|
|
|
|
....
Marketing
|
|
PSEB promotes
the image of the Pakistan IT industry in key markets
abroad, enables trade interaction with international
parties, and facilitates the entry of multi-national
development and support centers into
Pakistan.
-
PSEB
participated with nine member companies in ITCN Asia
from August 9-11. The event reportedly attracted over
four hundred and fifty foreign delegates and was
considered a huge success.
-
Six TV
interviews were given by MD PSEB in CNBC, Business
Plus, PTV World, Arabian TV and Aaj TV to promote the
IT industry. In addition a radio interview and two
magazine interviews were given. Three Press Releases
were issued on ITCN Asia, CMMi L5 Rating by NetSol,
and Growth in IT Export Revenue.
-
A Marketing
Launch Project has been approved by the Ministry of IT
which will include platinum sponsorship of the PASHA
award event and the publication of an industry year
book.
-
A Chinese
delegation, comprising executives of leading telecom
and IT companies visited PSEB and was provided a
presentation on the Pakistan IT Industry potential and
strategic
initiatives.
-
An on-line
promotional campaign is running on www.yahoo.com which
has increased hits on the PSEB website by two and a
half times. This banner advertisement is only
accessible to IT professionals from Australia, Middle
East and USA.
| |
Strategy |
|
In conjunction
with stakeholders like PASHA, the industry association,
PSEB has developed a vision and strategic roadmap to
fast track IT industry growth.
-
Export
targets for the fiscal year 2005-6 were exceeded. PSEB
has proposed a four year
strategic plan which
will increase total IT industry size to USD 10 billion
in calendar 2010.
-
An Export
Plan has been provided to Planning and Development
Division for incorporation into the overall Export
Strategy and targets of Pakistan.
| |
............
Office Space
Provision....... |
|
|
PSEB operates 650,000 square feet of Software
Technology Parks in nine buildings across Karachi,
Lahore and Islamabad.
- Contracts have been signed
with two building owners in Karachi and Islamabad for
the establishment of Software Technology Parks (STP).
This will add over one hundred thousand square feet to
the STP facilitated by PSEB.
- After working with Capital
Development Authority (CDA) closely for several
months, thirteen and a half acres of land in Chak
Shahzad, Islamabad, are finally in the possession of
PSEB for the purpose of constructing an IT
Park.
- Following an advertisement
in national dailies, Expressions of Interest (EOI)
have been received from fifteen technical, financial
and legal consultants who will assist PSEB in
selecting a development consortium for the
construction of IT Parks, negotiating contracts and
monitoring progress.
- In a meeting chaired by
the Prime Minister on August 19 to review progress in
the construction of IT Parks. The methodology was
approved & Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was
directed to provide six acres each in Lahore &
Karachi Airports to PSEB for the construction of IT
Parks.
| |
| ........ |
....
Industry
HR |
|
PSEB works with the IT Industry and the Higher
Education Commission (HEC) to increase the influx of
quality graduates into IT companies and provide further
trainings and certifications to
professionals.
- Oracle CRM/Siebel training
was conducted in Lahore for 13 people from three PSEB
member companies. The last Siebel training was
conducted in Karachi.
- 25 nominations were
received for Oracle Financial training to be conducted
in Islamabad in September, 2006
- A new expanded Internship
project which will increase monthly stipend to Rs 6000
per intern from Rs 3000 was approved by the R&D
Fund. PSEB has already successfully placed 2,500
interns.
- A new Apprenticeship
Program which will provide stipends of Rs 15,000 per
month for up to a year to companies to train new hires
was also approved by the R&D Fund.
| |
| ........ |
| Public
Policy |
|
PSEB facilitates the creation of a public policy
environment including taxes, tariffs, trade and
intellectual property protection to enable the growth of
the IT industry.
- Following several meetings
with CBR authorities on GST issue; a proposal
incorporating refund of GST to IT companies has been
prepared and forwarded to PASHA for approval and
dissemination to member companies. Other proposals are
being prepared for local assemblers, distributors and
finished goods importers.
- A consultative group
comprising some twenty professionals from the IT
industry has been constituted to debate and finalize
the proposed Data Protection
Act.
| |
|
| Industry Finance
|
|
PSEB is working with stakeholders to create a
financing and funding ecosystem for the IT
industry.
- To enable the provision of
funds to IT companies, a legal structure for a
proposed VC Fund has been finalized. The consultant
has also just submitted a proposed RFP for selection
of fund management companies which will be
evaluated.
- State Bank of Pakistan
(SBP) authorities are being pursued to finalize and
convene a cross-disciplinary task force on IT
financing.
| |
........ |
| Quality
|
|
Under PSEB sponsored programs, Pakistan now has
110 ISO certified IT companies and by the end of the
fiscal year should have almost 25 CMM rated IT companies
– making it a World Leader in both of these important
categories.
- Under a PSEB-sponsored
program, NetSol became the first Pakistani company to
attain the distinction of CMMi L5 rating. The
certificate awarding ceremony was held in Ministry of
IT on August 17 and was chaired by the Minister, Mr
Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari. Xavor Technologies was
classified at L3.
