An inaugural CEO Forum held by PSEB to promote the soft image of Pakistan

PSEB held an international level CEO Forum in conjunction with ITCN Asia on 10th of August, 2007 at the Karachi Expo Center. The purpose of the Forum titled "Corporate Success in the Knowledge Economy" was to signify the rapid progress made by Pakistan’s IT sector over the last few years and also to attract more foreign financing through effective interaction with the foreign companies.

Various high-profile delegates, representing international as well as national IT companies, attended the Forum while world renowned IT personalities addressed the audience including Dr. Tony Murphy, author of the book 'Succeeding in the Knowledge Economy'; Mr. Geoffrey S. Conner, former Texas Secretary of State & Principal, Texas Global; Mr. Raymond King, CEO, About Us; Mr. Gregory Hinckley, President, Mentor Graphics Corporation; Mr. Peter Tesarik, Vice President, Global Midmarket Business, IBM CEMASS; Mr. Arthur I. Anderson, Attorney Fish and Richardson, P.C.; Mr. Mark Allison, Director, Texas Emerging Technology Fund; Mr. Jonathan Klaus, VP Business Development, EMEA, Teradata -A division of NCR; Mr. Atif Rais Khan, President & CEO, LMK Resources; Mr. Faruq Ahmad, Founding Partner, Palo Alto Capital Advisors; and Mr. Naeem Zafar, Partner, Concordia Ventures.

The event was well attended by success-oriented executives across all industries- Telecom, Banking, IT, Energy, Pharmaceutical, Consumer Goods, leading local and international media & others.

The forum was preceded by a Media workshop/press conference on 9th of August, 2007. The workshop was attended by the leading local media. International journalists from the leading media groups also attended the event. Mr. Santosh Sinha, Interactive Editor, BBC, UK and Ms. Jutta Schwengsbier from DW group (Dautshe Welle), Germany – who exclusively visited Pakistan to cover PSEB CEO Forum –also spoke during the workshop.

Federal Minister for Information Technology, Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, was the Chief Guest for the event. Secretary IT, Mr. Farrakh Qayyum, and State Minister for IT, Mr. Ishaq Khakwani, were also present at the occasion. Mr. Laghari thanked the international delegates during the Shield Distribution ceremony. Sharing the future targets of Pakistan's IT sector, the Minister said that the total size of the local IT industry would be US$10 billion in 2010 while the present revenue of the industry is US$2.2 billion including IT exports of US$1 billion.

Managing Director PSEB, Yusuf Hussain, paid gratitude to the event sponsors, international IT executives and attendees for participating in the Forum. The event was sponsored by Allied Bank, IBM, Intel, LMKR, Mobilink, National Bank of Pakistan, NetSol, Oracle, PTCL and Server4Sale.

The speakers, particularly the international IT executives, appreciated the initiative of holding the CEO Forum and said that Pakistan is emerging as a potential state in the field of IT outsourcing services. They hoped that the foreign companies would increase interaction with the Pakistani IT companies which would help in enhancing the foreign financing in various areas of IT sector in Pakistan. 

Following are testimonials from few of the speakers:-

“Pakistan has made great and rapid strides in modernizing its growing economy over the last few years. The government has articulated a clear vision of what Pakistan must do to succeed in the new Knowledge Economy, and the PSEB has been skillfully implementing that vision. The recent CEO Forum was a great showcase of Pakistan’s accomplishments as well as an opportunity to link ideas, business leaders and government officials in a network that is success driven and results oriented. My congratulations and best wishes.”
Mr. Faruq Ahmad, Founding Partner, Palo Alto Capital Advisors



"The PSEB CEO Forum was an extraordinary and impressive event. The organizers did a terrific job, and kudos to Yusuf Hussain, Aon Rana and the PSEB team for running such a smooth operation. I found the audience to be attentive, the speakers to be uniformly positive and enthusiastic, and the government officials we met were supportive and fully appreciative of the importance of IT to Pakistan. I felt that this event had the potential to be an important turning point for Pakistan.

