Actis, a leading private equity investor acquired 49% interest in LMKR Holdings

LMKR Holdings has announced that Actis, a leading private equity investor in the emerging markets has acquired a 49% interest in LMKR Holdings, for an undisclosed sum. LMKR is a global provider of information management solutions to petroleum engineering services companies with subsidiaries in the US, Pakistan, Malaysia, Trinidad and a branch office in Dubai.

Atif Rais Khan, CEO of LMKR commented: “This is a positive and strategic development for LMKR. Actis’s investment will enable our business to accelerate its growth and expand its global presence and set the stage for a public offering in the next two to three years”.

Shabbir Hashmi, Investment Principal, Actis added: “We are excited about LMKR’s potential to become a significant national and global player in oil and gas and IT enabled services. Our experience of working with management to transition such businesses will not only support LMKR’s growth plans, but will also showcase private equity’s value added proposition in Pakistan”.

About LMKR
Founded in 1994, LMKR is a global provider of Geo technology and Information technology services to businesses and governments through its offices in USA, Pakistan, Malaysia, Trinidad and UAE. With over 600 employees, their target industries include Oil & Gas, Energy, Utilities, Telecom, Banking, Government, Defence, Industrial Manufacturing, Gaming and Simulation.

About Actis
Actis, a leading private equity investor in the emerging markets, has US$3.5 billion worth of funds under management with significant investments in Africa, China and South and Southeast Asia. With over 100 investment professionals on the ground in 14 offices worldwide, Actis has been investing in the emerging markets for nearly 60 years. In South Asia, Actis has two funds: the US$325 million Actis India Fund 2 and the US$150 million South Asia Fund 2.  

Outstanding results at NASDAQ doubled NetSol share prices

LAHORE – share price of Netsol Technologies Inc. has doubled since the announcement of a stellar 4th quarter results for the financial year 2006-07 and the stock has registered exponential growth to $ 3.15 on against $ 1.60 on September 19, 2007.

It may further be noted that the share price had jumped by 40% at NASDAQ on September 19, 2007, when highly impressive results were reflected at the bourses. Investors had chosen fresh positions, surging up NetSol Technologies Inc share price over $2 instantly, as it closed on $ 2.37 per share on September 19, against $1.69 per share on September 18, showing an increase of 40 percent in a single trading session of the stock market. Netsol Technologies, Inc., USA, the first Pakistan- based US Company listed on NASDAQ: NTWK stock continues to rally since it announced a stellar 4th quarter of 2007. It is the parent company of Lahore based NetSol Technologies, Ltd, listed on KSE as Netsol. The parent company posted record earnings for 4th quarter with 85 percent sales growth and net income of 0.07 EPS. The US stock has traded all time four year high today.

The quarterly revenue surged 84 percent to $8.6 million, from $4.7 million in the prior year period. Full year revenue grew 57 % to $ 29.3 million, from $18.7 million in the prior year.

About Netsol
Since its inception in 1995, NetSol has evolved as a leading global IT solutions and services provider catering to clients all over the world. For over a decade, NetSol Technologies' domain expertise in Financial Services, a team of over 500 professionals, strategic presence in North America, UK/Europe and Asia Pacific, and a CMMI Level 5 certification has helped Industry Leaders to manage the challenges and opportunities in the global business environment. NetSol's list of clients includes blue-chip companies, the non-profit sector, technology and telecommunications, and financial institutions.

AutoPlus, an open source ERP developed under PSEB’s Industrial Automation project

PSEB, under the Industry Automation project, partnered with four software development companies and five industrial associations for the development of ERP software for SME units in readymade garments, hosiery, automotive parts and accessories, textile processing and surgical instruments verticals. The initiative is to improve the productivity of SME units in these verticals, to allow local software companies to gain expertise in the development of ERP solutions for the local manufacturing industry and to promote the use of open source technology.

