The refreshing thing about the Jordanian IT sector is certainly its stress on building indigenous intellectual property (IP). From information management systems, to niche ERP solutions to work flow automation; Jordanian companies in recent months have been meeting success not only within their country, but in the regional and global market as well. With initiatives on the ICT front being intensified, the market now seems to be set for an interesting turn.

According to representatives from Jordan, the country now is looking to leverage its role in the regional ICT market and take its IP across to target new regions. The UAE in particular appears to be the preferred hub for Jordanian companies to set up their marketing and support operations.

This in a way is similar to the manner in which the Asia-Pacific market began its outsourcing relationship with the U.S. market. While initially it was a simple sub-contracting operation, it scaled up based on IP and policies to fortify the outsourcing relationships.

?Clearly it is time for us as a country to leverage the technology we have been building on home ground. Jordan does have the capabilities to be the outsourcing hub in this region and we are marking efforts to facilitate this,? said Ra?ed A Bilbessi, who has taken on as the new chairman of int@j.

The effort holds water for a few key reasons. For starters the country is backing its technology initiatives with suitable policies and procedures. Secondly, the strategy revolves around creating a tangible pool of technology that can be customized and reused. Thirdly, the focus is to begin by tapping the regional markets simply because of the cultural proximity with the Middle East.

Talking about policy issues, the Jordanian ministry, currently in the midst of a reshuffle is expected to continue to support the technology initiative in a major way. According to the Jordan Investment Board head of ICT sector Engineer Gaith Sawalha, the initiatives are focused on three key areas -- fixed telecom sector, mobile telecom segment and the ICT software industry, which currently has close to 300 companies.

?The concept of free zones has been initiated for the benefit of the technology sector and besides sales tax and income tax incentives (25 percent to 75 percent subsidies in tax for a 10 year period), we are keen to pursue a single window approach for companies to obtain clearances,? Sawalha said.

According to Sawalha all licences and clearances for starting business can now be obtained within 14 working days.

In a bid to increase MNC participation, the corporate income tax has been brought down to 7 percent as compared to 15 percent. 100 percent ownership across all sectors (except trade, construction and mining which require 50 percent Jordanian participation) has been allowed and a 100 percent repatriation of capital is permitted. Labor issues are also steady, with organized unions.

"This market is building on its IP strengths and we are also backing this up with quality technology education. We have close to 2000 graduates every year passing out of institutes and costs of hiring are competitive,? Sawalha added.

According to market statistics, Jordanian IT professionals can be hired for salaries starting at US$500 (per month) for a fresher to $1,500 for a senior developer.

Making inroads

With policies in place, Jordanian companies are now seeking to expand their market view particularly in the regional market. Besides the Middle East, some companies have also found success in far-flung regions of the world including China and Brazil.

Allied Soft has made inroads not only into Pakistan, but also in China (North of Tibet) and Brazil with its PIMS (process information management systems) targeted for real time process reporting.

This company took on its first project as part of a partnership with German design and system architecture firm proAsset, which was a sub-contracting firm for the French major Alstom.

?The first project was for the Three Gorges Dam in China. Our PIMS software was used to monitor the process in the power generation turbines. We have since done work in Brazil (for a dam) and Pakistan,? said Allied Soft CEO Ra?ed A Bilbessi. The company has also reprogrammed its IP to also be used for other processes like real-time monitoring in fish farming. Currently Allied Soft has close to 25 developers and plans to make IP its major strategy. ?By building on our IP capabilities we are able to build certain re-usable components which we can use to expand the scope of our business. We also plan to climb the consulting ladder,? Bilbessi adds.

By virtue of being one of the oldest technology companies in Jordan, the 140 employee CEB is charting plans for expansion, which will see the company make Dubai the marketing hub for the Middle East. So far, the company has been servicing close to 60 clients in the Middle East, operating extensively in the area of solutions for document management, workflow systems, insurance and banking systems.

?We have been building our solution and IP portfolio and we believe that with Jordan and UAE heading for greater collaboration it is the right time for us to expand our reach,? said CEB Gulf Territory Manager, Ayman Zamil.