With specific regard to Pakistan as an IT destination and an emerging center for knowledge-based innovation in IT, I felt that the program more than met its goals. The presenters from established companies like IBM and Mentor Graphics validated Pakistan as a superior destination for their IT operations. Their enthusiasm was specially credible, since it reflected experience from actual operations, and their expansion plans spoke for themselves."
Hon. Geoffrey S. Connor, Texas Secretary of State (ret.)


“I travel frequently to Pakistan from California to help jump start the process of silicon valley style entrepreneurship in Pakistan. So far my work had been with the educational institutes. This was a real pleasure to see PSEB’s initiative to create a forum where the industry luminaries, government agencies and entrepreneurs came together. This venue is essential in creating a partnership and needed momentum that will create a culture of entrepreneurship in Pakistan. The need to change government policies that helps smart money flow into funding companies and policies that make it easier to start companies is essential. Having the foreign delegates helped us all understand the perspective and need for the role that government can play in jumpstarting this process. Hats off to the vision and energy displayed by PSEB. It was an honor to be a part of this activity”
Mr. Naeem Zafar, Partner, Concordia Ventures


“The PSEB Ceo Forum 2007 was very informative and showed the inclination of foreign investors to support Pakistan in becoming one of the forthcoming IT Nations. It was one more step on the long path of becoming a successful member in the knowledge economy.”
Jutta Schwengsbier,
CEO, Media Network of Journalists,/Freelance journalist, DW, Germany
 

“I found the event a great opportunity to network with peers, and to hear what they were doing in Pakistan. I felt extraordinarily welcomed in Pakistan, and enjoyed meeting with key government officials that can help us continue to build our Pakistan presence. As a leading employer in Pakistan of system engineers doing cutting edge design work, we have appreciated the support we have received in bringing this kind of advanced work to Pakistan.”
Gregory K. Hinckley
President, Mentor Graphics Corporation
 

“I have been very much impressed with the energy and commitment of the entrepreneurs in Pakistan's emerging company/ high tech sector. Events like the PSEB CEO forum are the perfect kind of vehicle to help create an ecosystem in Pakistan that will allow these entrepreneurs to achieve their full potential. Keep up the great work. I am looking forward to continuing to work with PSEB to help transfer the skills and learning that have been developed in the Silicon Valley and Boston Route 128 high tech communities to Pakistan's emerging company entrepreneurs.”
Arthur I. Anderson
Attorney, Fish & Richardson P.C.

"Let me thank PSEB for initiating this public discussion about the Knowledge based economy through the CEO Forum held on 10th of August. I enjoyed the panels and interactive workshops, and was very happy to find out that the majority of the participants share the same belief that innovation, collaboration and human capital are instrumental in achieving knowledge based economy. I am even more happy to see through IBM's presence in Pakistan, that the country is successfully adopting innovative business practices, embracing innovative products and services, and benefiting from innovation. This makes me confident for the future."
Peter Tesarik
Vice President,GMB,IBM

Pakistan IT Exports crossed USD 116 Million (BPM-5), USD 1.4 Billion (MSITS) for FY2006-07

Pakistan IT industry revenue has hit US$116 million mark, as reported by SBP during the financial year 2006-07 against the set target of US$ 108 million. A quantum increase of 61.18 percent has been registered against the previous year's US$72 million IT exports.

The State Bank of Pakistan in its statement for the year 2006-07, has declared the export figures of software and IT-enabled services to be US$116 million which shows a consistent annual growth, a spokesman of Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) said. BPO and call centers have made a significant contribution in the country’s increased exports, due to adequate telecom facilities and trained manpower in the region.

The annual growth rate would have been much higher than this figure as only 5 percent of the total registered companies register their exports data with the relevant Government authorities. PSEB is making vigorous efforts to compile exports figures of IT companies with the State Bank of Pakistan. Although 15% GST imposed on computer hardware in the federal budget 2006-07 has not been removed, this rise in IT exports is remarkable.


State Bank of Pakistan adopted BPM 5 Reporting system to report the IT exports revenue, which restricted the export figures to US$116 million only in 2006-07. In India, the Reserve Bank of India follows the BPM 6 (also called MSITS) Reporting System, which raises its exports to billions of US dollars. BPM 6 includes sales to multinationals, earning of overseas offices & salaries of non-immigrant overseas workers to export revenue. Using the MSITS Reporting System, Pakistan IT Industry exports are estimated at US$ 1.4billion while the industry size is estimated at US$ 2.8 billion.