AutoPlus, is an open source ERP, developed by M/S Acrologix under PSEB’s Industrial Automation project in collaboration with PAAPAM (Pakistan Association for Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers) and its 15 member units. The software has been successfully implemented at model unit Kortech Industries in Lahore. Kortech Industries has now automated all its processes from customer order to the delivery of goods. The implementation has resulted in the following improvements at the model unit,

Finance: 83% reduction in time, 50% reduction in human resources needed
Inventory: 85% reduction in time, 40% reduction in human resources needed
Production Management: 75% reduction in time
Sales: 80% reduction in time
HR & Payroll: 70% reduction in time

The product is now being implemented at 14 additional PAAPAM units. After implementation in 15 units, the product will be available free of cost for over 250 PAAPAM member units. Additional units will only have to pay the cost for implementation of the software. SME BSF (Business Support Fund) has approved to provide 50% funding for the cost of the implementation.



 

Cutting edge power solutions anticipated in Pakistan after agreement between Emerson Network Power Inc. and DWP Group

DWP Group and Emerson Network Power Inc. have entered into a distribution agreement. Emerson, founded in 1890 in St. Louis, Missouri USA has come out to be a global giant in the field of power solutions. Emerson Network Power’s key areas of business are UPS and power distribution products, DC power systems, AC/DC power supplies, AC/DC power modules, surge suppression products and climate controlled enclosures, cabinets and shelters.

Emerson aspires to service a complete spectrum of best-in class reliable power, precision cooling and environment monitoring solutions for today’s telecommunications and data network infrastructure. DWP and Emerson partnership is expected to bring the cutting edge power solutions to Pakistan with best technology and service support.

About DWP Group
DWP Group is a business house with core activities in Technology, Logistics and Consumer Electronics. With over ten years of experience, DWP Technologies Division is a leading provider of end-to-end IT services; having partner status with DELL, MICROSOFT, CISCO, ORACLE, XEROX, GREE and SAMSUNG. Established in 1999, DWP Tech Division serves large Enterprises, Corporations, Small & Medium Companies and home-users. DWP Tech Division caters to Banking, Telecom, Education, Manufacturing and Public sector organizations. The company employs some of the best HR in the country that have been trained and certified (local and foreign) by its principals.


 

Teradata began trading on the New York Stock Exchange

Spinoff from NCR successfully completed

DAYTON, Ohio — Teradata Corporation has announced that it has completed its spinoff from NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) and that shares of its common stock have begun regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol "TDC".

Teradata President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Koehler rang The Opening BellSM at the NYSE on October 1 to celebrate the occasion. He was joined by other senior Teradata leaders.

"Listing our shares on the NYSE, the world's leading and most global capital market, was a historic event and marked a new beginning for Teradata as the global leader in enterprise data warehousing," said Koehler. "We will continue to strengthen our company, to expand and deepen our relationships with our strong and diversified customer base, and to invest in initiatives that further improve our technology leadership and grow our business."

"Today, organizations around the world rely on Teradata's proven expertise in helping them to use enterprise analytics to drive growth, profitability and competitive advantage," Koehler continued. "We are well positioned to capitalize on the many opportunities in the global marketplace."

On September 28 after the market closed, Standard & Poor's added Teradata as a component of its flagship index, the Standard & Poor's 500. In addition, effective as of market close on October 1, 2007, Teradata was added to the NYSE Arca Tech 100SM Index.

In connection with the spinoff, NCR shareholders received one share of Teradata common stock for every one share of common stock they held in NCR as of the close of business on September 14, 2007. One hundred percent of the approximately 181 million shares of Teradata common stock were distributed.

About Teradata
Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC) is the world's largest company focused on raising intelligence through data warehousing and enterprise analytics. Teradata is located in more than 40 countries.


 

Public and internal portal provided at Dubai Naturalization and Residency Department by a leading global IT solutions and services provider

Avanza in collaboration with Emitac have taken the responsibility to re-design and add new services to their public portal to facilitate their customers, and provide an internal portal which will act as an information bank for the employees at Dubai Naturalization and Residency Department (DNRD).

Standards and Guidelines of Dubai E-Government were used to deliver these portals. Public portal is meant to serve information relating to the process of acquiring visa’s for Dubai, types of transactions that are carried out at various branches, provide the facility to search useful content on the website, participate in the ongoing polls and to access the latest happenings at DNRD.

Internal portal provides the employees at DNRD with complete information regarding the processes as to how a particular transaction or application (submitted by the customer) is treated at DNRD. The purpose of such a portal is to spread awareness of the processes at DNRD.

