Telecom Italia, through its subsidiary Telecom Italia Digital Solutions, acquired the company Alfabook from the Hoplo Group, a Turin-based leader in digital educational publishing that distributes over 90 publishers and has a catalogue of 13,000 title, as well as 440,000 registered users.
The operation will allow the Telecom Italia Group to focus on developing and disseminating innovative solutions for digital schools, thanks to Alfabook's acquired experience and expertise, particularly in teaching support services, content creation for publishing houses, creation and management of scholastic e-commerce platforms and distribution of e-book content through its proprietary website Scuolabook.it.
With this initiative, Telecom Italia continues to expand its portfolio of educational solutions, which it started up with Alfabook. In fact, Telecom Italia's new offer, the "Digital School Kit", includes the "Scuolabook Network" platform, which allows for creation and inclusion of Self Generated Content (SGC), in a modular and interoperable format that includes connectivity, management services and devices.
The "Scuolabook Network" digital educational solution was also adopted by the "Scuola Expo" Project, created in partnership with Telecom Italia, which offers teachers an evolved digital environment for collaborative creation and sharing of content related to the 2015 Universal Exposition. The collaboration with Alfabook includes an offer for students, "TIM Young College", which offers a purchasing coupon for digital textbooks and manuals.
“The acquisition of Alfabook reflects the growing commitment of the Telecom Italia Group to the education sector. We believe that the availability of easily-accessed tools for schools, teachers, students and their families provides a significant contribution to both accelerating the digitalisation of schools and promoting the digital culture needed for the development of the country", says Simone Battiferri, Head of Business Department at Telecom Italia.
To this end, Telecom Italia and the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research signed a three-year memorandum of understanding in December 2014, under the auspices of which the company undertakes to promote digital solutions in support of innovative teaching methods, to make its know-how available to the Ministry for the implementation of broadband and ultrabroadband in schools and to promote communication initiatives regarding new technologies to students and teachers.
The initiatives supporting development of schools and digital skills are part of TIM's Corporate Shared Value programme (#ilfuturoèditutti), which involves events aimed at creating shared value with the communities in which the company operates.
Rome, 10 July 2015
