The new office in Rome will enable the company to build its European client base following a number of recent successes across the continent.

This expansion puts LINK Development in the privileged position of being one of very few Egyptian IT companies serving the European market - a trend that is steadily growing as Egypt's IT potential gains more exposure on a global level.

The company is a world-class provider of e-solutions with a focus on portals & intranets, e-commerce, Enterprise Integration, Microsoft CRM implementations, Helpdesk Solutions, Unified communications and IPTV.

Furthermore, it has built substantial experience in the telecom sector, developing value-added services such as messaging and collaboration services, IPTV and digital rights management.

As one of the largest software development houses in the Middle East and North Africa region, LINK Development has built an unrivalled portfolio of award-winning work and a substantial client base in countries as diverse as Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Algeria and in Africa Mauritius, Kenya and Malawi.

Having achieved this position at the forefront of the industry in the region, the company set its sights to entering the European market and has consequently studied its requirements over the past few years.

In order to build its profile in the continent, active participation in leading European trade shows has been on the company's agenda, with Cebit being a major platform for exposure for the company in the last three years. It has already begun building a European customer base, having recently delivered large offshore development projects to Greece and Italy.

The company has also worked in partnership with Microsoft over the last ten years, and has been a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in five competency areas for more than eight years.

Its continuous focus on training and certification has enabled it to achieve ISO 9001:2000 and CMMI Level 3 certifications, and to have more than half of Microsoft's Most Valued Professionals (MVPs) in Egypt.

The skills of its 270-strong team of software professionals cover areas from software development and design to project management and quality engineering.

In addition, the team's skills combine the strengths of software development with creative design - two areas in which the company continues to build its talent and capabilities - thus enabling the company to deliver complete e-business solutions.

According to Abdel Meguid, the growing interest from European companies stems from Egypt being in closer geographical proximity, and therefore has smaller time differences, than its Asian counterpart India.

In addition, English and French are commonly used languages in the country's IT circle, which removes the hurdle of multilingual communication and enables a better understanding of cultures.

'More importantly, with IT becoming a booming industry in the country, Egypt is able to offer a broad base of professionals skilled in software development with international certifications,' says Abdel Meguid.

'With the company's large resources, breadth of scope and strength of expertise and skills, I believe LINK Development is very well placed to succeed in this market,' she concludes.