19 February 2015
Muscat - Nortal, an international tailor made software development partner for public and private sectors with a highly skilled and active base in Oman, recently participated in the Free and Open Source Software Conference (FOSS) which took place at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). Nortal, an Estonian company, has almost 50 strong staff working in the Sultanate which includes some of Oman's most innovative software experts. The company has been operating in the Gulf region since 2008.

The FOSS Conference, which was jointly organized by the Communication and Information Research Centre (CIRC) at SQU and the Information Technology Authority (ITA), saw an in-depth exploration of the importance of Free and Open Source Software to support the national Initiative on FOSS. The two day event promoted awareness on the use and development of free and open software for all sectors of society including professionals, students and the wider community in Oman.

Peter Smitt, Managing Director, Nortal, said of its work in Oman 'We have been working for the Oman market now for some time and we have been extremely successful in bridging the gap for open source technology and reliability. Oman is a great country with huge potential when it comes to open source technology. We are working in partnership with government organizations in the Sultanate in the area of open source technology and the response has been extremely positive. '

Nortal enables businesses and organizations to embrace Open Source technology which makes a positive impact on all aspects of Information and communications ranging from cloud computing to e- learning, e-government and e-commerce applications. Recently, Nortal celebrated achieving the prestigious GITEX award,the region's leading accolade dedicated to cloud technology,for its work with Government departments in Oman to create a Government managed private cloud where information can be held and managed centrally. This allows all information systems to be maintained securely and easily and cuts down on IT infrastructure costs.

Since 2011 Nortal has been working with the Ministries across the Sultanate on a number of high profile e-government projects including Ministry of Commerce and Industry to enhance and remodel the Oman One Stop Shop and to replace the existing back office system. Nortal is also leading a project to implement a new Tax Management System based on Open Source technology which will provide easy and user friendly access to the public.

Nortal's Open Software has a proven track record in boosting the Information and Communications Technologies of many countries around the world. Its Open Software Platform is an integral part of the electronic Government facilities in Estonia, a country which has been lauded as having the best e-governments in the world.

-Ends-

© Press Release 2015