News

Odoo Middle East Partners With Hotdesk Technologies

The collaboration will benefit small to medium businesses by combining Odoo’s ERP solutions with Hotdesk’s flexible workspace offerings.

Published

2 years ago

August 8, 2024

Nour Nasir

Odoo

Odoo Middle East, an ERP provider enabling companies to streamline operations, boost efficiency and facilitate improved decision-making, has announced an official partnership with Hotdesk, one of the world’s premier flexible workspace providers.

This partnership combines the two firms’ expertise to foster digital transformation and drive innovation. By leveraging Hotdesk’s robust suite of workspace solutions and hybrid work management technologies with Odoo’s CRM, accounting, and e-commerce software, the duo will be able to provide unparalleled services tailored to the unique needs of Middle Eastern businesses.

In addition, Odoo will also benefit from integration into Hotdesk’s flexible workspace solutions, allowing them to access over 650 coworking spaces, and service over 200,000 existing users across the region.

Hotdesk subscribers will benefit from a number of technical and commercial benefits from the partnership with Odoo, giving businesses of all sizes a significant advantage. Odoo will provide Hotdesk users with regular industry-specific workshops, both online and in-person, along with a free trial of the company’s software services.

To cement the new partnership, the two companies will also embark on a multi-country workshop tour. The events will be hosted in different coworking venues, while special events will also take place in the headquarters of both Odoo and Hotdesk.

Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East

“This collaboration represents a crucial step in integrating advanced enterprise resource planning with versatile work environments. By aligning our services, both Odoo and Hotdesk would be able to offer more dynamic and responsive solutions and allow SMEs to increase revenue, cut costs, innovate, and enhance their business as a whole,” explained Pavitra Singh, Managing Director of Odoo Middle East.

“One of the key topics of the current startup scene is: how do you run lean, efficient operations? That’s what the Hotdesk x Odoo partnership is built around – our common mission of enabling startups and SMEs to scale lean with technology that optimizes and digitizes businesses from end-to-end,” added Mohamed Khaled, CEO of Hotdesk.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.