int@j Value Proposition, under which its services & projects/ programs are formulated:

• Corporate Life Cycle & Maturity Development: int@j services are designed & packaged to support companies’ growth throughout their business life cycle starting from micro to small, up to large enterprises.
• Sector Development & Business Environment: focusing on sector main pillars’ & segments’ development through national programs & projects for enhancing competitiveness, innovation & economic growth with the support of the ICT & ICTES sector main stakeholders and partners.

To achieve our value proposition, int@j has identified main areas of focus, together formulating what we call the “ICT Sector Development Engine”, aiming at accelerating the development of main emerging industries/segments under ICT, and enhancing our sector innovation & competitiveness, these areas are:

• Human Resources: aiming at creating a reliable and sustainable pool of resources that will enhance employment rates
• Export Development: aiming at increasing regional markets penetration, enhancing our companies/ products positioning & visibility, and enabling sector scalability
• IP & Innovation: aiming at diffusing ICT in other industries to create an edge in our sector offerings, and cater for the regional gaps in certain niches, and through capturing existing IP to be properly packaged for commercialization
• Investments Attraction: aiming at creating a main financing channel that will contribute to raising our existing companies’ maturity, exposure, and readiness to compete regionally and internationally.

In order to properly start this engine to reach its goals, int@j has introduced a new concept & mechanism ultimately linked with economic development, to support in developing emerging industries/ segments & niche areas under ICT, through the creation of specialized business clusters & taskforces:

Purpose of these Clusters & Taskforces is to Group ICT sector companies based on their specialization, value added services, and interest, and based on emerging & niche industries, in order to:

• Support ICT diffusion in vertical sectors, and creating specialized products
• Influence and induce R&D & Innovation based on trends
• Support corporate maturity development based on related business segment
• Encourage joint efforts among companies within same segment
• Cultivate related business & exports development activities
• Enhance companies business standards & services quality
• Enhance companies contribution to sector’s growth strategies
• Join forces with all stakeholders, and harmonize crossing national initiatives
• Enhance investment readiness, and encourage long term investments and partnerships

The general main role of these clusters & taskforces is to be a:

• Catalyst
  Catalyze the deployment of Jordanian potentials regionally and internationally and hence the of growth of the companies
• Promoter
  Promotes and markets the Jordanian specialized ICT subsectors as a whole at a regional and international levels
• Motivator
  Motivates collaboration and cooperation between Jordanian companies as well as local initiatives
• Enabler
  Enables building capacity of the specialized ICT Subsectors
• Facilitator
  Facilitates streaming funds and connecting fund providers with the companies

Current Existing Taskforces & Clusters are:

• Healthcare ICT Taskforce
• Creative Industries Cluster (Content, Games, Media)
• BPO and Outsourcing Cluster

Upcoming:

• Financial ICT Cluster
• Energy ICT Cluster
• Education ICT Cluster

This cluster aims at recognizing the value of the creative industries in general as potential industries that are brain and HR intensive, that could contribute to the knowledge economy development, through proper packaging of these industries’ offerings, and through driving Jordan’s niche in such areas by building on Jordan’s emerging media and digital content industries that are major components of the creative industries’ groups. Whereby, the cluster will link all stakeholders, initiatives, and financing sources focused on these various emerging components to better plan for them to serve a larger context that will add value to our economy.

Over the past 3-4 years in Jordan, the boom of Digital Content and New Media have been growing exponentially, which reflected on Jordan’s rankings and growth in these areas. As a change, Jordan’s private sector was able to plant solid ground roots in such areas with no dependency on government spending or recognition, as the nature of such industries cannot be easily controlled within certain borders and its outreach and dynamics are high.

Accordingly, our cluster is focusing on Jordan’s niche, “Digital Content, Games, Media, Screens - (NEW MEDIA)”, to provide a platform for all related stakeholders to communicate and network, help mature their level of thinking to become more business and economically oriented, and most of all build on Jordan’s niches in these areas that can lead Jordan ahead of the game in the MENA region in the Creative Industries, and properly create the right environment to support other upcoming niches under the creative industries groups to get out of its bubble.

