Establishment of Linux Competency Center by IBM at NIIT to provide hands-on experience with Linux 

IBM has established a Linux Competency Center at NUST Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), Rawalpindi. This Linux Competency Center will help customers, students, developers and business partners in Pakistan to experience and test Linux hands-on and to explore the benefits of open standards-based computing. In addition, IBM is extending its Scholars Program to offer free software, course material and access to IBM Portals to major Universities in Pakistan; discussions with some universities such as FAST etc. are underway in this regard. The 'Teach the Teachers' program will reach over to several universities and teachers will be trained at NIIT.

As part of establishing the center, IBM has donated its range of Enterprise Systems (including pSeries Unix Servers, Intel Processor-based xSeries and BladeCenter servers, TotalStorage), Printers, PCs, and CISCO equipment - all of the hardware running on Linux SuSE deployed by IBM Global Technology Services team. IBM will also provide free hardware and software services for the first year. In addition, IBM Middleware software will be used by NIIT in their curriculum for graduate and undergraduate students under IBM Academic Initiative program.
 

Picture shows Humayun Bashir, Country General Manager, IBM Pakistan
presenting the IBM Linux Penguin to Lt Gen (R) Syed Shujaat Hussain,
Rector NUST who beams away with pride, While the Chief Guest Farrukh Qayyum,
Federal Secretary Information Technology and Dr. Arshad AU, Director General, NIIT look on.

Successful integration of KASB’s new banking host with existing delivery channels –Avanza Solutions provided the solution

To replace its existing banking host with MiSys, KASB Bank employed the services of Avanza Solutions. Avanza’s team worked hard to achieve integration between the new banking host and all the delivery channels of the bank. As a result, in a record time of four months, they were able to successfully complete the migration.

Such a speedy migration was possible largely due to the presence of Avanza’s e-infrastructure solution Rendezvous, which is the industry’s preferred middleware solution. Another important aspect of this project was the fact that Rendezvous was able to run both the old and the new hosts in parallel, so that gradual migration of the branches could easily take place.

About KASB Bank
The KASB Group was established in 1952 and has been working successfully in banking, securities, leasing, technology, research and community projects. The KASB Group’s performance is based on the confidence people show towards the group. This level of achievement is obtained from continuous improvement and dedicated customer focus i.e. no compromise on service quality.

KASB Bank, with its presence in 13 cities and through its network of 35 branches, delivers a comprehensive range of banking services in consumer banking, corporate banking, treasury and trade finance. The bank has been assigned medium to long-term entity rating of BBB+ and short-term rating of A2 giving a ‘positive’ outlook. The bank is progressing with the goal of delivering affordable services to individuals meeting all their possible needs and providing its corporate banking clients access to a broader range of funding sources, which is made possible by the Group’s strong presence in investment banking business.

About Avanza Solutions
Avanza Solutions is a U.S. based company with representation in Spain, Pakistan and U.A.E. We are a global solution and services company providing specialized IT products, solutions and services to financial institutions, mid-large corporations, government organizations and other vertical industries.
 

Latest Contact Center technology to be provided to UBL by ZRG

UBL, one of the most dynamic among the large banks of the country, has signed an agreement with ZRG for the installation of state-of-the-art contact center technology solution by ZRG. The project is aimed at providing high quality services to the UBL customers as well as enhancing the capabilities of the contact center so that the bank could launch and support a wide range of innovative services and capabilities for the customers.

UBL, being a customer-centric organization, wants to give its clients a premium customer service experience. The idea is to offer a wide range of innovative services and capabilities for the customers and incorporate advanced documentation, quality assurance and quality control features.

During the Signing Ceremony for Banking Contact Center, between United Bank and ZRG

To get the most reliable solution, UBL conducted a market research and analysis and used a qualification matrix that included criteria such as the number of installations, cost-effectiveness, ease of integration and the previous track record of the solution providers. UBL specified its preference of having a one-window solution that enables the technology provider to take the full responsibility of delivering success and results.

