

- Ends -

Notes to editors:
Gulf Craft Inc, based in the United Arab Emirates, exports more than 70 per cent of its output and its super-luxury vessels are to be found in virtually every major harbour of the world.

Although Gulf Craft Inc began life building small pleasure craft, it is now a mainstream producer of multi-deck masterpieces where neither expense nor effort are spared in setting the definitive 'state of the art' standard for ocean-going luxury.

It is one of only a handful capable of producing vessels of 100-ft and over, with annual production of about 700 vessels up to 150 ft in overall length.

Since launching its Majesty Yachts brand in 2004 and its Oryx brand in 2005, orders have been pouring in. Its first top-of-the range Majesty 130-footer is delivered to its Australian customer and a 145-footer is now on the drawing boards.

For more information, please contact:
d'pr
Linsey Worgan
Tel: +971 (0)4 3311104
Email: linsey@d-pr.ae

© Press Release 2008