The Creative Industries Cluster, will focus On:

• Enabling national direction that encourage innovation through promoting the creative industries as main contributor to the creative knowledge based economy
• Increasing visibility of potential opportunities from the emerging media and digital content industries and its linkage with the screens industry
• Highlighting & capturing active creative industries in the country to capitalize on and help build related business and economic models around it
• Realizing business potential from proper placement and integration among emerging creative industries

The Cluster Role to support New Media as a niche area, will be to:

• Create the ecosystem and platform to enable active and niche creative industries, and their linkage, mainly NEW MEDIA industries & Screens Industry.
• Identify the New Media value chain & value proposition to create its brand to position Jordan as a regional leader in this area.
• Develop a high level roadmap and identify related priorities to push for under the taskforce to enable its growth
• Build an effective acceleration model to be rolled out to other niches under the ‘Creative Industries Cluster’

The high level economic model of the “Creative Industries Cluster” is as follows:

Following the success of the MENA ICT Forum 10-10-10, int@j in collaboration with Jordanian gaming companies established The Jordan Gaming Development Task Force which is an open and independent coalition of Jordan’s premier gaming companies. Operating under the umbrella of Int@j, the Task Force’s objective is to advance Jordan’s game development capacity and help propel the Jordanian gaming on a local, regional, and international scale.

Over the past decade, Jordan has developed a niche capacity in online content, gaming solutions, and online applications building on its strong ICT industry and environment. The Gaming industry development has followed a number of market supporting factors including but not limited to global trend towards gaming development, Jordan’s niche in the region as a provider of quality ICT applications and resources, maturity of the Jordanian ICT sector and its companies, and telecom market liberalization efforts over the past years.

It is the belief of various stakeholders that Jordan stands a serious chance to become the Interactive Games (“IG”) Development capital of the Middle East, in which original content meant for the local and global markets is generated in Jordan. This collaboration between the Government of Jordan, Int@j and private sector companies aims towards:

• Position Jordan as the regional games hub for the development and distribution of online and mobile games harnessing on emerging technology.
• Promote awareness of the game sector inside and outside of Jordan to attract continued economic growth and development.
• Build quality development and business capability and capacity within Jordan.
• Promote game development as a career and support game development education.
• Build strong working relationships with policymakers and government to ensure industry needs are met through appropriate Government support.

• Development and publishing of original games for multiple platforms, including high end and commercial creative capabilities, animators, scriptwriters, producers, storytellers working in state of the art studios.
• Development of social games, accessible at anytime and anywhere, multi-lingual, with ease of use in a technologically advanced ecosystem.
• Localization of games, based on unique understanding of pan-regional gamers’ attributes and preferences.
• Management of soft infrastructure that enables gaming industry, including payment gateway, customer support, community development, localization.
• Studio capability, including the development and publishing of original games for multiple platforms.
• Technology based on solid engineering capability, with capable multi-platform game development studios.

The Healthcare ICT Taskforce is an open platform of Jordanian Health ICT companies under the umbrella of int@j supported by King Abdullah II Fund for Development – KAFD and Cisco Systems, the Taskforce main objective is to advance Jordan’s Health ICT sub-sector capacity and promote the Jordanian Health ICT Technologies and companies on a local, regional, and international scale.