With over 1042 IT companies registered with the PSEB, the country's IT exports grew by an average of 50 percent in each of the last four years. PSEB has been facilitating the IT industry through its programs in Human Capital, Office Space, Marketing, Company Capability Development, Telecom Bandwidth, Industry Finance, Public Policy, Strategy & Research, and Facilitation. Government has already introduced a package of incentives including tax breaks for the IT sector until 2016, 100% foreign equity and earnings repatriation and low-rent facilities for IT companies.

 

Adobe and LMKR invested in Innovative new web-based Productivity and Project Management Tool, Scrybe

Investment to Accelerate Growth, Fuel Development of Industry’s First Online Productivity Tool to Offer Unprecedented Offline Access

Scrybe, Corp. announced today it has closed its first round of Series A funding from Adobe Systems Incorporated and LMKR. Following a highly successful beta campaign that captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of users and influencers across the globe, Scrybe will use this new injection of capital to accelerate growth in key operational areas and drive new product development initiatives.

“Scrybe has captured the imagination of users around the world, engaging customers who share our vision of simple, elegant yet powerful productivity tools,” said Faizan Buzdar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Scrybe, Corp. “We’re pleased to have Adobe and LMKR support our efforts to create a world-class organizational and development team that will help build a significant presence for Scrybe in the global marketplace. Leveraging new Adobe technologies, we will dramatically accelerate Scrybe’s efforts to redefine the user experience for web-based productivity tools.”

“Enthusiasm for the Scrybe beta is an indication of the strong desire for a richer user experience with web-based productivity tools,” said John Leckrone, Director of Venture Development for Adobe. “We’re pleased to be working with Scrybe as they continue to evolve their technology platform.”

“The impact Scrybe has already created in the global market for web-based productivity tools is nothing short of impressive,” said Atif Khan, Chief Executive Officer of LMKR. “We are committed to ensuring Scrybe has the appropriate resources to go to market effectively and execute their long term vision.”

About Scrybe
Scrybe is a new online organizer that leverages the innovations of rich internet platforms to bring users a simple, elegant yet powerful experience, designed to work the way users think.

Systems Limited’s Mortgage Technology voted amongst Top-50 in USA

Visionet Systems, USA, the sister company of Systems Limited, Pakistan, was recently voted by the Mortgage-Technology magazine in the USA as amongst the Top-50 mortgage technology providers in a crowded market of top contenders.

For most of the past decade, Systems Ltd. has developed technology to automate processes and address pain points for the mortgage industry of USA. In 2006, the VisiRelease platform, developed in Systems Ltd’s Lahore development center, handled over a million lien releases, giving servicers a big savings in transaction costs. During 2007 Systems Ltd’s Mortgage Technology Research Lab has continued to add new products to its VisiSuite offerings for the US market.

“Our goal is to spotlight the true leaders in the technology space, and our four major criteria for inclusion of eligible vendors and service providers are customer satisfaction, functionality, market share and viable revenue model,” said Tony Garritano, Managing Editor of the magazine who made the announcement of the Top 50.

Appreciating the honor bestowed on Visionet Systems, a number of high profile clients of the company have expressed their opinions; “We are pleased with VisiRelease(R) performance and the productivity gains,” quoted Steve Scheid, SVP, National City Mortgage; while Ken Jancarz, VP Load Administration, at Indymac Bank said, “We selected VisiRelease(R) for its ease of use and excellent track record.”

Arshad Masood, President of Visionet Systems while commenting on the honor of being listed as the Top-50 Mortgage Technology providers said, “Visionet delivers technology solutions to lenders and servicers that enable complete automation; we are entirely focused on customer satisfaction and ensure that our systems and technology are the perfect answer to the needs of the discerning clients and the demands of the market.”
 

Soneri Bank Upgraded Latest Contact Center Technology deployed by ZRG

Soneri Bank, one of the fastest-growing banks in Pakistan, has recently expanded its Contact Center operations in the newly built state-of-the-art contact center premises along with its core banking system and services with the help of contact center solution by ZRG, nation’s most preferred CTI and Call Center technology provider.