- As part of the newly
launched information security initiative, ISO 27001
gap analysis at IKONAMI and NetSol Technologies has
been completed. Additional consultancy and candidate
software companies are being
selected.
| |
| ........ |
| Facilitation
|
|
PSEB facilitates IT companies in their
interaction with various Government agencies and also
launches programs in areas of strategic importance where
the private sector is shy of investing.
- PSEB assisted IBM in an
economic, IT and Telecom-related survey which may lead
to the establishment of a resource centre in
Pakistan
- PSEB extended facilitation
to eight companies and delegates in the month of
August in the areas of Visa, taxes, foreign currency
remittance, establishment of liaison offices and
related matters.
- Thirty new IT
companies registered with PSEB in the month of August
and thirty five companies renewed their registrations.
Seventeen new call centers were issued
provisional
certificates to operate and two
were renewed.
- Meeting with PASHA
regional executive committee members was held in
Lahore on August 23. Proposals were received for
capacity building of larger companies to increase
international competitiveness. These are being
considered.
- In an IT industry survey
being conducted in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, all
company visits are completed and data is now being
verified and consolidated. In the next stage, visits
will be conducted to companies in other
cities.
- User Acceptance Testing
for open source ERP for All Pakistan Textile
Processing Mills Association (APTPMA) has been
successfully completed. The software has been deployed
at six units in Lahore and two in Gujranwala and is
being deployed at five units in Karachi. Business
metrics are being gathered at the model unit, Haroon
Textiles in Gujranwala.
- Open source training was
provided to oil and gas company SHV.
| |
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IDC visualizes Pakistan as
Rising Star |
IDC is the premier global provider of market
intelligence, advisory services and events for the information
technology, telecommunications and consumer technology
markets.
Recently an IDC study is focusing on
Pakistan as a rising star on the offshore outsourcing playing
field by examining the issue in two parts: first, through a
look at fundamental economic statistics and second, through an
overview of the expanding influence of networks made up of
private sector, public sector and academic professionals. The
results of efforts from such networks will continue to spill
over into the area of business process outsourcing (BPO)
generally and contact center outsourcing specifically. These
groups are contributing directly and indirectly to the meshing
of Pakistan with the global economy.
"The growing
awareness of corporate responsibility and the management of
global image and brand matters because it is this sentiment
that also is contributing to the growth of influential
professional networks that involve so many from the developing
world and the United States and Europe," said Stephen Loynd,
Program Manager for IDC's CRM and Customer Care BPO program.
"Those networks, in turn, will have more and more of a
spillover effect into the spread of BPO. A location like
Pakistan that not only has solid country fundamentals for BPO
but also is producing particularly robust networks of private
sector, public sector and academic professionals will in all
probability be a formidable presence on the future playing
fields of offshore outsourcing."
...... |
| HH Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al
Nahayan and Sir Terence H Matthews join hands to launch
Raseen |
His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan is
pleased to introduce Raseen, an exciting new company
developing and marketing software for mobile and fixed
telecommunications networks. Raseen is a partnership between
His Highness Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan and Sir Terence
Matthews of Wesley Clover Corporation, one of the world’s most
successful networking and telecommunications investors. Raseen
is currently in the process of setting up a global development
centre in Lahore.
.... |
| Super Technologies product DIDX gets
nominated for World Communication Awards |
DIDX is a product of Super Technologies, Inc. which
provides a global telephone exchange service that allows
traditional telecom companies to sell their phone numbers
globally using the internet. DIDX also allows VOIP companies
like SKYPE, SIP PHONE, Vonage and YAHOO to provide telephone
numbers from all around the world.
In Less than one
year’s time, there are over 2700 Telecom Companies now taking
advantage of DIDX from over 200 Countries Around the world.
Current Members of DIDX include SipPhone, Yahoo, Global
Crossing, Argentina Telecom, Telecard Pakistan. DIDX also won
last year's PASHA Communication award and got nominated for
the APICTA Awards and the entire software was written in
Pakistan.
The success of DIDX can be witnessed from its
nomination in the World Communication Awards which have
evolved from their roots in the networking industry,
maintaining their ongoing relevance to the industry and
emerging as the most desired Awards in global
communications.
.... |
| Netsol Is a CMMI® Level 5
Company |
NetSol’s development facility in Lahore, Pakistan has
been recognized by the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering
Institute (SEI) at Level 5 of SEI’s Capability Maturity Model
Integration (CMMI®). The company attained this much sought
after recognition in just 18 months and is the only such rated
company in Pakistan. Currently, there are only 100 companies
in the world that have announced their CMMI® Level 5
rating.
The Capability Maturity Model Integration for
Software (CMMI® or SW-CMMI®) is a model for judging the
maturity of the software processes of an organization and for
identifying the key practices that are required to increase
the maturity of these processes. The SW-CMMI® has been
developed by the software community with stewardship by the
Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Carnegie Mellon
University.
The SW-CMMI® has become a de facto standard
for assessing and improving software processes. Through the
SW-CMMI®, the SEI and software community have established an
effective means for modelling, defining and measuring the
maturity of the processes used by software
professionals.
.... |
| ClearCube and FiveRivers partnership yields
tremendous innovation in Enterprise
Software |
ClearCube Technology based in USA is the leading
manufacturer of Blade PCs and Management Software, announced
the availability of ClearCube Sentral 5.0. The Enterprise
Systems Management application, developed in partnership with
Lahore-based FiveRivers, was launched at ClearCube
Headquarters in Austin, Texas.