• Organizing a unified platform under int@j to promote knowledge sharing and marketing.
• Placing Jordan on the map of world-class Healthcare ICT Services providers regionally and globally
• Accelerating the growth of Health ICT companies through a platform of cooperation.
• Creating a point of reference for global and regional leaders wishing to partner with Jordan’s Health ICT subsector.
• Building capability of Jordanian Health ICT companies and their teams on trends and new technologies.
• Boosting ICT companies’ innovation in healthcare sector through building the capacities of the Jordanian ICT companies in developing cutting-edge solutions and services in the healthcare industry

Healthcare ICT VISION Statement
“To put the Jordanian Brand on the regional map of healthcare ICT and make Jordan a reference for healthcare ICT expertise in the region”

Healthcare ICT MISSION Statement
“Create, develop and maintain the Jordanian Brand of Healthcare ICT under one platform of cooperation, smartly align with national ICT and E-health strategies on the local, regional and international levels, continuously maintain strategic relationships with the international players of the domain and proactively compliment national efforts to enhance health services in Jordan”

• Create the Jordanian Brand for Healthcare ICT (framework of service offerings)
• Facilitate the penetration into new markets locally, and regionally
• Enable innovation in healthcare ICT
• Create the platform for cooperative work (joining forces)

Healthcare ICT Taskforce Stakeholders & Governance Structure:

The Middle East and North Africa is emerging as a key off-shoring region because of its large, well educated population and its proximity to Europe.

Positioned as the gateway to the Middle East and to the GCC in specific, Jordan is emerging today as an ideal global outsourcing destination that offers a unique value proposition embedded in its proactive governmental support, accessible location to support multiple regions, a young and growing talent pool, investor friendly regulations, and a modern and progressive society. Nonetheless, key requirements are needed to further develop Jordan‘s BPO such as building the workforce capacity, enhancing business infrastructure, building telecom reliability while controlling costs, developing industry specialization, improving government incentives and regulatory framework, and last but not least, improving market position, access, and visibility.

BPO Cluster VISION
The vision of int@j‘s BPO Chapter is for Jordan‘s BPO sector to evolve into a regional primary hub for specialized and high quality BPO services that serve global clients targeting Arabic speaking clients and lead Jordan‘s BPO Industry to its full potential.

BPO Cluster MISSION
The mission of int@j‘s BPO Chapter is to support the growth and maturity of Jordan‘s BPO industry by acting for and on behalf of the sector through positively influencing policy and legislation, marketing the sector, and providing members with value-added services that help them grow and prosper into a mature sector that contributes toward the economy‘s well-being.

The true value proposition of the Cluster lies in that it provides its members with a forum to meet, network, share common issues and concerns, and contribute in policy making matters that relate to well-being of Jordan‘s BPO sector. An equal important value proposition is the Cluster‘s ability to effectively lobby and advocate on behalf of the sector. The Cluster therefore needs to focus on the strength and effectiveness of its advocacy programs to establish and maintain the perception as being the private sector‘s true representative for the BPO sector in Jordan.

The Cluster‘s objectives focus on growing local business process outsourcing to become an evident and competitive global industry, acting as the private sector‘s hand that represents the interest of Jordan-based outsourcing firms, being the primary point of contact for outsourcing service buyers and investors, playing an active role in the development of a qualified and sustainable workforce for the sector, identifying Jordanian BPO companies, providing members with value-added services, and assisting member service providers to increase their competitive advantages and develop differentiated and value-added service offerings for target markets.

To satisfy these objectives and ultimately deliver on the Cluster‘s mandate, the following are the main responsibilities of the BPO Cluster:

• Advocate for the advancement of the BPO industry
• Creating and facilitating communication channels with stakeholders, counterparts and partners
• Carry out local and regional marketing activities, and carefully planned business development efforts to develop and attract investment
• Provide training and capacities building programs
• Effect standardization, certification and quality control
• Provide industry research and market information
• Capitalize on national initiatives, strategies, and programs

Jordan’s Financial ICT Taskforce:

It is the belief of various stakeholders that Jordan stands a good chance to become a leader in Financial ICT Technologies in the region. The Taskforce main objectives is to advance Jordan’s financial ICT cluster capacity and promote the Jordanian Financial ICT Technologies and companies on a local, regional, and international scale. 

The Financial ICT Taskforce aims to:

• Organizing Financial ICT cluster under int@j to promote knowledge sharing and marketing.