Soneri Bank offers a wide array of financial service through a network of 72 branches spread all over the country. The Bank has been supporting its banking products and services with the help of self-service Phone Banking IVR technology by ZRG since year 1995.

The Bank recognized that any business in Pakistan that is seeking to establish a foothold or increase its share in the marketplace, innovation and distinction are the key factors. To handle a rapidly growing customer base and to support an entire range of competitive products and services, Soneri Bank decided to expand the capacity and capabilities of its Phone Banking setup.

As the management and users of Soneri Bank were completely satisfied with the previous performance and service quality of ZRG as a knowledgeable technology partner, the Bank decided to award the contact center expansion contract to ZRG. At the same time, Soneri Bank also selected the latest Call Review and Scoring or CRS software for the contact center quality assurance department.

The Contact Center upgrade includes capacity expansion to cater more customers simultaneously and functionality expansion to provide additional value added services to the clients. The system will be integrated with multiple backend data sources that will bring together customer information from different backend hosts and present full view of customer in a single screen. The CRS software by ZRG will allow the bank to monitor and evaluate contact center agents’ performance. This auto-evaluation will result in substantial improvement of agent’s performance and productivity with greater output for the bank.

During the signing session, Mr. Safar Ali K. Lakhani, President of Soneri Bank stated, “Enhancement of Call Centre supports our expansion plan and plays a pivotal role in growth of our business. The bank is committed to invest in re-engineering, enhancement, technology infrastructure and capacity building for providing the best quality of service to our customers.”

Talking to the media representatives, Mr. Qamar Wahab, SEVP & Chief Financial Officer, Soneri Bank, said “Round-the-clock banking is interesting to meet the challenges of future re-shaping of banking business. Phone banking has become so common and popular for our customers to communicate and keep contact with the bank 24 hours a day to transact and resolve matters. Payback and Return on Investment is quick, justified and ZRG International made it possible.”  Afterwards, Mr. Ayub Butt, CEO of ZRG International stated “In Pakistan’s competitive business setup, the customer has become the decision maker in choosing a service provider. There are already signs that customers have become increasingly conscious about the access and quality of service they receive once they become a customer of any organization”. He said “At ZRG International we believe in increasing customer value through open standards based solutions that are scalable, robust, and flexible. The days of proprietary and closed architecture based technology are history because the traditional technology had too many limitations and offered only partial functionality. The mix-and-match component based solution involving multiple vendors create more problems for a business than solving issues.”

With the advancement in computing and telecommunications, technology has become a vital component in the daily business operations of every modern customer-centric organization. As a result, companies have begun to rethink what, where and how they serve an increasingly informed and demanding customer base and have started deploying advanced technologies such as latest contact center solution by ZRG. Contact center solution based on Open Standards technology allows maximum integration, customization and scalability to the customers. An increasing number of businesses have realized the value that is available with the Open standards based technology. Such types of solutions are being used by majority of the contact centers in the country with great success and satisfaction.

About Soneri Bank
Soneri Bank started its operations in 1992 and the bank now operates with 72 Branches spread all over Pakistan including the Northern Areas of the country. Expansion of branches is based on a policy of maintaining a balance between the urban and rural areas with a view to offer services even in the remote areas of Pakistan. Pleasant and sophisticated atmosphere has been provided in the branches which are all fully air-conditioned, online and computerized. The essence of Soneri’s business philosophy is to cater the banking requirements of small & medium sized entrepreneurs, providing them qualitative & competitive services with emphasis on encouraging exports. Nearly forty percent of Soneri’s credit portfolio is related to export financing and credit decisions are taken within 48 hours
Prime Minister and Governor Sindh at Governor House, Karachi

About ZRG International
ZRG International (ZRG) is an IT & Telecom solutions and system integration company that specializes in the area of Telephony, CTI and Contact Centers. ZRG helps organizations increase customer satisfaction and revenues by improving business communication and customer contact management functions. ZRG solutions are deployed in majority of contact centers in the country, and are in use by millions of users that use self-service applications in addition to the contact center agent services.

