Cisco has created a division called TREC (tourism, real estate and construction) to increase focus on the real estate sector in the region

Through TREC, Cisco will provide consultancy services to developers in identifying new revenue streams through technology integration.

Amr Salem, manager of vertical segments at Cisco says, “Businesses are now realising the role of technology plays within the construction and development processes. To take advantage of these market opportunities, Cisco built a real estate vertical, go to market segment that would seamlessly integrate technological solutions in a real estate or hospitality infrastructure and reduce a company’s OPEX, CAPEX and generate new income flows.”

According to Salem the separate division was required to build industry expertise, dedicate resources, leverage investment and create a complete market offering.

The vendor is also working along with channels on these projects. Salem adds, “This will be beneficial to the channels as it adds new solutions to their present portfolios, which allows them to increase their profits from such projects.”

Presently, Cisco is looking strongly at the gulf region due to the large scale construction that accounts for a trillion dollars (thousand billion) in Dubai itself.

Looking ahead, the vendor is planning to conduct Eco Partner forums along with channel partners in Saudi Arabia in the first quarter of 2007. An Eco Partner forum is a platform created for partners to demonstrate their various solutions for the TREC sector.