ITG (Integrated technology Group) also plans to leverage its strengths as a niche technology and solution player in its regional expansion initiative. The company currently has three business units or sub companies -- Epoch Technologies, Jade and Trix, each of which offers specialized solutions and skills. The company is also a key player in the e-learning for higher education segments with its Eduwave offering.

But perhaps the more interesting of its products is its niche ERP offerings in three verticals -- government, manufacturing and dealership management systems, all suited specifically for the Middle East market. ITG also claims credit for being the first company in the Middle East to develop their own ERP IP.

?Going ahead, we want to take our GRP -- Government Resource Planning solution across the Middle East to facilitate government efforts to automate processes and data," said Abdul Haleem F Badran, ITG marketing. "We have a deployment of this solution in the Department of Communication in Jordan. The focus will also be on making our e-learning solutions more globally available.?

Yet another player making way across the region is telecom and convergence solutions player Globitel. Interestingly, Globitel has a portfolio of solutions that are both off the shelf and customizable. With some of the major telecom players in the region like Saudi Telecom, MTC-Vodafone in Bahrain and Fast Link and Mobilecom in Jordan already using their solution, the company now plans to tap the larger regional market for its products, which its says is ?culture oriented?.

?We play in three key areas -- digital recording systems, unified messaging and billing systems for the convergence sector," said Globitel International Sales Manager Fadi Qutaishat. "What we offer is a complete converged services platform which can take care of the complete communication needs of a large service provider.?

So far, Globitel has close to 1,500 installations across the region and says it will continue to offer a good mix of out of the box and customized products respectively. Another new development for the company is to tap the emerging call center market with its solution for screen capture.

?This will be a useful feature in Call Centers where an agents screen and particular interaction with the customer can be captured. These can then be used for training and quality assurance purposes to make sure that the agent is following procedure and also sticking to the rules while dealing with customers,? Qutaishat added.

?We plan to be a world-class software enterprise in the fields of Telecommunications, Internet and Enterprise Software and currently target a controlled expansion in the Middle East, Africa and Europe,? said Nael Salah, MD Eskadenia.

With expansion plans on the anvil, a key area for the company is e-learning. Keeping in mind its strategy, this Jordan based player has unveiled a new e-schooling and school management system for the education sector -- DeniaSchool which provides for a Web-enabled interface for communication and interaction within the education vertical. The company has over 80 employees with offices in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates offering software products, services and solutions.

The story however does not end here. With the country and companies as a whole aiming for greater regional collaboration especially with the Jordan is clearly at an interesting juncture. With companies now actively positioning themselves as players in the consulting space as well, the market is clearly showing signs of recreating an outsourcing ecosystem within the Middle East. Also, by virtue of its location, it may well be on its way to being the midway hub between the U.S. and Asia, which are currently dominating the technology outsourcing flow from one side of the globe to the other.

Side bar

A PC for everyone

With a view to facilitate technology and its penetration into the mass market, Jordan has taken upon itself the task of building opportunities and easing structures to enable Jordanian families to have easy and affordable access to home computing.

The SAMSync -- Jordan?s own branded PC project seeks to do just this. Once this initiative kicks off early next year, Jordanian families will have easy and affordable access to home computing and Internet, which can be availed on a loan basis. Interestingly, Samsung has been roped into this project as well to lend part of their name to this brand of PCs, which runs on an Intel Corp. platform and Microsoft Corp. operating system.

?We have an assembly plant with a capacity of 12,000 units and this initiative will be kicked off very shortly," said SAMsync MD and Partner Moutaz Abu Rumman. "The idea is to offer PC?s and connectivity available through easy loan schemes and this has the complete backing of the government.?

The PC will be offered at a price of JD10-15 per month, which will be a total of JD 25 per month including connectivity charges. In the first two years the initiative is targeting sales of a 100 PCs. ?Currently about 30 percent of Jordanian families have PCs, but penetration levels are less than 6 percent,? Rumman adds.

-- Computer News Middle East staff