“The release of
ClearCube’s Sentral is pivotal for ClearCube, but it also
comes as a major landmark for Pakistan’s IT industry.” said
Mr. Rick Hoffman, Vice President of Engineering for ClearCube
Technology. Sentral is one of the most complex, high-invention
and widely marketed software products developed in Pakistan.
“This product has a multi-million user potential and is
immediately applicable to thousands of ClearCube customers,
which include a substantial percentage of the Global 2000,
including industry stalwarts such as British Petroleum, Lehman
Brothers, Morgan Stanley and many others.” explained Mr.
Hoffman.
“Sentral represents one of the most
innovative, bleeding edge products that we have delivered.
FiveRivers is immensely proud of its excellent strategic
relationship with ClearCube Technology and is fully committed
to further drive improvements, efficiencies and innovation
into future ClearCube offerings”, said Mr. Hasan Rizvi, CEO of
FiveRivers.
Sentral 5.0 is a new management software
that enables unmatched flexibility and control over
centralized computing environments. Centralized computing is
cited by IDC as the fastest growing market in the desktop
computing space and ClearCube takes advantage of this trend
with the ClearCube Sentral release.
The partnership
between FiveRivers and ClearCube has been exemplary, and it
demonstrates how a well formulated, professionally executed
strategic relationship between global companies can yield
substantial benefits to both parties. We hope this effort
marks an inflection point in triggering many such
collaborations between the US and Pakistan, in the overall
spirit of friendship and cooperation that exists between the
two nations”, said Mr.
Amir Husain, Managing Director
of Advanced Technology at ClearCube.
.... |
| Wyse Technologies an American IT company is
setting up Marketing & Support Center in
Pakistan |
“We have decided to fully avail the vast opportunities
in the IT sector of Pakistan”, said John Kish, President and
Chief Executive, Wyse Technologies
The American IT
Company, Wyse Technologies has decided to set up a marketing
and support centre in Pakistan. This decision was confirmed by
the company’s President and Chief Executive, John Kish. He
said that Pakistan is a beautiful country and offers many
opportunities for the promotion of Information Technology and
that their company has decided to fully benefit from them. He
said that Wyse Technologies various software and hardware
products are being used very successfully all over the world
but there has been some set back specially in the Thin
Computing applications so they hoped to attain better results
with this venture. During the interview, he
said that
Pakistan offers excellent opportunities with Banks and
Financial Centers, Insurance Companies, Textile Industry,
Educational Institute etc. Thin Computing helps set up a
centralized network of all computerized systems and because it
acts as a strong anti-virus as well, it is a very safe system.
John Kish said that his company wants to do business as well
as extend friendly relations with Pakistan and so initially
will set up a marketing and support centre here and later will
also set up a research facility. He added that his company
will also offer training support to I.T graduates in the
country.
Wyse Technologies has a 40% share in the
IT sector and that this figure is gradually increasing. John
Kish is on a three day tour of Pakistan and during his stay he
will also meet with respected Government
officials.
John Kish also said that this technology has already been
introduced in Pakistan and many Banks as well as Textile
companies are using it already and now its usage in other
sectors will spread more quickly.
.... |
| JICA selects AZM to develop District Health
Information System |
Health Management Information System (HMIS) for first
level care facility (FLCF) was introduced in 1992 through
Ministry of Health Government of Pakistan. Government of
Japan, through JICA extended its assistance on the request of
Government of Pakistan and sponsored a “Study on Improvement
of Management Information System in Health Sector”. JICA
selected Japan based Consultancy Company System Sciences
Consultants (SSC) as the study team and AZM were given mandate
to design, develop & implement DHIS software based on the
study team output.
Being an initiative partner of
PSEB/Ministry of Information Technology for the promotion of
software development based on Open Source Technology
(industrial automation project) and keeping in view the client
requirements, AZM proposed the development of browser based
DHIS application on the open source technology platform to its
client and selected Linux, Apache, PostGrsSQL and PHP
framework.
The vision behind the development of DHIS in
the study project is to automate operational & feedback
functions across the whole organization. It is expected that
its implantation will improve and accelerate the current
performance of the selected districts. Another important
factor of this project is to introduce and promote IT and get
immediate results through implementation of feedback
system.
Recently AZM successfully completed the
development phase of the DHIS application and started the
implementation at pilot location in all the four provinces
covering provincial & district offices of health
departments.
.... |
| Descon IT24 receives recognition award for
developing International Land Registry
system |
Descon IT24 has received an “Outstanding Product Award”
from Stewart Information International Inc., a technology
driven, real estate information and transaction management
company with over 9,000 offices all over United States.
Stewart Information International is rated as one of the best
title insurance companies in the US and is a member of the
Fortune 1000 group. Descon IT24 received this award upon
successful completion of 1st phase of International Land
Registry system that is currently operational in the Lands
& Surveys and Land Registry offices in Antigua, West
Indies.
The purpose of the project was to automate and
modernize government offices, where parcel mapping, land
registration, and property valuation is performed. Landfolio
Suite integrates these functions based on a common parcel
number and increases governmental transparency by making land
records available for public review and
consumption.
Descon IT24 is using the valuable
experience gained through the above project to develop its own
Land Record Management & Information System (LRMIS) to
help computerize land records in the country.
