With many major organisations - particularly in the banking and construction sectors - seeing massive growth in the region, the opening will support Panacea's roster of multi-national clients as they expand their Middle East operations.

The Dubai office will provide server and desktop engineer support capabilities to companies operating in the Middle East, specifically Doha, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. All engineers will be trained and accredited to the UK's high standards and used to handling complex and demanding client engagements in the City. The team will be quickly and easily expandable in line with customer demand, and will be backed up by a team of over 65 engineers and technical consultants in the UK, available 24 hours per day.

"Our customers have come to expect an exceptional level of service from us, so launching our own office in Dubai is a natural progression," said Peter Stroud, MD at Panacea Services. "Many already have a major presence in the Middle East or are expanding into the region, but are currently either flying employees out to cover even minor IT issues or relying on patchy local support. We're now able to serve them locally, round the clock, and to our high UK standards, delivering major cost benefits when compared with the local alternatives."

Construction consultancy, Davis Langdon, is one of the first customers to take advantage of Panacea's Middle East offering. It has 200 people in five offices across the Middle East, one of its fastest growing regions, and was previously managing IT support from the UK as it was not viable to recruit permanent IT staff for the region. However, the business needed hands-on support and was regularly having to send UK-based staff for major projects.

Chris Robinson, IT Partner/Director EME at Davis Langdon said: "The quality of local support was variable and our UK helpdesk is not available 24 hours a day, so the officeffices in the Middle East were unsupported in the mornings and on Sundays (a working day in the region). We already had a trusted relationship with Panacea in the UK so their expansion into the Middle East was the ideal solution for us - we know we're getting UK-quality support but based locally."

Panacea's Middle East support will encompass Doha, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. Staff from Panacea's head office in London will be permanently based in the region but rotated every quarter in line with its PRESS (Panacea's Rotational Enhancement Support Structure). Cover will include Microsoft Server and Desktop, Microsoft Domain Administration, Microsoft Exchange Administration, LAN/WAN and Firewalls capabilities.