Jordan Times
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Gov't, Microsoft sign 'enterprise licensing agreement'
By Jumana Bississo
AMMAN — The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MoICT) on Tuesday announced the signing of an “enterprise licensing agreement” (ELA) with Microsoft as part of its overall strategy to further develop e-government, e-learning and the IT industry in the Kingdom.“Microsoft and the government are now working together to elevate their strategic partnership to a new level; one that focuses on new investment opportunities and on cooperation for joint projects across the region,” ICT Minister Fawaz Zub'i told a press conference.
The ELA secures the government a three-year software licensing extension and is the first step towards enhancing government productivity by adopting updated tools in all ministries and public entities in the country, according to a Microsoft statement.
“Jordan's public-private partnership is a unique trait, that is not commonly seen around the world. With the signature of the enterprise agreement, Microsoft and the government crystallise their strategic partnership,” explained Microsoft Senior Vice President of Business Strategy Maggie Wilderotter.
The ELA falls under the broader “framework partnership agreement” signed in October last year, stipulating that Microsoft co-invest with the government in projects jointly selected to develop the IT sector in Jordan.
“The heart of that agreement is that we are in it together... in terms of cost, revenue, risk and the IPR [Intellectual Property Rights] generated,” said the MoICT director of e-government, Mahmoud Khasawneh.
In addition to the ELA, the framework agreement also includes an educational agreement, the development of e-government projects, as well as the training of IT personnel by Microsoft.
“Microsoft will sponsor the professional training of up to 1,000 Jordanian IT personnel in government... which gives us a base of human resources to support our deployment of Microsoft technologies across the government,” said Khasawneh.
“Technology is only as good as the power of innovation that gets applied to it and education and training provides knowledge and power to individuals to solve problems... by training government employees they will have more capabilities to serve citizens,” said Wilderotter.
The educational agreement is slated to follow the ELA, and aims to train 50,000 children around the Kingdom on basic computer skills through an e-library, which will aim to “clean sweep our entire educational system and introduce modern technologies for teaching,” said Khasawneh.
The development of the projected 10 e-government initiatives, of which three are currently under way — the e-gateway project, introduction of the airport electronic gate technology, and the Ministry of Planning's enterprise project management endeavour — will receive equal funding from Microsoft and the MoICT, explained Khasawneh.
“The e-government initiatives are going to have a huge impact because once a number of manual functions are automated two things happen, engagement between public-private sector accelerates so you have a less costly way to communicate... and services will improve, offering more flexibility and capability,” Wilderotter told The Jordan Times.
Although Jordan is the first country in the Middle East to sign a government security programme with Microsoft, the software company has already begun expanding its partnership role regionally, with focus on Egypt and Lebanon.
Microsoft has also placed focus on Iraq and has partnered with several companies in the war-torn nation, including Bechtel and HP to help rebuild the country's infrastructure.
“We are interested in capacity-building to help Iraq get back on its feet,” explained Wilderotter.