These portals aim to provide ease in updating content so that every department can update their relative content. Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) is used to attain this objective and appropriate workflows are also implemented so that a change in the content goes through the appropriate cycle. A custom application, which caters to the modifications for dynamic controls such as News, Announcements etc. on each portal, is also developed and delivered using Microsoft .Net and SQL Server 2000.

About Avanza
Avanza Solutions is a U.S. based company with representation in Spain, Pakistan, U.A.E. and Qatar. They are a software services company providing specialized IT products, solutions and services with a global presence.





PROVISUS - a next generation service activation and provisioning system for Wireless and Wire line networks launched by Averox

Averox has recently launched its new product Provisus, which is a next generation service Activation/Provisioning system for Wireless (GSM, WLL) and Wire line (Fixed line, PSTN) networks. Built as per the requirements of the international operators, it has the flexibility to provide unblemished and user friendly service to operators with medium to very large subscriber bases. Compared to other similar products in the market, Provisus offers much wider range of services and financial flexibility. Besides being platform independent, the product is configurable to online/batch processing, supports a complex service bundle (voice, data, content, messaging and video) and features alarm and error monitoring. The product is currently being tested by Vodafone before actual deployment. Provisus received good responses from the Gulf market during the recent Gitex Exhibition 2007 in Dubai.

About Averox
Averox is a world class Solution and Service provider for the IT, Telecom and Telecom Engineering markets. Averox is a public listed company listed ‘over the counter bulletin board’ (OTCBB) Index, publicly traded at a share price of US $7.50(June 2007) with a market capitalization of US $ 75 million.


 

EMC joined Ovex in a partnership providing end-to-end solutions to mid size and large enterprises

Ovex has entered into an exclusive business partnership with EMC Corporation for providing their end-to-end storage solutions to mid-size and large enterprise businesses. This makes Ovex amongst the few premier EMC partners in Pakistan.

Amongst the 10 most valuable IT product companies in the world, EMC Corporation is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions. They help organizations of every size around the world to keep their most essential digital information protected, secure, and continuously available. Their solutions integrate networked storage technologies, storage systems, software, and services.

About Ovex Technologies
Ovex Technologies is the largest third party offshore BPO provider and the second largest exporter of IT services in Pakistan, serving both domestic and international clients. Owned substantially by En Pointe Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENPT), Ovex provides Customer management, Accounting and Helpdesk services and EMC Data Storage Solutions.




HBL Oman selected TPS Phoenix switching middleware to revamp its remote banking infrastructure

Habib Bank Limited, the largest private bank in Pakistan and serving a global customer base of more than 5 million in 25 countries, has chosen TPS Phoenix switching middleware for offering completely characterized self-service banking services to its customers in Oman. At HBL Oman, Phoenix will replace the existing switching technology, offering reliability, flexibility, maturity, and focused services at par with HBL’s commitment to excellence.

TPS Phoenix will be implemented as an ATM Controller and a debit card issuance system besides providing connectivity to the country’s shared ATM network and Al-Watani Switch.

About TPS
TPS is a leading provider of switching and payment solutions and services to financial institutions worldwide. TPS serves around 100+ financial institutions & telecoms in 25 countries across South-Asia, Middle East/Gulf, Europe and Asia.
 

Computerized financial system for a leading project provided by Descon Information Systems

Descon Information Systems recently provided a complete financial management solution for the Lahore Ring Road Project. The project involved implementation of an in-house developed product called DeFineS. The system provides comprehensive reporting mechanism, multiple bookkeeping, flexible chart of accounts and integration with industry standard tools such as Primavera. The solution has resulted in efficient and effective management of financial data for the PMU (Project Management Unit) which is responsible for the development of Lahore Ring Road Project. The system has also reduced manual efforts, and reliance on the redundant systems.

About Project Management Unit (PMU)
The (PMU) Project Management Unit was established by the Government of the Punjab for the primary purpose of identifying, developing and implementing modern project management practices for the development projects.

About Descon Information Systems
Descon Information Systems, initiated in 1996, is a leading provider of IT solutions with a worldwide presence. Descon offers a broad spectrum of services ranging from bespoke application development to business process outsourcing. It is an ISO 9001:2000 Certified company and is in the final stages of achieving CMMI Level 2 certification.