Upon review and analysis, UBL learnt that ZRG Contact Center Solution is based on internationally-accepted open industry standards technology and is widely installed throughout the banking sector. Due to these plus points, the contract for setting up the contact center for UBL was awarded to ZRG.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Baqar Muzaffar, CIO, UBL said “UBL decided to equip its contact center with flexible and scalable technology that can support the various world class services it plans to introduce. The integration with the core banking system and other databases will be much faster. By having an integrated end-to-end solution, the bank will be able to get holistic view of call center activities and staff performance as well as have complete documentation available for review and reporting”

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Ayub Butt, CEO, ZRG International, said that “Customer satisfaction can be increased by providing prompt services and by giving personalized attention to the customer. This can be done by making integrated customer-related information easily accessible for the customer service department. By using the latest flexible call handling tools, a company can ensure high quality and personalized services. ZRG is playing an important role in enhancing customer service standards by offering highly flexible next generation contact center tools to enable companies to take customer services to the next level.”

About United Bank Limited - UBL
UBL has assets worth over Rs. 300 billion and a solid track record of forty six years. UBL offers the convenience of over 1000 branches serving clients throughout the country as well as at several overseas locations. UBL was established on November 7, 1959. The chairman of UBL is His Highness Shaikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan while the Deputy Chairman is Sir Mohammed Anwar Pervez OBE. UBL is working in Pakistan under the leadership of Mr. Atif R. Bokhari, President & CEO. The bank has 1056 domestic and 15 overseas branches, and has representative offices in Tehran.

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.
The company is recognized as the market leader in the next generation contact center technology with over 16 out of a total of 22 banking contact centers and 3 out of 6 cellular customer service contact centers along with customer service centers of leading brands in the country such as PSO, EFU Life Assurance, TCS Courier, Maersk Shipping, MultiNet, WorldCALL Broadband, and many others. ZRG is the first company from Pakistan that started exporting advanced contact center technology solutions to the international market (Dubai, Tanzania). Our successful deployment of advanced call center has been profiled by Intel Corporation, USA, that has placed a ZRG solution as a success story on Intel’s web site.
 

Electronic Inter Bank Funds Transfer across Pakistan enabled by TPS technology

1LINK (Guarantee) Limited has embarked upon a scheme to launch real-time, electronic and secure transfer of funds across the country using Phoenix, the TPS switching application. 1LINK (Guarantee) Limited is a consortium of major banks that own and operate the largest representative shared financial services network of Pakistan with a combined strength of over 1,550+ online ATMs in 129+ cities across the country. The network is continuously expanding as more member banks are engaged in the deployments of ATMs.

Currently, nine major banks of Pakistan are participating in this service, while more banks are gearing up to avail this service. Inter Bank Funds Transfer, known as IBFT is an extension to Phoenix Third Party Funds Transfer (3PFT). IBFT allows customers of participating 1LINK member banks to transfer funds from any of their banking account to other over the 1LINK ATM network. IBFT offers self-service banking customers to make payments round-the-clock, without the need to raise physical supporting vouchers or documents such as cheques, bank drafts, etc, thus reducing the dependency on paper-based transactions. IBFT is also ideal for cross city inter-bank payments as it allows funds transfer in a real-time, faster, secure and cost efficient manner. The IBFT launch also opens up possibilities of new and exciting product designs over this basic domain infrastructure in the areas of customer to customer (C2C), business to business (B2B) and customer to business (C2B) transactions.

TPS has been a strategic technology partner of 1LINK since its inception and actively provides software enhancement, customization and support services to 1LINK. IBFT is amongst the initiatives from TPS on the 1LINK platform after the successful launch of 1LINK VISA Debit and Acceptance of 1LINK member bank credit cards in the 1LINK switch. “Working together, TPS and 1LINK have introduced various innovative e-Banking services within the financial sector of Pakistan. The synergies of TPS and 1LINK continue to redefine and reshape the e-Banking business in Pakistan on a national basis”, said Mr. Khayyam Mahmood Butt, CEO of 1LINK

About TPS
TPS is a software, systems and consulting firm specializing in e-Banking and e-Payment products, solutions and services.

