New Secretary IT & Telecom appointed

Mr. Hifz-ur-Rehman was appointed as new Federal Secretary IT and Telecom in Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom. Previously, he was working in Establishment Division as Additional Secretary. Mr. Rehman took charge of his official duties w.e.f August 29, 2007.


 

Post Amazer’s animation sequence also gained popularity in Mexico

Commander Safeguard, the first animated superhero of Pakistan and the mascot of P&G's brand Safeguard has taken Mexico by storm. Developed by Post Amazers, the largest animation house in Pakistan and the first with a truly global clientele, the hit series started a semi-revolution amongst Pakistani kids who just couldn't get enough of it.

Commander Safeguard developed by Post Amazers

After its success in Pakistan, the series was adapted to fit the culture and lifestyle of the kids of Mexico. Going by the name 'EI XXXXX', the commander has succeeded in breaking all records to date, coming even ahead of 'SpongeBob SquarePants', currently the most popular character worldwide, with a rating of 6.2 as compared to SpongeBob's 5.5.

Talking about these developments, Asif Iqbal, CEO Post Amazers said, "The success of Commander Safeguard only proves the point that there is a lot of raw talent in Pakistan, which if directed properly can compete on an international level.

About Post Amazers
Post amazers is an animation studio located in Karachi, Pakistan. It is the largest and most resourceful animation and post-production house in Pakistan. It has the largest human resource ever hired by any Pakistan based animation and post production house. Post Amazers is providing a wide range of post production, animation, art direction, broadcast design and other related services to the local and international clients.


 

NetSol revenue exceeded PKR 1billion for the FY 2006-07

NetSol Technologies Ltd. has announced the financial result for the fiscal year 2006-2007 with an exponential revenue growth exceeding PKR 1 billion mark. NetSol Technologies has registered remarkable growth during FY 2006-07. The group revenue registered phenomenal growth by touching Rs. 1.082 billion as against Rs. 600 Million in corresponding fiscal year which is 80 percent higher than last year.

The gross profit (GP) of the group has also increased to Rs. 616.64 million in fiscal year 2006-07 against Rs. 308.42 million. In the same period gross profit ratio move to 57 percent compared to 51 percent in corresponding fiscal year. The net profit margin approaches 39 percent as compared to 28 percent in corresponding Fiscal Year. The consolidated Earning Per Share (EPS) also showed an upward trend as it moved to Rs. 9.52 Per Share as compared to Rs. 3.47 Per Share in June 2006.

NetSol Technologies Ltd. Secured CMMI Level 5 rating in August 2006 and became first Pakistani IT Company with highest quality standard.Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has recently conferred NetSol Technologies Ltd. with the FPCCI best export performance Award 2005-2006.

NetSol Technologies ltd. has also recently secured prestigious Awards like best IT Employer Award and NCR IT Excellence Award.

Mr. Salim Ghauri, Chairman and CEO of NetSol Technologies termed it as a historic day in the IT industry of Pakistan and vowed to continue with such tremendous growth. He said NetSol has accomplished many business deals and more are in the pipeline and likely to materialized soon. NetSol has also developed projects in local market and some very important projects are initiated both in public and defense sectors. He expressed the hope that the NetSol would continue with the present growth pattern next fiscal year as well to secure a leading role in IT sector of Pakistan.


 

Pakistan based company won huge telecom software order from KSA

ZRG International, nation’s market leader in the Contact Center solutions has been selected by Smart Link Inc., Saudi Arabia to deliver flexible open standards based Intel CTI technology. Smart Link is a rapidly growing contact center outsourcing service provider established as a joint venture of two prestigious business groups in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, namely Al-Khaleej and Al-Alamiah.

In order to handle the fast growing customer base and increased call volumes, Smart Link needed to expand its contact center. The management of Smart Link had heard positive feedback about Banking and Cellular Contact Centers successfully operating in Pakistan. The technical team of Smart Link evaluated the various technologies installed here and found ZRG as the most preferred and widely installed solution provider in contact centers. As a result, Smart Link awarded the contract to ZRG to provide a fully integrated, open standards CTI technology based solution under a one-window support model.

By winning the first phase of this multi-million dollar contact center expansion project, ZRG has once again demonstrated its capabilities to successfully deliver the quality expected by the international IT customers. Such software export activities by companies like ZRG are not only enhancing the image of the country but are also having a positive impact on the IT export related earnings of the nation. During the fiscal year 06-07, the total IT export revenues reached an impressive US$116 million against the set target of US$ 108 million.

Smart Link, Saudi Arabia was previously using a solution comprised of multiple boxes from four individual vendors. This had resulted in lack of flexibility, limitation in the integration and customization area and major delays in feature delivery due to the involvement of multiple vendors. Global trends indicate that businesses now prefer fully integrated contact center solutions through a one-window solution provider over the traditional approach of using boxes from 4 or 5 different vendors and sub-vendors.

