Press
Room
EduWave® to be made available on Linux
Date: 28-10- 2003
AMMAN (JT) - The Middle East's e-learning platform, EduWave®, is to be made available on the open source Linux platform following a deal between IBM and local IT company Integrated Technology Group, according to a statement released on Sunday
"
We believe that it is critical that EduWave® be made available on Linux. Government education authorities in the Middle East and elsewhere are evaluating and in many cases will be adopting open source platforms as they build national e-government and e-education initiatives. IBM will bring training and development resources to ITG's team, as well as providing strong co-marketing capabilities. We're delighted to be able to forge this important partnership," said Walid Tahabsem, chief executive officer of ITG.
As a result of the agreement, IBM will support ITG's development team with resources, training and facilities to develop, support and update EduWave® on Linux. The move will allow EduWave® to be offered on Linux-based servers and will support a choice of network clients on the desktop, allowing educational authorities to "mix and match" as they move away from legacy systems, the release said.
BusinessOne, a subsidiary of Jordanian software and services company STS, is to bring specialised skills to bear on the project, particularly in the development of capabilities based around IBM's WebSphere middleware.
"Being both an IBM partner and a partner in the e-learning consortium with ITG enables us to contribute to the success of EduWave® by bringing software services and training support to the project to speed up its adoption on a regional level," Ramzi Zeine, CEO of BusinessOne and chairman of STS said.
"EduWave® is key to the development of the Middle East's e-learning markets," according to Bashar Kilani, manager of IBM Software Group Middle East and North Africa. "With IBM's support, ITG will build a version of EduWave® running on Linux in order to be able to offer the system to regional governments who are now demanding an open source alternative."
EduWave® is a learning, schools management and content management system that provides a single, integrated resource for `e-learning.'
The system integrates financial and management information capabilities for schools management with curricular and classroom management. EduWave® allows teachers to access curricular material and monitor student performance and attainment and gives online access to curricular content, school-related information and student attainments to parents.
The system has been deployed to serve over 3,000 schools in the Kingdom - some 1.2 million students, over 50,000 teachers and some 5,000 administrators. The system has been adopted by the government as its core national e-learning platform.
EduWave® is also being deployed as the core e-learning platform in a number of school districts in the US state of New Jersey and is being evaluated by ministries of education in several Middle East countries as they move towards building national e-learning initiatives.
"The opportunities in the regional e-learning market are enormous and EduWave® stands as a unique product," said Tahabsem. "It is the only comprehensive system being used `live' today in schools in the region, supporting English, Arabic and other languages. We have developed a vast range of curricular content from K1-12, designed specifically for the educational needs of this region. We believe that our partnership with IBM will consolidate that strong leadership position."
Jordan's Local Newspapers
Jordan Times, Monday, September 29, 2003
Ad-Dustour, Monday, September 29, 2003
Al-Rai, Monday, September 29, 2003, Issue: 1206
ITG
and Alpha Beta Food Industries Sign WaveERP® Deployment
Date:
31-07-2003
Alpha Beta Food Industries signed an agreement with Integrated
Technology Group on June 28th whereby ITG will deploy its
advanced WaveERP® solution that is designed for medium
to large-scale manufacturing plants. The modular open-standards
Enterprise Resource Planning solution incorporates financial,
procurement & inventory control, HR & payroll, manufacturing
scheduling, production, maintenance, and distribution systems.
Alpha Beta Food Industries management will be able to monitor
manufacturing processes from its head office in Khalda as
the sophisticated manufacturing facility in Mafraq will be
connected via a leased line.
“We wanted to partner with an experienced, reliable,
local IT firm that will assist us in deploying and customizing
such an advanced, scalable, company-wide ERP solution”,
said Mr. Mo’een Al Taher, President & CEO Alpha
Beta Food Industries. “ This is imperative to Alpha
Beta’s success, and we are confident that ITG is the
right partner” added Mr Taher.
Deployment is expected to take less than three months during
which ITG professional services’ team will collaborate
with Alpha Beta’s IT team to successfully complete WaveERP® rollout in a timely manner.
“We are very proud and excited about Alpha Beta’s
selection of our solution;” said ITG Vice President,
Mr. Ali Sa’di. “WaveERP® is a scalable solution
that will meet Alpha Beta’s expansion and acquisition
of new companies and manufacturing facilities. In addition,
decision support tools are provided to help them achieve higher
market share and increase customer satisfaction.” He
added.