.... |
....
|
| .... |
|
|
....
Leading BPO
companies looking for outsourcing alternatives other than
India |
Although the Indian IT/BPO engine continues to surge
ahead as the world’s premier offshoring destination, leading
corporate consumers of outsourced services are now actively
searching for other destinations, offering not just
competitive or superior wages, but untapped skill sets and
other unique
benefits.
The main factors that
have driven the growth in IT beyond India is that other
countries offer lower cost, relevantly trained and otherwise
hospitable destinations to achieve further magnitudes of
efficiency improvement. China offers both broad potential
across the greater ITO/BPO space and offers great promise in
embedded software and product engineering. Pakistan and
Philippines offer focused potential including across various
BPO lines, call center, finance and accounting and processing
work and Vietnam shows promise in various IT outsourcing roles
as well as in software development and IT
processing.
IT services companies like
NetSol(NTWK)(leveraging its Pakistan base); Teletech (ITEC)
(the call center specialist with an extensive network in
developing markets such as Philippines); Spain-based Telvent
(TLVT) with a well established China presence, are only a few
of the companies whose pioneering efforts could reveal the
benefits of the opportunities in these areas. |
Source: Leham Brothers
............. |
| R&D Moves Offshore |
Research and development, once cherished as the crown
jewels of competitive advantage at most companies, is
increasingly becoming a global commodity.
The trend to
hand R&D tasks to outsourcing partners has been gaining
momentum in recent years. The movement cuts across a wide
variety of industries, including IT, and encompasses companies
both large and small. Customers are finding that tapping
skilled researchers in all corners of the globe can save them
from costly talent searches and help them get products to
markets faster.
The need for companies to get help in
their R&D efforts was highlighted on June 14 when IBM
announced it will be tuning its consulting operations to
assist its customers in R&D projects, some of which IBM
might carry out itself through its worldwide research
capabilities. The initiative is being carried out by IBM's
Global Consulting Services unit and complements the company's
Technology Collaboration Solutions initiative, launched in
March, in which IBM seeks to make its own R&D work
available to customers.
"They want to teach clients how
to fish," said Navi Radjou, an analyst with Forrester
Research, in Cambridge, Mass. "There are some areas of R&D
that are ripe for outsourcing, and IBM can do them. It's not
body shopping, but brain shopping."
Radjou said
companies, particularly in the United States, need R&D
assistance because of a shrinking talent pool. In a report
published in March, he reported that, since the mid-1990s,
engineering and physics Ph.D.s in the United States have
declined by 15 percent and 22 percent
respectively.
Third Brigade, an Ottawa startup vendor
of server-based intrusion prevention systems needed Solaris
skills in a hurry so it turned to an Ottawa neighbour,
Macadamian Technologies, which works with several Indian and
Romanian research houses. Macadamian found the right skills
among its Indian partners and called on them to create a
Solaris driver for Third Brigade at a price of
$60,000.
One issue in all R&D outsourcing
relationships is the status of intellectual property, which
customers generally insist they retain. "There's a trust
level," said Terry Cass, director of product development at
Third Brigade.
"We have personal relationships
with these guys."Cass said good communication is also
critical, especially in the requirements phase of the work.
"We ran into that issue and resolved it by having them write
the requirements which we review," he said. Cass
noted
another hurdle: adhering to a budget. Having
underestimated some projects, he found the best way to avoid
uncertainty is to agree to a fixed price with an R&D
outsourcing partner.
Chambers said the single biggest
stumbling block is the tendency of customers to wash their
hands of projects once they turn them over to outsourcing
partners. "People tend to look at outsourcing as turning over
responsibility completely. That's when projects fail. We look
at Patni as an extension of what we're doing. We look at them
as our Mumbai development team," said Chambers. |
Source : http://www.eweek.com/
........
........ |
| Competition Clouds Outlook for India’s Software
Companies |
Research and development, once cherished as the crown
jewels of competitive advantage at most companies, is
increasingly becoming a global commodity.
The trend to
hand R&D tasks to outsourcing partners has been gaining
momentum in recent years. The movement cuts across a wide
variety of industries, including IT, and encompasses companies
both large and small. Customers are finding that tapping
skilled researchers in all corners of the globe can save them
from costly talent searches and help them get products to
markets faster.
The need for companies to get help in
their R&D efforts was highlighted on June 14 when IBM
announced it will be tuning its consulting operations to
assist its customers in R&D projects, some of which IBM
might carry out itself through its worldwide research
capabilities. The initiative is being carried out by IBM's
Global Consulting Services unit and complements the company's
Technology Collaboration Solutions initiative, launched in
March, in which IBM seeks to make its own R&D work
available to customers.
"They want to teach clients how
to fish," said Navi Radjou, an analyst with Forrester
Research, in Cambridge, Mass. "There are some areas of R&D
that are ripe for outsourcing, and IBM can do them. It's not
body shopping, but brain shopping."
Radjou said
companies, particularly in the United States, need R&D
assistance because of a shrinking talent pool. In a report
published in March, he reported that, since the mid-1990s,
engineering and physics Ph.D.s in the United States have
declined by 15 percent and 22 percent
respectively.
