Mini Events Dublin resulted in fruitful leads for the participating companies

Pakistan Software Export Board successfully carried out Mini Events from 4th - 11th November, 2007 in Dublin, Ireland. The events comprising of receptions and business networking meetings with leading Irish companies were held in collaboration with the Embassy of Pakistan in Dublin, Ireland Pakistan Business Council (IPBC), South Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Irish IT Industry and various other local partners.

PSEB sponsored 10 leading IT companies to attend the events. During the visit, PSEB officials and delegates from participating IT companies met with the officials of South Dublin Chamber of Commerce and the Irish state development agency Enterprise Ireland. The delegation attended networking sessions hosted by the Ireland Pakistan Business Council and the IT Association of Galway. The PSEB delegation also met with the Pakistan Ambassador to Ireland, H.E. Mrs. Naghmana Hashmi and the Trade Minister Mrs. Zehra Akbari whose efforts in organising the Dublin Mini Events were instrumental.

Mini Events was a major success as Pakistani companies made great inroads with numerous companies and trade facilitation bodies of Ireland. Six major Companies Softech Systems, MSoft, Efrotech, Esolpk, Invaterra and Alp Business Service Management made major contacts with the Irish IT companies and are in process of signing up projects in areas of capital market, payment services for telecom and entertainment industry, web development and technical capability sets to manage outsourced testing process.


Avanza Solutions automated processes at Network International LLC

Network International LLC, a card solutions provider in the United Arab Emirates, is certified by both Visa and MasterCard payments in the Middle East. It is a third party processing vendor with banks, retailers and financial institutes as clients who seek smartcard technology.

These clients are basically member banks and merchants who provide card processing services to their customers. The company infrastructure comprises of various departments, such as customer services, project management, operations and finance.

In a bid to inspire a Customer Centric culture within the organization, Network International felt the need for a comprehensive Customer Relationship Management initiative. A solution that would enable NI personnel to better manage customer relationships and provide personalized service. In addition, it should also incorporate CRM best-practices to efficiently automate and manage internal operations.

Currently, NI does not have a proper process in place to manage customer requirements and interactions. Due to this, NI management is unable to get a complete picture of their customers value. Although conscientious efforts are made to keep a record of data regarding projects and clients, the fact that the processes are not automated, makes it tedious to extract and manage data as and when required.

To automate its processes NI chose Avanza Solutions, a U.S. based company with representation in Spain, Pakistan, the U.A.E. and Qatar. Avanza aims to achieve NIs objectives using their CRM solution UNISON. The solution will provide functionality in the following areas:

• Bank/merchant portal with complete profiles and portfolios, providing various services
• Comprehensive Complaint Management solution
• Lead/Opportunity Management System for managing new requirements
• Centralized Project Tracking tool to give a 360 degree view of activities on projects
• Automated invoice generation and tracking
• Reporting services

Avanza has enthusiastically undertaken this responsibility of fulfilling Network Internationals requirements and are proud to be associated with NI in this project.

About Avanza:
Avanza Solutions is a software services company providing specialized IT products, solutions and services with a global presence. Utilizing its regional offices, constantly growing network of partners across the region and highly skilled team of professionals, Avanza offers a wide range of business and technology solutions to its customers in different areas including CRM and customized development.

ABN AMRO Pakistan contracted TPS to launch Debit MasterCard

ABN AMRO, one of the most reputable foreign banks in Pakistan with over 80 branches covering 24 cities, has closed a deal with TPS to acquire technology for their Debit MasterCard program.

ABN AMRO Debit MasterCard will empower the customer base with enhanced convenience and financial control, through the MasterCard global network which provides worldwide acceptance. ABN AMRO customers will now be able to benefit from 24 million POS terminals in 996,000 locations and more than a million ATMs in 210 countries across all 7 continents; no payment card is more widely accepted globally than MasterCard.

TPS Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd is proud to be a strategic technology partner of ABN AMRO Bank.

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.