Cutting-edge power solutions expected in Pakistan as DWP Group and Emerson Network Power Inc. entered into a Distribution Agreement

DWP Group and Emerson Network Power Inc. entered into a distribution agreement. Emerson was founded in 1890 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Over the past 100 years, Emerson has become 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 Group is a business house with core activities in Technology, Logistics and Consumer Electronics. With over 10 years of experience, DWP Technologies Division is a leading provider of end-to-end IT services. It has direct partner status with Dell, Microsoft, CISCO, Oracle, Xerox, GREE and Samsung. Established in 1999, DWP Tech Division serves large enterprises, corporations, small and medium companies and home users and caters Banks, 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.

DWP Tech Division has a footprint that covers all of Pakistan: Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, etc. DWP Tech Division's solution portfolio includes End-to-End Connectivity (CISCO), Enterprise Computing (Dell), Storage Solutions (EMC), Next Generation Middleware and Database Data Warehousing Solutions (Oracle), Messaging and Collaboration (Microsoft), Production Printing (Xerox), Enterprise Content Management (Documentum), IP-based Contact Centers (CISCO), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Professional/ Managed Services (Integrated solutions).

DWP and Emerson partnership is expected to bring the cutting edge power solutions to Pakistan with the best technology and service support.
 

Launch of TestWiz 2007- A complete and cost cutting Test Management Solution by Pi Sigma

TestWiz is a multi-user Test Management Solution designed to allow teams of software developers and testers to manage and track all aspects of a software project. TestWiz streamlines the quality process — from requirements management through test planning, test execution to defect tracking through a centrally shared database hosted by Microsoft SQL Server 2000. The most promising aspects of TestWiz are its cost effectiveness and end-to-end automation for the entire Test Management Process for small to medium sized organizations without loss of efficiency and reliability. It provides almost all the features of market leader tools like Mercury Interactive Test Director with an affordable price for even small scale organizations, as for such organizations, the cost is the bottleneck in their endeavor to achieve Test Management Process Automation.

About Pi Sigma
Pi Sigma Group has been providing its software development solutions and services since 1998. Pi sigma is a CMMi level 2 and ISO 9001:2000 certified group of companies. Pi Sigma has specialized in "Dual Shore" (onshore and offshore) delivery of custom software development services and products to serve its clients belonging from various industries. It serves its clients in key domains like Enterprise Content Management, Portals, Customer Relations Management and Helpdesks by using the technological platforms like IBM Lotus Notes, WebSphere, Java and Open Source.





$100,000 prize won by Cancer Prevention Device –SZABIST Graduate part of the Development Team

During a recent CURE competition, a hundred-thousand-dollar prize was given to Adnan Haider – a graduate of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST)- and his company 'imaGyn' at Duke University for developing a device to facilitate cervical cancer prevention in the developing world. This device, the 'Cerviscope', is a portable colposcope that will cost roughly 95 percent less than comparable technology in US-based hospitals. Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among women. Over 260,000 women die every year from this disease with 80 percent of these cases occurring in the developing world. Although cervical cancer is highly preventable, the problem is neglected by most public health organizations. ImaGyn garnered resounding support from the community at the Duke Hospital and Hospital St. Corix in Haiti during the development of the Cerviscope.

As winners of the competition, the team's company, ImaGYN, will receive $100,000 in startup funds and incubation at the Pratt School of Engineering, including business, technical and legal advice and support for clinical trials.

The group, made up of members from Pakistan, Hong Kong, India, and the United States, expressed their hope for the global community. "We are not here to change the world. Our ambition is to save the lives of 19,000 women in the next five years by helping them get access to cervical cancer screenings."

Cancer Epidemic
Cervical cancer, caused almost exclusively by infection with human papillomavirus (HPV), is the second most common cause of death from cancer among women worldwide. The disease has reached epidemic proportions in some Caribbean countries, where the Pan American Health Organization has found the cervical cancer rates to be at least three times higher than in North America. Cervical cancer is the leading cause of female cancer death in Haiti, which has the highest incidence of the disease.

The disease typically remains in a pre-cancerous state for 10 to 15 years, during which advanced cervical cancer is highly preventable, the group said. A simple visual inspection with acetic acid-a key ingredient of vinegar--is a proven and effective screening method.