Third Brigade, an Ottawa startup vendor
of server-based intrusion prevention systems needed Solaris
skills in a hurry so it turned to an Ottawa neighbour,
Macadamian Technologies, which works with several Indian and
Romanian research houses. Macadamian found the right skills
among its Indian partners and called on them to create a
Solaris driver for Third Brigade at a price of
$60,000.
One issue in all R&D outsourcing
relationships is the status of intellectual property, which
customers generally insist they retain. "There's a trust
level," said Terry Cass, director of product development at
Third Brigade.
"We have personal relationships
with these guys."Cass said good communication is also
critical, especially in the requirements phase of the work.
"We ran into that issue and resolved it by having them write
the requirements which we review," he said. Cass
noted another hurdle: adhering to a budget. Having
underestimated some projects, he found the best way to avoid
uncertainty is to agree to a fixed price with an R&D
outsourcing partner.
Chambers said the single biggest
stumbling block is the tendency of customers to wash their
hands of projects once they turn them over to outsourcing
partners. "People tend to look at outsourcing as turning over
responsibility completely. That's when projects fail. We look
at Patni as an extension of what we're doing. We look at them
as our Mumbai development team," said
Chambers. |
Source : Wall Street Journal (July
18,2006)
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I T N E W
S
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Hewlett-Packard nears Goal of
Overtaking I.B.M. |
SAN FRANCISCO— Continuing to grow at a pace that will
enable it to usurp I.B.M.’s title as the world’s largest
technology company, Hewlett-Packard reported quarterly
earnings that exceeded analysts’ expectations. Revenue in its
third quarter rose to $21.9 billion, up 5 percent or $1.1
billion from a year ago. At this rate of growth, most
Hewlett-Packard executives think the company could take
I.B.M.’s long-held title this year.
Hewlett-Packard
also said it ended the quarter with $16 billion in cash. It
had free cash flow, or cash from operations after capital
expenditure, so far this year of $8.1 billion. Hewlett-Packard
intends to use some of that cash for the $4.5 billion
acquisition of Mercury Interactive, a business software
company. H.P. is also hiring more sales representatives for
its efforts to expand in services and commercial
printing. |
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/
.... |
| Accenture adds BPO capabilities with closing of
Acquisition of Advantium and Meridian Informed
Purchasing |
Accenture (NYSE:ACN) has closed its previously
announced acquisition of two companies that help clients
prevent, detect and recover "lost profits" through analysis of
procurement and payables data and processes, enhancing its
finance and accounting business process outsourcing (BPO)
capabilities.
The Advantium and Meridan transaction is
Accenture's second business process outsourcing acquisition in
less than six months. The Savista Corp. acquisition in April
led to the formation of a new Accenture BPO Services unit
providing bundled human resources, finance and accounting
services to middle-market companies.
By adopting
Advantium and Meridian's proprietary technology and processes,
Accenture's enhanced profit recovery and analytics offering
will help clients analyze their procurement and payables data
to prevent, detect and recover the lost profits, or erroneous
payments, which can result from human error,
systems-integration issues, contract non-compliance and
fraud.
|
Source: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Noman%20Manzoor/Local%20Settings/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/OLK3/http;//www.forbes.com
.... |
.....
IBM Launches
Major Expansion of its Storage Product
Line |
With tiered storage, new warranties and pricing
options, IBM is trying to reduce the total cost of ownership
of its storage systems.
Calling it the "single largest
expansion of its storage portfolio," IBM on Tuesday rolled out
new storage platforms and enhanced storage products.At the
high-end, IBM introduced the IBM System Storage DS8000 Turbo
models.
The two new models, the DS8100 Turbo and
DS8300 Turbo are based on IBM's Power 5+ processor and provide
a performance improvement of up to 15% for transaction
processing workload environments when compared to the previous
DS8000 platform.
The enhancements include the use of
4-Giga bytes/second Fibre Channel Fiber Connection to reduce
the number of network resources needed which will simplify
management and reduce infrastructure costs, says Charlie
Andrews, director of product marketing for IBM systems
storage.
Additional features for the DS8000 Turbo
systems include improved tiered storage options, functions to
enable greater performance and efficiency for DB2 database
applications running on IBM System P servers and a three-site
business continuity system that reaches greater distances and
requires less
network bandwidth.
The first
tiered-storage option uses Fibre Channel drives and is
targeted at storing critical and frequently used data. The
second tier uses lower-cost Fibre Channel ATA drives and is
intended for less frequently used data.
The overall
cost of the new system includes a 25% lower base system list
price than previous comparable systems, Andrews says.In
addition, an upgraded DS6000 storage system will provide for
use of Fibre Channel ATA drives and tiered storage options.
The system comes with a flexible Enterprise Choice option for
warranty extensions, which allows customers to choose a 24x7
option in one-year increments for up to four years.
The
DS8000 Turbo and enhanced DS6000 will both be available on
Sept. 9, with starting prices of $213,400 and $102,600,
respectively.
"We've been focusing very heavily on pure
[total cost of ownership]," Andrews says. "That includes
longer-term warranties and trying to create some acquisition
price options available to drag down the cost."IBM also
announced the next step in its relationship with Network
Appliance Inc. to offer more network attached storage
options.
IBM is offering System Storage N7600 and
N7800, which include Fibre Channel and SATA disk drive support
as well as more than 35 advanced software features, to provide
platforms scalable to 504 terabytes, Andrews says.
