Follett International, DO IT Technologies Form Partnership to Enhance Learning in South Africa

McHENRY, Ill., July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Follett International, a global supplier of educational materials in more than 148 countries, and DO IT Technologies PTY, Ltd., a sister company of Publications Network Pty Ltd (SAPnet), a leading bibliographic data management provider, announced this week a partnership that will enhance teaching and learning throughout Southern Africa.

The partnership provides for DO IT Technologies to market, distribute and sell Follett International's cutting-edge technology products and educational materials to school and higher education sectors throughout Southern Africa. The Follett products include Destiny® Library Manager™, Destiny Textbook Manager™, Destiny Asset Manager™, Cognite™, TetraData™, Titlewave™ and TitleTales™.

"Follett International's products will bring new opportunities not only for DO IT but for the whole publishing trade, booksellers and library world in the Southern African territory," said Freda van Wyk, managing director, DO IT Technologies and SAPnet.

Business administrators need help managing assets, classroom materials and textbooks so they can maximise their respective schools' budgets, van Wyk said. "Finding a vendor who can provide it all isn't easy," she added. "Through the Follett International and DO IT partnership, the Southern African territory will now be able to enjoy this one-stop solution."

The Follett/DO IT partnership will be formally introduced during a workshop at 10:00 a.m. Friday (30 July) at the Cape Town Book Fair.

"This is a great opportunity for Follett International to partner with DO IT," said Gerry Slessenger, Follett International's regional vice president of sales for South Africa. "It's a perfect fit for us, and allows us the opportunity to provide exposure for our educational products in the South Africa market."

Follett provides universities, libraries and schools and school districts with a wide range of educational tools and services that fuel the learning process and spark the imagination. It combines its capabilities in traditional and digital textbooks, course materials, e-commerce and software to create a unique platform of support for educators everywhere.

"This relationship is a perfect fit for our Trust and family's diversification strategy that we embarked upon last year," van Wyk said. "It will allow us to add very necessary products to our existing data range products in the SAPnet business and to expand our customer base by adding an exciting range software systems for libraries and schools."

SAPnet expanded its services in 2009 to cover data management services pertaining to all entertainment products, beyond bibliographic data to include music, DVDs, games and magazines. It represents Nielsen Book Services, a United Kingdom company, since 1996 and MUZE, a division of Rovi Corporation, since 2009.

For more information on Follett International, visit www.FollettInternational.com. For more information on DO IT Technologies/SAPnet, visit www.doittechnologies.co.za and www.sapnet.co.za.

About Follett International

Follett International helps enhance the teaching and learning experience worldwide.  We make it easy for educators in more than 120 countries to buy educational materials and technology solutions from one point of contact. Follett International supports curriculum and teaching standards by providing reading books, new and pre-owned textbooks, audio/visual, and research materials. Through our web-based Destiny® software solutions, Follett International provides children, parents and faculty with tools to access information easily and they help librarians and business administrators manage resources and assets more effectively.

About SAPnet

SAPnet has been dealing with the South African booktrade since its inception in 1998. It is currently marketing applications developed for the new way of trading: e-commerce, applications facilitating business-to-business trading, products archiving bibliographic data in a searchable, exportable format, as well as keeping local prices and availability current.

SOURCE Follett International