WaveERP® is a robust, secured solution, based on open standards
and can integrate with third party vendors. The product is
deployed in a number of manufacturing facilities and businesses
in Jordan, the Middle East and in North Africa.
About Integrated Technology Group
Integrated Technology Group is a dynamic,
innovative, and technology driven group of companies, established
in 1989. ITG leads in the areas of e-Learning, Enterprise
Resource Planning, advanced Web enabled systems’ development,
and professional Multimedia and design services. Together,
the three companies that make up ITG – EPOCH Technologies,
JAID Productions, and TriAx Automation – render comprehensive,
complementary, end-to-end IT solutions in software development,
new media, and process automation respectively.
Operating from its headquarters
in Jordan, ITG has a strong local and international presence
with deployments in major Business and Government Institutions
in Jordan, the Middle East, North Africa, and in Europe.
Since its inception, ITG lead
in technological innovation and was the first Middle Eastern
firm to develop and export electronic data interchange (EDI)
solutions into the European market in 1991. Managing a steady
growth and technological lead in the past thirteen years,
ITG was the first to harness XML technology to develop the
most comprehensive online Quranic resource Website in the
world; www.altafsir.com.
In addition, ITG was the first Jordanian software company
to develop and deploy an integrated, multilingual enterprise
resource planning (ERP) solution in 1995, and the first
company in the Arab world to develop one of the most comprehensive
e-learning platforms worldwide; EduWave®.
ITG takes 1.2m Jordanian students one-step closer to comprehensive
country wide e-learning platform
Date: 24-07-2003
ITG
- a Jordan based technology group - has taken 1.2m
Jordanian students one-step closer to its open source
e-learning platform – EduWave®. The Ministry
of Education (MoE) along with the Integrated Technology
Group (ITG) launched the second phase of the e-learning
development process at the Queen Rania Center (QRC),
by activating the entire internal network of the ministry
(intranet) and assuring the dynamic information transfer
across schools.
Students
in any public school will soon be able freely browse
the entire curricula online using EduWave®, the e-learning
platform by ITG, developed to form the base of an
equal and comprehensive learning environment for approximately
1.2 million Jordanian students in more than 3,200
schools. This week, 1,230 schools in the Kingdom have
been connected to the EduWave® platform, and it is
expected to have all 3,200 schools connected by year’s
end.
According
to Waleed Tahabsem, CEO and President of ITG, EduWave® is considered the number one K-12 e-learning platform
in the world. “Developed entirely in Jordan
by Jordanians, EduWave® has managed to catch the attention
of many of the big boys in Silicon Valley and around
the world. EduWave®’s unique ability to connect
up to 1.5 million students and teachers simultaneously
sets us apart from the rest. He added “we are
very excited by our achievements thus far with the
Jordanian government and we hope to set a standard
for other countries in the world.”
EduWave® was conceived in 1999, the same year that saw the
first phase of the R&D aspect take form. The team
behind the platform grew from four people in 1999
to forty-five at current levels - the software is
now complete for marketing and its first deployment
is taking place in Jordan. ITG Technology Manager,
Hussein Katab, claims that EduWave® is unique in many
ways for its scalability and features. “Rather
than your standard LMS (Learning Management System)
and SIS (Student Information System), EduWave® combines
many features including collaboration tools, SIS (student
profiles), personalization, email, document management,
chat, broadcast features and scheduling in addition
to rich text and multimedia capabilities to make it
the most comprehensive e-learning suite available.”
Other
competing platforms offer several features, however
the most scalable tool available at present handles
up to 50,000 simultaneous users at the most and lacks
the comprehensiveness of EduWave®.
Since
its inception in 1989, Integrated Technology Group
(ITG) has been a leader in technological innovation
and was the first Middle Eastern firm to develop and
export electronic data interchange (EDI) solutions
into the European market. Managing a steady growth
and technological lead in the past thirteen years,
ITG harnessed XML technology to develop the most comprehensive
online Koranic resource in the world – AlTafsir.com
In addition, ITG was the first Jordanian software
company to develop and deploy an integrated, multilingual
enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution in 1995.
Industry sources close to ITG have told MenaReport
that the company has indeed reached a turning point
in its history, and there are purported rumors of
strategic investors entering the company in the next
month or so. If true, this would be the second entry
for a major IT player into the Kingdom, the first
being in May 2002 when Microsoft and Foursan Group
announced their investment (approx. $1m) and strategic
endorsement of Estarta Solutions, a combination between
two established international IT solutions leaders
based in Jordan - Zeine Technological Applications
and ONEWORLD Jordan. Estarta has recently won Qatar’s
e-government tender.
