Web solutions for the region from Amman

Being involved with the organization of the Jordan Web Awards has provided me with some insights on website development in Jordan, and how it has evolved over the past years.

The good news is that local companies deliver web solutions that rival those in the US and Europe, and have in fact produced website projects for those markets for many years.

On the regional level, it seems Jordan is quite a center for web design and development, with major clients in the Gulf depending on Jordanian companies, or the Jordan branch of a regional company, to provide web solutions.

One of the best and most impressive examples has to be the Dubai Financial market website, which was developed by essence software here in Amman.

Imagine that, the financial market of one country- the regional center for business Dubai- was developed in another country! It's a source of pride.

Looking at other sites, you will note that companies like Information Technology Planet (ITP), Primus (a division of Computer Networking Services) and SYNTAX Digital are also very active in regional markets, providing excellent websites to regional and multinational companies and bodies.

As the market evolves, the next wave of web developers is emerging from the marketing communications industry. Advertising agencies are setting up web development and electronic marketing arms. The most prominent two examples in Jordan are Wunderman, part of the TEAM Y&R group, and eWorks part of the Publicis Group; both of whom also now have a marked presence in Jordan.

Alternatively, it appears that the established web development companies have truned their hand more towards software development.

To begin with, it must be noted that website solutions now involve heavy programming and development and web developers suddenly found themselves at the forefront of the software industry when every client decided that web integration into business software was the way to go.

It meant that traditional, offline software developers were scrambling to get the web development knowledge while web development specialists became ‘web solutions’ companies.

In any case, with a maturing market, what is clear is that there will be a need for quality control and standards. Not only will it ensure the good reputation of Jordanian and regional web solutions, but it will create a whole generation of quality-conscious web experts.

The estabslishment of web standards is the way to go, and it's already underway with the announcement of the Interstandards organization for the Middle East, based in Dubai. Apparantly, a Jordanian is behind that too.

It seems to me that our human resources are at the forefront of web applications and technologies, hopefully it will benefit the country even more in the coming years.

zanasser@gmail.com