As part of the deal, announced in Sydney yesterday, SEA -- a local not-for-profit developer group -- will collaborate with the ESI in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia through creation of a regional research and development centre.
The Australian ESICentre will be one of eight established worldwide. According to SEA, the centre will enable Australian developers to undertake joint research, share technologies and exploit global opportunities.
Nathan Brumby, the chief executive officer of SEA, told ZDNet Australia : "ESI is a global network. Not only do we have a channel to market for any product, service or company we want to support and push out but we also get that feedback back to us".
"For instance we can get a sense of what is happening in Central America and a sense of what is happening in Europe in software processing, so we have a global perspective.
"We are not doing anything in isolation," he added.
SEA said in a statement it would continue to provide its current portfolio of services to the Australian software industry. The ESI agreement will allow the European group and its global communities to provide input into SEA's SoftwareMark initiative, which is designed to provide the local software industry's first independent mark of quality.
The managing director of the European Software Institute, Manu Prego, said in a statement that he was excited by the partnership. "The European Software Institute is pleased to partner with SEA as a like-minded organisation and welcomes it to the global network of ESICenters as ESICenter Australia.
"We are excited about expanding our regional representation".
SEA entered into the agreement with the ESI following initial discussions in 2002.
