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Return to Bulletin Home - November 2006
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ICEF Online Launches in Berlin There is a new space on the Internet for education providers and agents. Officially launched at this year's Berlin Workshop, ICEF Online is the world's first collaborative online platform for the international education industry. Since launching in early November, more than 60 education providers from 15 countries—and 25 agents from 20 countries—have joined.
After years of explosive growth, Internet usage continues to boom. The current online user base of one billion is set to double within the next decade. Students now increasingly rely on the Internet as an information source, and as an important factor in their choice of both agents and education providers. As student behaviour continues to shift to the web, and students' choices are ever-more shaped by this new sales and information channel, it becomes critically important for education providers to have online tools for effective brand management, and for agents to have a strong online platform as well. "With every year, consumers and businesses are moving more and more to the Internet," notes ICEF Director Markus Badde. "Our industry is still grappling with both the potential and the challenges of the web. As a market leader, ICEF is committed to innovation and to staying in front of technological change. ICEF Online is our response to the changing marketplace: a collaborative tool that helps agents and providers easily establish relationships with one another, and to build on the connections they make at ICEF Workshops around the world." ICEF Online is a joint venture between ICEF and Australia-based EdMedia, a leading online recruitment consultancy and service provider. The platform is available to education providers and qualified agents on an annual subscription basis. The first 100 agents and providers to join will receive Foundation Member status. Special introductory rates, representing savings of more than 60%, are available until December 15, 2006 ICEF Online features a range of tools to support agent/provider relationship management, online marketing and communications, brand management for education providers, and student enquiry management for agents. These include:
EdMedia's Rod Hearps launches ICEF Online at a special presentation in Berlin. "I have been in international education for the last 17 years," says Rod Hearps, operations director of EdMedia and developer of ICEF Online. "I have looked at the industry from all sides. I've been a school principal and marketing manager, a teacher, and an agent, and have been recruiting students via the Internet since 1994. ICEF Online is designed specifically to address the needs of the education industry." "The Internet can never replace the role of the agent or the importance of personal relationships between education providers, agents, and students," adds Hearps. "But as an industry matures, it tends to take on new standards and new industry-wide platforms. We have built this system to provide exceptional benefits for all participants in the industry." ICEF Online emphasises ease of use with its streamlined interface, online help, and product training delivered via WebEx, a leading online training supplier. User training is provided live and also through recorded training sessions archived on the site. The system serves provider-approved content and enquiry forms to approved agent sites in the top 10 languages used on the Internet at present: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and Russian—with more to come in the months ahead. The enquiry system allows participating agents to manage both web-generated and offline student enquiries. "As with everything else that ICEF does, ICEF Online respects the critical role that agents play in the industry in generating qualified referrals and providing support services to both institutions and students," says Hearps.
ICEF Online allows both providers and agents to search for and establish new relationships through the system, or build on existing relationships by providing immediate access to updated provider information and marketing materials. All agents on the system are qualified in advance, using the same vetting process that has been applied and proven through many years of ICEF Workshops. "We believe that ICEF Online could become a globally accepted Internet platform for collaboration between education providers and agents," says Hearps. "We will continue to add new features and services to the system in the months ahead, guided largely, we expect, by the agents and providers that are using ICEF Online every day." ICEF Online is available for review now. Agents and providers can save 60% on their initial subscription through special introductory rates that are in effect until December 15, 2006.
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