Smart Link selected Intel CTI based platform with OneView Unified desktop software by ZRG, because it is a proven and flexible communication environment that provides a revolutionary approach of handling multiple channels of communication including Voice, Fax, SMS, Email and Web chat. The use of the open standards based approach enables the customer to incorporate any type of technology, data source and applications. OneView boosts the productivity of the agents by integrating and presenting all the available business applications and communication channels in a simple-to-use GUI. In this case, the agent spends less time in interacting with the system and more time in customer care and revenue-generation.

By offering full integration, maximum flexibility and readily available customization capabilities, ZRG has become the preferred solution provider for mission-critical centers. ZRG holds the market leadership position in the contact center market with advanced solutions deployed at majority of the centers in the country.

About Smart Link, Saudi Arabia
Smart Link Inc. is a joint venture of two giant Saudi business groups, namely Al-Khaleej and Al-Alamiah. Established in 2005, Smart Link has quickly emerged as a premier service provider due to its quality standards and professional approach.

About ZRG International
ZRG has been providing end-to-end international contact center technologies from Intel Corporation, USA since 1994. Due to the reliability, advanced features and cost-effective approach, Intel Contact Center technology has become the most preferred choice among the leading brands.


 

DWP completed the first deployment of Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) in SECP

DWP has installed a powerful, reliable, secure and scalable Oracle based database platform on which critical business applications that gather and store business data, can be run in one central location. System generates detailed reports to support decision making and performs In-depth analysis on regular basis.
The deployment primarily involved the following:

About Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP)
SECP was established in 1999 by the Government of Pakistan. It is responsible for fostering principles of good governance in the corporate sector, ensuring proper risk management procedures in the capital market, and protecting investors through policy development and effective enforcement practices. SECP oversees the performance of banking and insurance companies, non-banking finance companies, and external service providers such as chartered accountants, credit rating agencies, corporate secretaries, brokers, and surveyors.

About DWP Technologies
DWP Technologies, over the last 9 years, has emerged as a powerful business house with strong inroads into the IT industry. With a highly aggressive and innovative management team at the helm of affairs, DWP has developed a diversified platform with international level state-of-the-art facilities and core technology teams. Strong international partnerships have helped the group market new products and solutions in collaboration with global giants such as Dell, Cisco, Oracle Xerox, Microsoft, Samsung, etc. Based on its current five year plan the organization is fast heading towards projecting itself into the international space to compete with companies from India and China.





MSoft deployed call center at UFONE

MSoft has successfully deployed its thirty seats call center at UFone. UFone wanted a setup of an inbound call center for its mobile consumers. They wanted to improve their client satisfaction level and customer services. They required solutions which can completely log and monitor the calls. They also wanted to check their agents’ performance. MSoft completely fulfilled their requirements by developing a customized solution. MSoft start working on this project after winning the tender through competition. The basic unit was deployed within 15 days and the customized portion of this project was successfully deployed in the month of August 2007.

About UFone
UFone is established to operate cellular telephony, from Islamabad on January 29, 2001. UFone has network coverage in more than 750 cities, towns and across all major highways of the country. It had 7,487 Thousand subscribers in June 2006.UFone found this as a cost effective project.

About MSoft
In 1999 there was a huge vacuity in the market with converged communication and unified messaging. MSOFT is a call center and complaint management expert. It has more than 1000 clients in local market. The aim behind the establishment of MSOFT was to provide a strong telecom software backbone to Mansha Brothers. Over the years MSOFT has proven itself as a leading software development band and emerged as a separate entity in the CTI globe.


 

NASCOM’s online project management solution accomplished by ABSM

”On-line Project Management Solution” successfully completed by analyzing, designing, developing and implementing for the construction and engineering of communication spots at NASCOM Construction (Pvt.) Ltd. The client has multiple projects awarded by Telecom Companies whereas each project contains 200-300 different geographical site locations as a unique entity. Every site has courses of action equipped with documentation, land survey analysis, civil works, mechanical works, electrical works, contractors/sub-contractors, installations & configurations, account related matters and security issues. ABSM solution is fully calibrated and attuned to handle multiple sites of multiple projects.

About Alp Business Service Management (Pvt.) Ltd. (ABSM)
ABSM is a Netherlands based company that provides turnkey IT solutions to automate businesses and industries in Europe, U.S.A., Middle East and Pakistan. We focus on powering business through “Technology works @ ABSM” to increase efficiency, productivity, quality, profits, and growth. We believe that there is an enormous potential to automate Pakistani businesses for competition and success in today’s highly dynamic period. We are, therefore, aggressively involved in this crucial activity.