• Accelerating the growth of Financial ICT companies through a platform of cooperation.

• Creating a point of reference for global and regional leaders wishing to partner with Jordan’s Financial ICT cluster.

• Building capability of Jordanian Financial ICT companies and their teams on trends and new technologies. • Clarify directions for this industry in Jordan and the region,(Banking technologies, Financial Solutions, E-payments, M-payments, M-banking, M-commerce)

• Discuss and find solutions for the laws and regulations that limit the development in Finance, Banking, and Payment industry.

• Positioning Jordan as the region leader in financial software development industry.

• Apply world class standards in ICT companies to be always on the same page with global newest technologies.

• Involve Payment Technology in other industries (Insurance, facilities and services, billers, retailers, . . . etc)

• Establish business development plan for Financial, Banking, and Payment technology in Jordan and potential markets.

• Increase the awareness of this promising industry.

Define stakeholder’s roles.

The Financial ICT Taskforce main goals are:

• Create new local opportunities.

• Export Financial ICT technologies to the region.

• Create Jobs.

• Create integrated solutions in the Financial ICT area.

• Expand the regional awareness for Jordanian financial products, services, and applications.

• Participate in regional conferences. The Financial ICT Taskforce Stakeholders are:

• Jordanian ICT Companies

• Jordanian Banks

• Payment Networks

• Central bank of Jordan

• Association of Banks in Jordan

• Telecom Operators

• Research Companies

• Financial Services Companies

 Technology Providers Financial ICT Growth Challenges:

• Information Management and Provision

• Cost Control

• Trust and Brand Management

• Volume and revenue Growth

• Liquidity Cash Flow

• Business Intelligence, Marketing Intelligence, Product Development • Payment Systems Fitness

• Right Sourcing

• Disruptive Market

• Risk Management

• Regulatory Compliance

Professional training and development programs have been going through up/down cycles in Jordan for the past number of years, while its very much needed to continue the ICT sector and segment development, the actual uptake on the ground in Jordan has been fragmented and the public and corporate culture of going through professional programs has been low The idea of constructing a cluster for Training in ICT and related areas is to build a culture of quality ICT training programs and promote for customized ICT and related training that improve quality of Jordanian talents. By developing a strong Training cluster we imagine we can tap into opportunities on national and regional levels, for example Healthcare ICT coding and indexing standards, finance and ICT standards, and other fundamental and specialized areas Training Taskforce shaped by top skilled training providers in Jordan aiming to positively shape the ICT training scene in Jordan and brand it outside Jordan.

The ICT in Education Cluster is meant to be an open platform of Jordanian ICT companies operating in the education sector under the umbrella of int@j led by number of stakeholders, among which is mainly the Jordan Education Initiative JEI. The Cluster main objective is to advance Jordanian ICT companies capacity in further developing, launching and promoting competitive ICT Technologies in Education on a local, regional, and international scales. The ICT in Education Cluster aims towards: 1. Complementing and facilitating the ICT in Education ecosystem to maximize role and benefits 2. Establishing a unique ICT model in Education to drive needs and innovation regionally & internationally 3. Developing competitive Jordanian ICT in Education products and services 4. Promoting knowledge sharing and cooperation among cluster members & stakeholders 5. Accelerating the growth of ICT companies in Education through marketing and exports. 6. Creating a brand & a point of reference for global and regional leaders wishing to partner with Jordan’s ICT in Education main players. 7. Building capability of Jordanian ICT companies in Education and their teams on latest trends and new technologies 8. Assisting in local advocacy efforts to support education sector reformation through technology. 9. Encouraging educational content creation to be enabled through various technologies. The Education ICT Cluster main goals are:  Create a unique brand and model of ICT in Education to become a regional point of reference  Develop Jordan ICT in Education model exports and markets out reach  Enable innovative ICT solutions in Education  Attract investments and funds for ICT in Education in Jordan  Contribute to the advancement of education systems through technology .