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e-Learning
in Jordanian Schools, turning into Reality
Date:
14-04-2003
The first Jordanian computer lab running ITG’s
EduWave® e-learning platform was inaugurated on April
5th, 2003 by H.E. Dr. Khaled Toukan, Minister of
Education. The inauguration took place at the Khalda
High School for Girls as the first application of
its kind in Jordan.
At
the inauguration, twenty high school students and
teachers were present to live-test EduWave® and its
applications on their computers in the classroom.
"The
students were so excited about this experience",
said Husein Kattab, technology Manager at Integrated
Technology Group, the Jordanian company that designed
and developed EduWave®. "The most interesting
part," Mr. Kattab added, "was that the
students were able to learn and interact with EduWave® in no time. Within thirty minutes they had all started
using the applications and functionalities available
on EduWave®, sending each other internal e-mails,
interacting in discussion forums and most importantly,
they were able to experience the application of
their physics curriculum in rich multimedia format
on their computers."
"I
found EduWave® to be very user friendly" one
of the students said as she smiled. "It will
really help us in our studies and will give us the
opportunity to further comprehend complex concepts
and applications".
Mr.
Walid Tahabsem, President & CEO of ITG, was
present at the inauguration. He noted, "What
really amazed me was the enthusiasm the students
had while interacting with EduWave®. They were all
eager to sit behind their computers and start exploring
the possibilities offered by the Solution."
He added, "It makes us so proud at ITG to see
EduWave® so smoothly deployed and applied at Jordanian
Schools."
What’s
worth noting is that the Integrated Technology Group
has successfully delivered phase-one of its e-learning
platform EduWave®, seventy five days after signing
its agreement with the Ministry of Education and
the King Abdullah II Fund for Development on January
16th, and has now started its deployment.
The
agreement mandates ITG to deploy EduWave® at the
Ministry’s data centers that interconnect
about three thousand two hundred schools and about
1.5 million students.
EduWave® comprises three main components, an e-Learning Management
System (ELMS), an Authoring Tool and a Portal. Through
the application of EduWave® stakeholders including
students, teachers, administrators and parents will
soon be able to enjoy the benefits of e-learning
and the value it can bring to their education and
learning experience.
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ITG develops and launches the new Ministry
of Information and Communications
Technology site.
Date: 28-05-2003
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Integrated
Technology Group is proud to announce the launch of
the new Ministry of Information and Communications
Technology (MoICT) http://www.moict.gov.jo/.
The website main purpose is to bring government services
closer to its citizens and enhancing channels of communications
between itself and stakeholders.
The site was launched on July 30th, 2003. The site
was developed using .NET Technology that is swiping
the Internet world. The website includes interactive
features:
Feedback section; giving visitors the opportunity
to interact with the government and contribute to
the process of building a knowledge-based economy.
The website also boasts an e-Initiatives Database;
a comprehensive information source of all ICT related
initiatives in the Kingdom undertaken by various organizations.
The database offers NGOs and development programmers
working in the Kingdom the chance to post their initiatives
and share information. Events Calendar with local
and regional ICT sector events, keeping all visitors
to the site up-to-date on all MoICT events.
FAQ section, an opinion poll allowing visitors to
find answers to most common questions and to submit
their own questions.
Download what you need; this new feature allows users
to download e-government documentation and policy
consultation papers on the spot and within seconds,
giving the user the choice to download one or many
documents, using a unique packaging tool.
Also, a special members area for Jordan’s ICT
Advisory Council (ICTAC). The Council, a public-private
forum, is an advisory group whose mission is to develop,
advise and track the long-term strategic vision for
the ICT sector as articulated in the REACH Initiative.
This area will effectively e-enable communications
of this dynamic group so members can have online discussions
and share documents.
"The
launch of the new MoICT website is in line with the
Ministry’s efforts to provide greater access
to the information and policies and strengthen transparency
of knowledge about the Ministry," said Emile
Cubeisy, director of ICT Promotion at MoICT.
Other
features include; Company Registration Area: To promote
and support the local industry, Jordanian ICT companies
can now register on the Ministry's site, making it
easier for international companies to learn about
Jordan’s dynamic ICT industry and investment
opportunities.
