it@asia – the South-East Asian IT and business network was initiated in spring 2002.
The mission: support of small and medium sized enterprises, institutions and governmental bodies to participate actively in national, regional and international e-commerce and e-business developments.

More than 30 multiplying institutions in five South-East Asian (SEA) countries have been joining it@asia since its inception. This new evolving knowledge network is dedicated to provide state of the art knowledge on e-business, share experiences and provide international business contacts.

it@asia consists of universities, consultancies, IT - training institutions, Internet providers, application providers and trade promotion organizations in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The variety of partners and the multidisciplinary competencies enables the network to offer competitive services to local and international clients.

Focused on business development in the South-East Asia it@asia closely cooperates with its sister IT business networks in Africa it@ab.

The it@asia network offers participating institutions state-of-the-art know-how in e-business and supports the development of an enhanced knowledge and service network of e-business institutions in South-East Asia(SEA). By the end of a three-year knowledge building programme, the participating SEA institutions will be able to

• offer sustained business-related IT consultancy and knowledge building services;
• provide Web-based training programmes to their customers;
• cooperate with other e-business partner institutions in SEA, Europe and Africa;
• and thus position successfully SEA e-business within an increasingly globalized and networked economy.

For the participating SEA institutions the it@asia network offers essential e-business related practical know-how as well as relevant interregional and international contacts. The network provides practice-oriented workshops for senior and junior executives from the participating institutions in different SEA countries, a one-year intensive training course for e-business consultants in Germany, as well as Web-based training on the Internet. Selected e-business projects of the member institutions have been supported. Enabling Internet applications for project management, consultancy and knowledge building have been provided.

it@asia is an evolving network. In the initiation phase in 2002 multiplying institutions were addressed in order to maximize the impact in the forthcoming process of networking.

it@inwent contributes to it@asia through the provision of training programmes on e-business, marketing, Internet publishing, content and knowledge management and organisational development. Furthermore the development of products and services (e.g. e-learning courses) and applications (e.g. Open Source based content management systems) is initiated by it@inwent in cooperation with the partners. The results of this productisation process are made available to all partners free of charge.

An important cornerstone of the support framework of it@inwent is the enhancement of local and regional e-business projects of the partners in South-East Asia. In fact existing e-business projects have been a precondition to become part of it@asia. This „reality check“ made sure that only those institutions joined that could prove their committment with regards to e-business activities in the region.

Although there is a considerable financial contribution to it@asia through it@inwent, the partners in South-East Asia are also contributing. Having junior staff participating in training programmes in Germany requires replacements for a certain period of time. Opportunity costs need to be considered as well. But there is a consensus within the network that the benefits offered are significant and the underlying strategy of it@asia is worthwhile to follow.

it@asia stands not alone. it@inwent launched it@ab, the African sister IT network in 2001. In September 2002 fourty IT junior consultants from the partner organisations of it@ab and it@asia joined a twelve months comprehensive e-business training programme in Germany. The juniors worked together in project groups and and supported with the help of German IT experts the on-going e-business projects in their home countries.

In December 2002 senior managers of it@asia met in Bangkok, Thailand, and worked on a joint strategy and drafted an organisational structure for the network.

In 2003 and 2004 new IT related networks will follow: it@coops in South-East Asia and it@arab in the Near East. A knowledge network of networks for e-business is emerging in the South that spans over three continents.