Ennis Rimawi |
It was at the World Summit on the Information Society
held in Tunis during November of last year that
Ennis Rimawi, the 36-year old software engineer
and Managing Partner of a private equity business,
was first referred to as "the Bill Gates of
Jordan." Opinions vary as to whether or not
the lean, ever-smiling M.I.T. graduate approves
or rejects such a moniker, but what is clear is
that Mr. Rimawi’s justifiably applauded for
his ingenuity and foresight in advancing the Jordanian
IT sector. His Amman-based company, Estarta, has
emerged as a leader in providing IT solutions to
clients across the Middle Eastern region.
About five years before founding Estarta, while
still living in Boston, Rimawi started up a software
company that later had 80 percent of its workload
take place in his home country of Jordan. As it
went about providing premium software engineering
services to US technology companies, the Boston
firm established itself as the only branded company
of its kind working in the American market. "It
was also unique because it combined the model of
high cost local companies in the US, and offshore,
inexpensive Indian companies," said Rimawi.
As with so many others from around the world who
were raised in the United States, but born overseas,
Rimawi felt an idealistic tug in his heart drawing
him back to his homeland. Growing up in Houston,
before life took him back and forth between Boston,
Detroit (where he worked for the Ford Motor Company)
and Amman, it was Rimawi’s desire to make a
difference by helping the Jordanian economy and
bringing jobs to its citizens.
Rimawi meets Bill Gates'
during recent visit to Jordan. |
"I looked at models for the [Middle East]
region," said Rimawi, "and realized that
the industrial age…the manufacturing age was
over." Seeing that the highest impact businesses
of the new century were knowledge-based he concluded
that a small country like Jordan, lacking the capital
and natural resources of its neighbor to the south,
would be best served by an infusion of high technology.
On a summertime trip to Amman he came into contact
with various people who were budding software entrepreneurs.
Among their chief concerns was their ability to
introduce their products and to compete owing to
their place of origin. "That’s when I
realized that the biggest obstacle to becoming internationally
competitive was not the lack of capital, not policy,
but the mental model of the individual," said
Rimawi.
Applying what he had learned in the automotive
industry, whereby firms such as those in Detroit
or Tokyo construct plants worldwide and still retain
their brand identity, Rimawi set about creating
a firm that was based in the US, but whose work
was done offshore and presented itself as, not only
less expensive (as with India), but as a brand associated
with quality and premium services. Using this model
came One World Software Solutions, a firm that Rimawi
formed in 1997 that quickly grew to over 350 p eople—250
of which were in Jordan, the US, and in China in
order to establish the firm as being truly global.
With an approaching IPO the company was described
by JP Morgan as an up and coming, first branded
player in this niche market. Using a global business
model One World was able to ask twice that which
the Indian firms were charging. Most of all what
the company proved, says Rimawi, is that Jordanians
are able to deliver advanced software services to
a top market.
After the IT bubble burst Rimawi merged the remnants
of the Jordanian operation with another Jordanian
firm, giving birth to Estarta—a leading IT
solutions company in the region. Shortly thereafter
the Microsoft Corporation came in as an equity investor,
to be followed soon after by Cisco, marking the
first ever equity investment by either company in
the Arab world.
Using code that was developed by Estarta, Microsoft
now offers its customers the ability to log their
instant messages. "That was a milestone for
us," said Rimawi who also revealed that, of
all outsourced Cisco engineering centers, his service
center has been recognized as tops in customer satisfaction.
According to Rimawi "Through this process,
one of my conclusions was that if you build a few
IT success stories, that are like an India or Ireland,
then ultimately if you really want to build a multi-billion
dollar industry in the region it’s got to be
based on a competitive edge. Right now the Arab
world is five percent of the world’s population,
and three percent of the world’s purchasing
power. If you want to build sustainable economies,
you have to find places where you can compete globally."
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Jordan 