Habib Bank signed a global agreement with TPS for its Internet Banking Solution, PRISM

Habib Bank Limited, amongst the largest banks in Pakistan, has signed an agreement with TPS for PRISM, to provide full featured Internet banking services to its customers around the globe.

At Habib Bank, PRISM will offer a unique blend of consumer and corporate banking services with a diverse multi-institution architecture for HBL’s worldwide customer base in over 25 countries. From Debit Card to Account Holders, from Credit Card to Loan Customers, from Consumer to Corporate, PRISM will offer a wealth of services to the bank’s customer segment. Habib Bank has been a pioneer in providing innovative banking services and the new Internet Banking service is another feather in the cap.

With PRISM’s powerful, informative and interactive features Habib Bank’s customers would have the convenience of 24/7 online services while lessening the need to go to a branch, or even call the bank, for their daily banking needs. This will enable the bank to reduce the workload from its branches and thus enhance operational efficiency. PRISM offers the functionality for a Complete Solution Provider rather than just another Internet banking product that Habib Bank was looking for.

TPS feels proud to be associated with Habib Bank as a trusted technology partner and feels honored to have been chosen for Habib Bank’s Internet banking initiative. In line with the Bank’s plans, TPS team enthusiastically works towards the fulfillment and completion of Habib Bank’s Internet Banking milestone.
 

Autumn – a multilingual mobile application launched by Tricastmedia

Tricastmedia has a shining star in its portfolio which is a suite of sports related application on mobile devices. The project is named Autumn™. This is an umbrella project which includes applications such as Cricket Companion™. Other sports that are in the pipeline are soccer, tennis etc. Versioning of the applications in Arabic, French and Spanish is also in the plan. Cricket Companion™, a part of project Autumn™, is Cricket alert application for the mobile device which keeps us in touch with the latest cricket updates. It manages to display ball to ball live updates of multiple matches and supports all international cricket formats including Tests, ODIs and 20/20 competitions. One can see graphical representation of batting/balling statistics. Alerts on events (fall of wicket, boundary scored, and batting milestones achieved, and delay in game) also pop up. Other than that one can see a full scorecard. Now we can enjoy cricket any time, anywhere. Cricket Companion has been successfully launched with Warid Telecom, Telenor Pakistan and Ufone GSM during the cricket world cup 2007. This has also increased TCM’s core expertise in integration with Telco SMPP network.

About Tricastmedia:-
Tricastmedia was founded in 2005 with a vision to improve the way we work with wireless email and to provide a rich and compelling mobile consumer experience. The company focuses on developing e-mail software and mobile media technologies for the latest breed of consumer handsets.


Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) automated its processes for better Customer Support
SSGC becomes the only utility company in South Asia to undertake the implementation of an integrated and comprehensive CIS

SSGC's domestic and industrial customers are given equal and standard treatment regardless of their revenue contribution and as customer base continues to grow, SSGC is committed to streamlining and integrating its Pre-Sales, Sales, Field Services, Billing, Metering, Customer Care, Gas-Theft Control and other Customer Interfacing/support functions to achieve greater productivity and efficiency.
The management of SSGC realizes that this can be accomplished by developing a single customer database that would provide a 360-degree customer view across the board. As support services such as the Call Center and Facilitation Centers cannot continually increase its manpower commensurate to customer growth, they require a coherent system in order to understand and fulfill customers' needs arising from various geographic locations throughout SSGC's service area network.
Realizing this, Gas Utilities in the modem world have moved into deepening and maintaining customer relationships through Customer Information System (CIS).
SSGC is one organization just thriving on CIS, at SSGC, management had to find a number of solutions to serve its consumers better.
One such ingenious solution is Customer Information System (CIS) project, its new Customer Care and Bill Application System which was launched recently. In the process, it became the only utility company in South Asia to undertake the implementation of an integrated and comprehensive system services through the world-class software application of SPL World Group. The aim is to provide unparalleled customer service and business management by linking this state-of-the-art technology to management, sales, call centre, service, maintenance and operations giving more visibility into needs, initiatives and activities of SSGC's 1.9 million customers based in Sindh and Balochistan while integrating the demographic and geographic variations within.
Eventually, the Company aims to integrate CIS with the company's already implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Geographical. Information Systems (GIS) for greater information and efficiency.