 

ikonami announced partnership with Oxford Strategic Consulting (OSC)

ikonami is pleased to announce our partnership with Oxford Strategic Consulting (OSC). OSC, is led by Professor William Scott-Jackson, of Oxford Brookes University. William has written on all aspects of management psychology and people in business and is a regular presenter at major international conferences including the Middle East HR Summit in Abu Dhabi in November 2007.

Oxford Strategic Consulting specialises in assisting organisations in Europe, Middle East and USA with major strategic, performance, organisational and HR challenges. It assists clients to develop strategy, introduce talent management processes, successfully implement change, develop competency frameworks and handle all aspects of HR during M&A activities.

"We are delighted to be working closely with ikonami who have a range of market leading products which allow organisations to take the work we do, especially on Talent Management and Competencies, and consolidate its long term use in the organisation", Professor Scott-Jackson stated.

Kubair A Shirazee, CEO of ikonami, says, "The vast experience and knowledge of OSC, combined with ikonami's leading software tools and implementation services is excellent news for our clients, both current and potential."

About ikonami:
ikonami is one of the leading technology and consulting service providers of Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions. ikonami's highly configurable systems can integrate with existing HR, ERP and payroll systems to deliver enhanced functionality.

ZRG enabled contact centre solution to aid HBFC's customers

House Building Finance Corporation Limited, the oldest housing finance institute of Pakistan has acquired an advanced contact centre solution from ZRG, nation's market leader in contact technology.

HBFC Ltd has launched its Customer Care Contact Centre on a toll free number (0800-42325) to provide prompt and updated information to valuable customers of the Corporation and the general public. The newly established contact centre aims to serve the company's large customer base more efficiently which covers the lower and middle income sections of population that are the backbone of Pakistan's economy. The contact centre will be a major contributor in supporting the recent Ghar Aasan and Shandar Ghar Schemes of HBFC Ltd.

ZRG team studied HBFC's requirements and presented a cost effective solution that is built on the most preferred open standards technology. ZRG seamlessly integrated HBFC's customer database with its contact centre and CRM solution. The solution enables the agent for registering and tracking of all complaints and capturing leads for proper sales management. ZRG provided an integrated complaint management system, an IVR with easy to follow instructions, CTI for providing personalized services to the customers and call recording system for transaction verification and problem resolution.

According to Mr. Zaigham Mahmood Rizvi, Chairman and MD, HBFC Ltd, "The Company aims having its service network in more than 90 cities of the country. The user friendly contact centre service will facilitate needy citizens to discuss and find their housing problems and solutions with HBFC Ltd. This Customer Care Contact Centre will perform as an information providing centre to facilitate the existing and intending customers of HBFC Ltd. and will provide detailed information to common citizens about Corporation's products, investment policies and procedure. ZRG has done an excellent job by delivering us a highly flexible and advanced platform that will help us achieve greater customer satisfaction."

Mr. Ayub Butt, CEO, ZRG International said, "Customer satisfaction can be increased by providing prompt services, personalized attention, and quality interaction to the customer. We have provided cost-effective, yet most advanced technology for the contact centre that will help the HBFC representatives carry out a managed customer interaction through automation, integration and complete documentation."

About House Building Finance Corporation Ltd:
HBFCL was established as a statutory federal body in 1952 under companies ordinance 1984 (XL-VII of 1984) with the objective of providing financial assistance for the construction of houses. Ensuing HBFCL's scope also branched out into diverse dominions like purchase, repair and renovation of houses. Later on HBFCL's mission was evermore reformed to specifically target the needs of the low and middle income strata of the country by providing Small and Medium Housing (SMH) Solutions, hence successfully providing skilled and user friendly service at affordable costs.

About ZRG:
ZRG is an IT and Telecom solution provider and system integration company that has been providing end-to-end international contact centre technologies since 1994. Using open standards technology approach, ZRG contact centre solutions can be integrated with all industry standard PABX and ACD systems such as Avaya, Cisco, Siemens and Nortel. Due to the reliability and cost-effective approach, ZRG solutions are being used by millions of users.