New
software called FlexShare will let administrators increase
processing utilization without sacrificing the performance of
critical business needs and better control how applications
are prioritized. MetroCluster extends failover capabilities
from primary to remote site and replicates data from the
primary site to the remote site to ensure data is up-to-date
and available.Andrews says IBM has also enhanced the Systems
Storage DR550 V3.0 and DR550 Express platform to help support
regulatory and corporate governance data retention
requirements.
|
Source: http://www.informationweek.com/
.... |
.....
Investor Group
Buys Stake In Gateway |
WASHINGTON - An investor group led by Harbinger Capital
Partners revealed in a regulatory filing that it owns
10.2 percent of PC maker Gateway Inc.
The group is
seeking to meet with management to discuss its ideas on how to
"build value at Gateway," according to the filing with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The group did
not reveal what changes it intends to seek but said in a
letter to the company's management that "there is nothing
wrong with Gateway that cannot be fixed with what's right with
Gateway."
Competition in the U.S. PC market continues
to be intense as big computer sellers like Gateway, Dell and
Hewlett-Packard grapple with aggressive pricing, low profit
margins and the rise of rivals like Lenovo and Acer.
In addition the crossover of
consumer electronics such as flat-screen TVs, plasma displays,
digital cameras and camcorders and digital music players into
the PC realm has squeezed profit margins for companies in the
sector. |
Source: http://www.crn.com/
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Oracle Acquires
Sigma Dynamics |
Oracle quietly announced Aug. 23 that it acquired the
intellectual property assets of Sigma Dynamics, a company that
develops predictive analytics technology. The terms of the
deal were undisclosed.
Sigma Dynamics, based in San
Mateo, Calif., has software that combines customer insight and
business requirements in real time to make recommendations
regarding customer interactions. Applications include
real-time offer management, field service optimization,
predictive call routing and fraud detection.
The
company's applications are built using the same
standards-based approach Oracle is touting with its Fusion
line of products—Fusion Middleware and Fusion Applications,
the latter a suite that's expected in 2008. Sigma Dynamics
applications use a services-based architecture using J2EE
(Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition), XML and Web services
standards to collect data in real time using events, according
to the company's Web site.
In an Aug. 23 letter to
customers, Oracle said Sigma Dynamics' software integrates
with CRM (customer relationship management), ERP (enterprise
resource planning) and legacy systems to allow companies to
continuously adapt business processes—a goal of the SOA
(service-oriented architecture) movement under way in IT
now.
The company's software is already integrated into
Oracle's stack to some degree. Sigma Dynamics has been a
Siebel OEM partner since January 2005—when Oracle acquired
Siebel for $5.85 billion—and is the foundation for Siebel's
Real Time Decisions for Call Center, the analytics piece of
Oracle Siebel Analytics and Siebel CRM.
Despite a
wealth of CRM functionality from its own and acquired
applications suites, Oracle is standardizing on Siebel CRM
(both on premises and on demand) as it moves forward with
Fusion development.
Oracle plans to integrate Sigma
Dynamics' software with its Fusion applications and sell it as
a stand-alone offering as well. The predictive analytics
software will also be the basis of "integral components" of
Oracle Fusion Middleware, particularly in the area of business
intelligence, according to the company's letter to customers.
|
Source: http://www.eweek.com/
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T R E N D S
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China Mobile
Subscribers to Near 300M by End of '06 |
The world’s largest mobile phone network operator could
see its subscribers near 300 million by the end of this year
if it maintains its current pace of growth, the company said
Thursday in results for the first half of 2006.
China
Mobile, which changed its name from China Mobile (Hong Kong),
said it is adding 4.29 million new subscribers per month on
average so far this year. The company boasted 278.3 million
users at the end of July, and if it maintains its current
growth rate in the last five months of this year, it will
reach 299.7 million, while one or two strong months would push
it over the 300 million level.
The company’s
subscriptions already top all wireless users in the United
States, which stand at an estimated 217.9 million according to
the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association
(CTIA), an industry organization. It also handily beats the
111.2 million mobile phone subscribers counted by the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India at the end of July.
To
increase growth, China Mobile is concentrating on rural areas
of the country, following the lead of government policies
meant to bring further development to central and western
areas of China that have been bypassed by much of the economic
development of the past few decades. A lot of the country’s
growth up to now has been concentrated in southern and coastal
regions of the nation.The user penetration rate in such areas
is about 11.5 percent, but China Mobile hopes to improve that
figure by further building out its network and offering more
low-cost handsets. Currently, the company offers eight
low-cost handset models, the lowest priced at 300 renminbi
(US$37.65), China Mobile said.
The company also intends
to promote more customized handsets, in part to further lower
costs that act as a barrier to gaining new subscribers.
Customized handsets accounted for only 10 percent of its
market in the first half of this year.
For its
mainstream subscribers, China Mobile intends to promote mobile
music by establishing a wireless music club, in addition to
offering push mail, mobile search and location-based
services.
The company’s revenue in the first six months
of 2006 rose 20 percent to 136.98 billion renminbi, while its
net profit increased 26 percent to 30.2 billion
renminbi.