The Contract for implementation of the CIS solution was signed with SPL World group in August 2004 and the project was launched in December 2004.

SSGC management says that it could have easily hired foreign consultants in implementing CIS project yet were well aware of the fact that the results would have come at a heavy price tag. Instead, it decided to depend on the home-grown talent while developing and retaining a core CIS Consulting and Implementation Team that SPL will use on its various projects worldwide.About Sui Southern Gas Company.

About SSGC
Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) is Pakistan's leading integrated gas Company. The company is engaged in the business of transmission and distribution of natural gas besides construction of high pressure transmission and low pressure distribution systems. SSGC transmission system extends from Sui in Balochistan to Karachi in Sindh comprising over 2780 KM of high pressure pipeline ranging from 12 - 24" in diameter. The Company has an authorized capital of Rs. 10 billion of which Rs. 6.7 billion is issued and fully paid up. The Government owns the majority of the shares which is presently over 70%.

About SPL
SPL delivers the proven customer care, billing, outage and distribution management solutions that help utilities around the world achieve competitive advantage and excellence in business performance. SPL solutions are specifically designed for energy, water and service companies, providing a platform from which clients serve residential, commercial, and industrial customers in regulated and competitive markets, across multiple products. Working with systems-integration and technology partners around the world, SPL has an unparalleled record of implementation success.
 

(ISC)² Announced Honorees for the first Asia-Pacific Information Security Leadership Achievements Programme citing two nominees from Pakistan

(ISC)2® (“ISC-squared”), the non-profit global leader in educating and certifying information security professionals throughout their careers, has announced the honorees for its inaugural Asia-Pacific Information Security Leadership Achievements (ISLA) programme.

Through ISLA, (ISC)2 is publicly recognizing the ongoing commitment by information security leaders throughout Asia-Pacific to build a highly qualified and ethical workforce. Part of (ISC)2’s global Awards Programme, ISLA aims to recognize the achievements of outstanding IT security professionals who have significantly contributed to the enhancement of the workforce by demonstrating a leadership role in an IT security workforce improvement initiative, program or project. Professional certification is not a requirement for nomination.

The professionals were nominated in three distinct categories:
• Senior non-IT security professional (CIO, CFO, programme/project manager, etc.)
• Senior IT security professional (CSO, CISO, IT Security Manager or senior security manager with significant IT security management responsibilities)
• IT security practitioner who has distinguished him/herself for implementing and/or managing the implementation of a component of a security programme

Bringing honor to the country were the notable nominations of Mr. Ammar Jaffri, Project Director, National Response Center for Cyber Crimes, Federal Investigation Agency, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad, for the category of Senior IT Security Professional, and Mr. Adnan Shahid, CISSP, Head of IT Operations, Mobilink for the Category of IT Security Practitioner.

The ISLA Nomination Review Committee consists of five members of the (ISC)² Asian Advisory Board, a group of volunteer, senior-level information security professionals who advise (ISC)² on local industry issues. ISLA recognizes all candidates who meet the criteria of the three categories. Additionally, ISLA Nomination Review Committee will also showcase individuals who have led an innovative or distinguishable IT security workforce improvement initiative. All qualified nominees are eligible for each category of ‘Showcase Award’. The criteria for showcasing these initiatives are:
 >> The impact the initiative, programme or project had on the busines or organization
 >>How the initiative, programme or project leveraged people, processes and technology for a successful implementation
 >>Innovative approaches to overcoming obstacles or how the initiative, programme or project built a foundation for the future

About (ISC)²
The International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc. [(ISC)2®] is the internationally recognized Gold Standard for certifying information security professionals. Founded in 1989, (ISC)² has certified over 50,000 information security professionals in 129 countries. Based in Palm Harbor, Florida, USA, with offices in Vienna, Virginia, USA, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo, (ISC)2 issues the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSPÒ) and related concentrations, Certification and Accreditation Professional (CAPCM), and Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCPÒ) credentials to those meeting necessary competency requirements.