About NASCOM
The NASCOM, in business for over thirty years and recognizing the enormous business potential of the Telecom Infrastructure business both in Pakistan and worldwide, has put together a horizontally as well as a vertically integrated network of allied companies to manufacture, install, commission and integrate Cellular BTS, BSC and MSC sites all over Pakistan. Major clients of NASCOM include Paktel, Warid, U-Fone, Telenor, Siemens, Nokia, Nortel, Alan Dick, Palmet, Spleen, GNC, Nascom and many other smaller companies.




MoU signed between IBM & NIIT to establish Linux Open Source Training and Consultancy Center with technical collaboration of PSEB Open Source Resource Centre

NIIT is in the process of establishing Linux Open Source Center (OSC) for training and consultancy with the technical collaboration of IBM Pakistan and Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB). An MoU ceremony was held at NUST Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) on Friday, 6th April, 2007. The MoU was signed between Mr. Humayun Bashir Country General Manager IBM and Dr. Arshad Ali Director general NIIT.

Linux is an open source operating system and a lot of development is taking place on this platform. Unlike other operating software systems, Linux does not have license fee. This has attracted several governments all over the world towards adopting Linux as their official operating system. For the better future of Information Technology, it is essential for developing nations like Pakistan to adopt Linux and other open source software technologies. Linux and related software are free in terms of license but the lack of expertise in this field is proving to be a major hindrance for its early adoption in countries like Pakistan. Keeping this fact in mind, NIIT with the help IBM and PSEB is establishing this Open Resource Centre, mainly with the view of “Train the trainers”. The envisaged centre at NIIT will first train the faculty members of IT and computer science faculty of Pakistan 's public and private sector universities and institutes. This will, in turn, enable the faculty members to train their students in the open source technologies.

IBM Pakistan has committed to provide for the center software / hardware worth 250,000 US Dollars. Along with that, IBM will actively participate in running a number of training courses at the center and developing course material for the training. The entire needed software will be provided gratis. IBM's contribution in terms of providing maintenance services for one year, training, as well as course material and software is estimated to be around 750,000 dollars. So in total IBM would be contributing approximately one million US$ in terms of hardware, training and technical support.

The objective of this center is to provide training and certification to faculty of top universities and institutes of Pakistan during the first two years of its establishment. The training will be initially imparted by foreign trainers from IBM on the-state-of-art hardware like SUN Server, IBM Cluster, IBM Servers and Open Source software; subsequently, it will be the responsibility of local trainers to conduct training courses. The centre will also cater for certification courses. Its hardware resources and consultancy services will be available to universities, software houses, industry, government and non-government organizations, for training of their employees and dissemination of knowledge of Open Source Software (OSS). The Center will also develop curricula for Linux and OSS in collaboration with IBM for inclusion in IT and Communication degree programs offered at NUST-NIIT. Later, the same curricula can be used by different IT Universities and Institutes in Pakistan. This will help to augment awareness of free open source software in the country.




ITP Consulting & Implementation Services acquired Enterprise Consulting & Advisory Services (ECAS)

ITP, the leading provider of Mission Critical Operational Consulting for large and medium sized enterprises in the financial, manufacturing and telecommunications sectors, will purchase all shares in ECAS (Enterprise Consulting & Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd). This acquisition will enable ITP to strengthen and expand its portfolio in the governance space.

ECAS “Enterprise Consulting & Advisory Services“ is Pakistan’s first boutique governance risk and compliance advisory company.
 

ECAS is a Venture Capital backed company founded in 2006. According to Faizan Siddiqi COO and Founder of ECAS “Joining forces with ITP was the next logical step in a growth strategy based on delivery of vital enterprise governance services. The Management Board therefore systematically scanned the market for potential partners. After a careful evaluation process, ITP emerged as the ideal partner.”

ITPs Consulting & Implementation Services continue to grow and this transaction
represents a strategic takeover. “We are already the largest provider of CRM enablement services in the domestic space. This takeover will hugely expand our lead, as ECAS will supplement our core business in our domestic markets,” says Ibrahim Hamid, COO of ITP. The two companies’ primary focus lies in the telecommunications and financial services space. ECAS specializes in providing services for business transformation. The group is therefore an ideal match for ITP which also has a strong focus in this area. According to Anwar Matin, CEO of ITP, “Our experienced acquisition team will very soon seamlessly complete the integration of ECAS into ITP's existing portfolio, this will create huge opportunities for us which we fully intend to capitalize on.”

About Integrated Technology Partners
Integrated Technology Partners is an enterprise application-consulting firm. Integrated Technology Partners provides a wide breadth of services including but not limited to strategy formulation, project management, solution evaluation, and implementation consulting.


About Enterprise Consulting & Advisory Services (ECAS)
ECAS is Pakistan’s first boutique governance, risk and compliance advisory company. We have enterprise level consulting expertise and experience at Fortune 100 organizations. Our team is composed of repatriated executives and a vibrant local team. ECAS is a process oriented and success driven company, focusing on local and regional markets. Our central values of perseverance, performance, and willingness to share risk, influence every aspect of our practice.