Its capital spending reached 31.9 billion
renminbi as of June 30, less than half of the 83.3 billion
renminbi it has budgeted for this year. The company said it
will continue to carry out planning for the construction and
operation of a third-generation (3G) network, but gave no hint
of when it will start operations. China has not yet awarded 3G
licenses to mobile phone companies. |
Source: http://www.cio.com/
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As outsourcing
matures, new trends emerge |
Utility services and modular, or "component," offerings
are trends that are emerging as the outsourcing industry
reaches a new level of maturity, according to industry
insiders gathering at Outsource World in New York
this week.
Now that a wide variety of users and
providers have attained hard-won experience in outsourcing,
particularly in offshore contracts, services are moving to a
new level of sophistication, said vendors and consultants here
at the show.
Offshoring has moved well beyond the top
multinational companies, which have been outsourcing globally
for decades, according to Peter Bendor-Samuel, chief executive
officer of outsourcing consultants the Everest Group. "We have
moved well beyond the Global 1000," he said in a keynote
address at the conference, which ended Wednesday. The trend
will continue, other conference speakers agreed.
There
are currently about 1 million IT and BPO (business process
outsourcing) jobs being fulfilled on an offshore basis, but
that could increase to 6 million or 8 million over the next 10
years, said Allen Weinberg, principal and North American
leader of McKinsey & Co.'s offshoring
practice.
Both service providers and users have become
more sophisticated in how they manage offshore service
relationships, conference panellists said. On the customer
side, companies are beginning to move away from vast,
multiyear contracts because they have found that such deals
are extremely hard to manage.
"Among other things, at
the end of a five-year contract you realize the world is not
the same as when you started, technology has moved on and
costs have come down," Bendor-Samuel said.
Costs have
come down as providers in large countries such as India and
China have bulked up and as more specialized providers in
Eastern European countries and other locations have stepped in
to take a slice of the outsourcing pie, he noted. As a result,
companies are moving toward more well-defined, limited-scope
deals.
One example of this trend is the move toward
component, or modular, services, especially in the financial
arena.
"Financial companies are increasingly coming to
us to provide componentized services, for example, helping
them get a particularly sophisticated product to market
quickly," said Wendy Watson, Managing Director of State Street
Investment Manager Solutions, a branch of State Street
Corp.
Banks are under increasing pressure to get to
market with the latest investment opportunities in, for
example, derivatives which can be very complicated, she
noted.
"Companies that may not have the necessary
technology or expertise to bring out such a product come to a
provider like us," Watson said. Bond company Pacific
Investment Management Co. LLC, for example, is experiencing a
doubling of its transactions, but the complexity of these
transactions is increasing fourfold as its financial products
get complicated, Watson said. This is where a provider of
specialized or modular services can step in, she
said.Specialty services offered for particular vertical
markets are also becoming popular, other speakers at the
conference noted.
"Cross-company outsourcing, companies
coming together for scale, is a model that is increasingly
being adopted," said Peter Watkins, head of U.S. financial
services for Electronic Data Systems Corp. Watkins pointed to
the insurance sector as an example of an industry where
companies have found they can bring down the cost of, for
example, administering policies, by outsourcing administration
to providers who offer so-called utility services. Cost
savings can decline from about US$30 per policy to less than
$10 per policy,Watkins said.
Particular countries or
regions can also offer specialized services or opportunities,
according to Watkins and other speakers. "Best-shoring" is a
trend among users who look outside of traditional outsourcing
centers in locations such as India to find niche specialties
or simply to find providers in the same time zone as their
in-house workforce, he said.
Companies such as GE
Corp., for example, have vast offshore operations in India but
also have looked to near-shore, second-tier outsourcing
providers in Mexico, he said.
Some industry insiders at
the conference advised users to first pick the country or
region that seems to offer a fit in terms of specialization or
language and culture, and only then pick the specific
provider. "I always say, pick the country first,” said
Shailendra Palvia, managing director for the Center for Global
Outsourcing.
Romanian service providers, for example,
are offering expertise in a wide variety of languages,
proximity to various European markets, and a skilled workforce
honed by a university system that has a strong background in
mathematics and engineering, said Costin Lianu, general
director of export promotion for the Romanian Ministry of
Economy and Commerce, in an interview on the sidelines of the
conference.
At the conference exhibition, providers
from major outsourcing destinations in India, China and the
Philippines were represented, but there was also a strong
showing of smaller companies from Eastern Europe, South
America and other regions. |
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/
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Philippines Call
Centers Experiencing Staff Shortages |
Grace Diaz, Department of Labor and Employment ,
employment division chief, predicted that the growth of the
call center and business process outsourcing industry will not
only raise demand for proficient English speakers, but also
for those who can speak Spanish.
Some 19,000 workers
are now employed in call centers and related industries in
Cebu province in the Philippines, a senior labor official in
Cebu City said.However, the Contact Center Association of the
Philippines has reported a prolonged staff shortage in most
call centers in the country with an aggregate need of some
500,000 agents in the next few years.
Grace Diaz,
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) employment division
chief, also predicted that the growth of the call center and
business process outsourcing industry will not only raise
demand for proficient English speakers, but also for those who
can speak Spanish.
As this develops, the Commission on
Higher Education (CHED) has raised the need to enhance lessons
on the English language taught in colleges and universities to
answer the needs of the growing contract center
industry.