The cerviScope Cancer-Screening Device
Based on the findings of Family Health Ministries through the efforts of Duke's David Walmer and Marcus Henderson in Haiti over the last ten years, the new cerviScope device is designed to aid the cancer screening process by providing 8x magnification and white and green light to enhance visual contrast. The team created the device "from scratch" specifically for low-resource environments, making it portable, durable and battery-operated with the option for manual power. The design effort was supported by the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance and Family Health Ministries.

The ImaGyn team intends to market the device for $600. Currently available instruments for cervical screening cost more than $10,000.

"We need more upstream solutions to catch disease in the earliest stages," said Dr. Kathleen Clem, chief of emergency medicine at Duke University Medical Center. "Most importantly, the cerviScope supports the concept of immediate care with its one-day screen-and-treat potential." 
 

MOU for strategic partnership signed between ACCO Pakistan, and Tholons Knowledge Management Services, India

An MoU was signed between ACCO (Association of Call Center Operators- Pakistan) and Tholons Knowledge Management Services Pvt. Ltd. This memorandum of Understanding was made on June 14, 2007.

ACCO and Tholons Knowledge Management Services Pvt. Ltd. have agreed to enter into this Memorandum of Understanding to establish a framework of partnership to enable achievement of their respective objectives.

ACCO will be engaged as a strategic partner to Tholons in Pakistan, and both parties would look to service potential advisory and investment opportunities in Pakistani companies in IT and BPO space. ACCO and Tholons would also work closely with other trade bodies and ministries to help develop the IT & BPO industry in Pakistan.

ACCO and Tholons would be actively involved in the research activity, guiding the Pakistan IT ministry and other trade bodies for having better understanding of the International scenario. The research activities would need to be funded, which ACCO would seek to arrange using its vast network and reputation in Pakistani IT and BPO industry. The research activities will lead to more exposure for Pakistani industry and thus help expand the market and attract more clients/investors to Pakistan.

Tholons has a relationship with BOARD MIT, a leading business intelligence toolkit provider, which can be leveraged by BPO and call center industry. Tholons, through ACCO, would provide access to the toolkit at a discounted price to its member companies.

About Tholons Knowledge Management Pvt. Ltd
Tholons Knowledge Management Services Pvt. Ltd. (Tholons) has its office in Bangalore- India and is represented by its President & Managing Partner, Dr Pradeep K Mukherji. Tholons is an investment and advisory firm that provides services globalization, advisory and investment leverage, and operations management advisory services. Tholons provides extensive knowledge in globalization and outsourcing across a wide army of verticals, Tholons focuses on bringing globalization leverage to equity investments, buyers, suppliers and risk management. Tholons currently advises US and European clients to help them leverage services globalization.
 

Best SEO services provided to a US-based company by EVISION

EVISION has successfully completed a web promotion project for Clary Business Machines – a US-based company. The project was to get the website on top position in Google, Yahoo and MSN through ethical SEO means, without using any spamming tools or false hits. The targeted keywords were Paper Shredder, Paper Shredders, Shredder and Shredders.

EVISION chalked out a plan to apply the tested web promotion methods. EVISION used Quality Content on landing pages, set the title, description and keywords, kept the site updated with prices, products and promotions, submitted to various directory, made link popularity, added forum for interaction and developed a PDF catalog for offline product info, after 4 months of rigorous efforts by the team of SEO, Link Builder and Content Writer.

As a result, the Web site, http://www.shredderwarehouse.com, acquired top position in February, and is still sustaining top position, leaving behind big brands like Office Max, Office Depot and Wikipedia.

This project has offered the client the benefits of free advertisement on Google, Web site maintenance at 1/5th of cost, and quick turnaround time.

About EVISION
EVISION specializes in e-business setup, maintenance and upgrade. It provides various services which include basic and corporate Website development, application installation like live support, newsletter, bogs, knowledge base as well as ECommerce setup using MIVA, VPASP, Make-a-store, Website maintenance, PPC, auction site maintenance, SEO & Web promotion and other services to enhance e-business capability and reduce cost. The company provides free presales consultancy.

About Clary Business Machines
Clary Business Machines, established in 1954, specializes in providing office equipment solutions for today's modern business. Their full line of office products includes digital duplicating systems, fax machines, electronic whiteboards, color printers, office paper shredders and LCD projectors.