"The
site enables potential investors and other ICT decision-makers
to see what Jordan is doing and how much the ICT sector
has to offer,” added Cubeisy. “It also
shows how governmental policy is helping create a
competitive, vital ICT sector."
Developed
by the Integrated Technology Group's (ITG) team of
developers whose experience and expertise spread out
on a wide spectrum of tools and technology.
The website was funded by the USAID-funded AMIR Program.
"We
have always been committed to quality and excellence,
and we take great pride in contributing towards better
promoting Jordan", said Walid
Tahabsem, CEO of ITG. ITG is proud to be
one of five Jordanian ICT companies currently developing
Jordan's e-Government portal.
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The first-of-its-kind
in the World
Date: 04-04-2001
On
Wednesday, April 4th the Integrated Technology Group
(ITG), a leading Jordanian IT Company, signed an
agreement with the Al-Albayt Foundation for Islamic
Thought, launching the start of the largest Islamic
project on the Internet, and the first of its kind
in the world.
Al-Tafseer
is a five-year project, providing Al-Tafaseer (explanations)
of the Holy Quran free-of-charge on the Web, serving
the Arab and Islamic communities as well as scientists
and scholars around the world. The project will
be launched in phases and will be available in 18
languages. It will also cover the “10 readings”
of the Holy Quran, and will include Al-Tafaseer
(explanations) corresponding with the seven Islamic
Groups.
The signing
ceremony was attended by the foundation’s
higher president, HRH Crown Prince Hamzah the Regent,
and HRH Prince Ghazi, His Majesty King Abdullah’s
advisor for tribal affairs, the president of the
foundation’s board of trustees.
“We
are honored to be part of this great project,”
stated Mr. Walid Tahabsem, CEO of the Integrated
Technology Group. “It is a great privilege
to us as a Jordanian company to implement this noble
Islamic project. Given the continued support of
His Majesty King Abdullah II to the Jordanian IT
industry, and the vision of the Al-Albayt Foundation,
we are proud that a project of this type and size
will come out of Jordan to serve the entire Arab
and Islamic World."
“Through
the number of projects that ITG has successfully
implemented since its establishment,” Mr.
Tahabsem added, “we have proven our capability
and professionalism in handling such projects whether
be it in Jordan, the region or in the European Markets.
ITG will implement this project with its own developed
technologies utilizing XML and dedicated search
engines. Furthermore, and in addition to the number
of features included in this project, the Al-Tafseer
solution will also be WAP enabled”.
The Ceremony
was held at the ITG company headquarters in Amman,
and was also attended by members of the Al-Albayt
Foundation board of trustees, as well as members
of ITG.
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ITG
to Deploy EduWave®, its Nationwide e-Learning Solution,
in Jordan
Date: 18-01-2003
On
Thursday, January 16th the Integrated Technology
Group (ITG), a leading Jordanian IT Company, signed
an agreement with the Jordanian Ministry of Education
and King Abdullah II Fund, to launch the deployment
of a nationwide e-learning platform, EduWave®. The
project is the first of its kind in the Middle East
and one of the largest worldwide, when considering
the 1.5 million students who will utilize the system.
EduWave® is a world-class and accredited e-learning management
system (ELMS) and platform, based on learning outcomes.
It was fully designed and developed by ITG, and
it comprises a comprehensive educational platform
including system management, authoring and document
management, and a portal. EduWave® will be accessed
by students (and eventually their parents), teachers,
and administrators via the portal. It will provide
for a collaborative, interactive, and shared learning
environment, and provide access to rich educational
resources regardless of the students’ location
and time preference.
"This
project is the result of a true public-private partnership
represented by the Ministry of Education, King Abdullah
II Fund for Development, and ITG," stated Mr.
Walid Tahabsem, President & CEO of the Integrated
Technology Group. "By deploying EduWave®, we
hope to foster national economic development through
creating an e-learning specific industry that will
create many jobs in the areas of e-content development,
infrastructure and internetworking, and training".
"In
addition," Mr. Tahabsem added, "Jordan
is the first to embark on adopting this exciting
technology in the Middle East. This is one of the
main areas where Jordan can act as a real IT hub,
providing e-learning services to the region through
exporting applications, technical know-how, e-content,
and many ancillary services."
EduWave® will be deployed in three phases over the duration
of 12 months. The first phase will be launched within
four months where one thousand schools will be connected
with access to 70% of EduWave®’s features.
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