Dr. Carlene de la Pena of CHED proposed a
training program to improve the skills of English language
teachers in over 150 schools in Central Visayas in order to
raise the quality of college and university
graduates.
E-Telecare Global Solutions recruitment
specialist Charles Labor pointed out, though, that
improvements in the manner in which the English language is
taught should begin in the elementary level so the students
can enhance it better when they grow up.
Labor said the
firm had tied up with the Cebu Provincial Government in
training English language teachers in government elementary
schools in Cebu. He said E-Telecare hopes to continue the said
project.
De la Pena said that, so far, only two
universities in Cebu have linked with certain call center
companies to provide appropriate training programs for their
students.
|
| Source: http://www.crmbuyer.com/ |
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S T U D I E
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Yankee Group
finds Metro Ethernet on the Horizon in
Asia-Pacific |
Yankee Group has revealed that Ethernet as a main
protocol is growing progressively in Asia-Pacific.
Asia-Pacific is the second largest market after Europe in
terms of revenue, totaling $676.5 million. Most service
providers in Asia-Pacific offer their Ethernet services over
an MPLS-based IP VPN network.
According to a recently
published Yankee Group Report, several factors are driving the
boom of the Asia-Pacific wide-area Ethernet market including
surging bandwidth requirements, the ability to provision
bandwidth on-demand and a gradual network migration. Yankee
Group predicts China will become the fastest developing market
in wide-area Ethernet service revenue. Additionally, India is
an important market for Ethernet growth.
This Yankee
Group Report examines the Asia-Pacific market for Metro/WAN
Ethernet services, identifies key market trends and growth
opportunities, and analyzes how service providers
differentiate themselves to win enterprise
business. |
Source: http://www.yankeegroup.com/
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Iron Port
outlines ambitious plans for Asia |
E-mail security company Iron Port Systems has ambitious
sales targets and hiring plans for the region in the next 16
months, according to the company's regional head. Joy Ghosh,
IronPort's managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region, told
ZDNet Asia that the company is targeting to achieve a
400-percent year-on-year increase in sales this
year
But while Ironport expects a ramp up in sales,
revenue contribution from the Asia-Pacific region, excluding
Japan, to the company's overall figures is likely to remain
constant at about 15 percent. Globally, IronPort is also
experiencing rapid growth, said Ghosh. |
Source: http://www.zdnetasia.com/
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Server Market
Struggles for Growth in Q2, Says IDC |
The second quarter is never a particularly good one for
the server business and according to the latest statistics
from IDC, server makers are having a hard time making up their
revenues in volume. In the second quarter of 2006, worldwide
server revenues across all types of servers rose by only
six-tenths of a percent to $12.3bn, and server volumes
decelerated to a mere 8.3% growth, with just over 1.8m units
shipped.
The growth in server sales was not, however,
even across all geographies, which is good news of a sort.
Growth was a lot higher in the United States, where revenues
rose by 3.6%, and in the Asia/Pacific region, where they were
up by 2.6%, according to the analysts who track servers on a
quarterly basis at IDC. But sales were weak in Europe, the
Middle East, and Africa as well as in Japan, and this was more
than enough to offset the gains in the U.S. and the rest of
Asia.
IDC is forecasting that the server market will
grow from $55bn in sales and 7m shipments in 2005 to $62bn in
sales and 11.8m shipments is suspect. |
Source: http://www.computerwire.com/
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Quality roadmap
must, say IT Experts |
A quality roadmap has to be charted out for information
technology companies in Chandigarh so that they can get more
projects and increase their software exports. These views were
expressed by IT experts who had gathered in Chandigarh during
a seminar organized by NASSCOM and the Chandigarh IT
Club.
Over 40 persons participated in the seminar,
where experts deputed by NASSCOM addressed the participants on
quality control assessments. It is learnt that NASSCOM is
organizing these seminars on quality processes in most of the
Tier II developing IT hubs across the country.
The
experts said only by making the companies process-driven the
100-odd IT companies could grow further. Director, Software
Technology Park of India, said: “Quality has to mean business
value. The foreign clientele needs quality in software
processes which will help in getting you more projects. Rather
than increasing the number of software companies, the emphasis
has to be on improving the export potential of existing
units.” |
Source: http://www.nasscom.in/
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Engineering
'Next Frontier' of Outsourcing |
Engineering jobs outsourced to India could create
Dollars 40bn in annual revenues and 250,000 positions in the
country by 2020 as demand for more sophisticated services
grows, according to a report released. However,
poor infrastructure and a shrinking talent pool are
hurdles to potential expansion.
A report released by
NASSCOM, India's IT industry trade group, and consultancy Booz
Allen Hamilton, says engineering work such as designing and
testing cars, consumer products and military equipment is the
"nextfrontier" of outsourcing for India. The global offshoring
engineering industry is expected to grow to Dollars
150bn-Dollars 225bn by 2020 from Dollars 10bn-Dollars 15bn
last year, according to the report.
It estimates India
could claim a 25 per cent market share of the industry by 2020
across a range of sectors. But challenges remain, particularly
cultivating qualified engineers. India has nearly 1,400
engineering schools but just a handful provide
world-class training. Only a fraction of graduates are
qualified to work in specialized fields. |
Source: http://www.nasscom.in/
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