Ovex took over the IT division of Servis Sales Group

Ovex Technologies, the largest third party offshore Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider in Pakistan, has been chosen by Servis Sales Corporation (SSC) to provide a complete IT solution for their organization. Servis Group is Pakistan's largest footwear manufacturer and exporter. Ovex announced yesterday, that they have been given the opportunity to look after the complete IT division of Servis Sales Corporation. The primary objective of this venture is to provide SSC with state of the art IT Infra-structure Support, Network Connectivity, E-Mail Hosting and Management, Asset and Configuration Management, Help Desk, Standard Operating Procedures, IT Procurement and Stock Inventory and Disaster Recovery.

Faisal Khan, the COO of Ovex said that, Ovex feels very enthusiastic about this project and considers it the step in the right direction. We look forward to a great partnership with Servis by providing customized solutions for their company. He further said, Outsourcing results in significant savings but reliability of the partners is the concern of the day. Ovex tech has been able to make its presence felt and though we are proud of this accomplishment, this is just the beginning. We are now planning and taking steps to address the needs of local outsourcing market, which I feel has great potential.

About Ovex:
Founded in January 2003, Ovex has made a name for itself in the international Business Process Outsourcing market as a company to be relied upon and trusted with such high profile names as IBM, Cablevision and Taco Bell in their portfolio.

Ovex entered into the domestic outsourcing market in January 2006, taking over the call center operations of Paktel and Instaphone, two pioneer cell phone operators in Pakistan.


MITCEF-OPEN BAP-2007 a huge success

MITCEF's Business Acceleration Program was launched in August with the objective of assisting IT and ITES companies in Pakistan to grow to the next level by providing expert coaching and mentoring.

A total of 20 companies from across Pakistan took part in MITCEF-OPEN BAP 2007. All of them went through intense coaching and mentoring with local and foreign entrepreneurs. The process enabled them to look at weak areas, change strategy, re-construct business plans and review what they had done thus far and what the roadmap should be for the future.

The evening started with the five finalists of BAP-2007 (Alchemy Technologies, AutoSoft Dynamics, Sofizar, Softech Systems and Tohfay Pakistan ) presenting their Business Acceleration Plans to the judges that included Professor Ken Morse, MD MIT Entrepreneurship Center and senior faculty members Mr. Bill Aulet and Mr. Imran Sayeed (VP, Financial Services, Keane) and other representatives from leading IT companies.

The MITCEF-OPEN BAP-2007 announced Sofizar as the Winner while Alchemy was the runner-up.

"The BAP this week in Karachi exceeded all my expectations." Said Mr. Ken Morse,


Lakson Business Solution implemented Hospital Management System at Kidney Center, Karachi

Karachi Kidney Center awarded a Rs. 1.8 million Hospital Management System (HMS) project to Lakson Business Solution. HMS is a complete application suite for the hospital industry. It will automate various departments by converting legacy applications to state of the art .Net technology. The objective of the project is to provide enhanced business process, a paperless environment, improved performance and organization wide integration among departments.

As an area of medical informatics, the aim of HMS is to achieve the best possible support of patient care and administration by electronic data processing.

About HMS:
HMS is a comprehensive, integrated information system designed to manage the administrative, financial and clinical aspects of a hospital.


Secure Bytes nominated for security category at APICTA 2007

The Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) aims to increase ICT awareness in the international community and assist in bridging the digital divide.

The APICTA network has 14 member-economies and provides an international awards program to showcase innovation, creativity and excellence in ICT in the Asia Pacific region. APICTA provides the regions ICT entrepreneurs with valuable networking and product benchmarking opportunities, fosters ICT innovation and creativity, promotes economic and trade relations and facilitates technology transfer. APICTA nominees gain access to valuable business matching opportunities through exposure to venture capitalists and investors.

Singapore will be hosting the 7th international APICTA Awards from 2629 November 2007.Following the launch of their software Secure Auditor Secure Bytes has been nominated to represent Pakistan in the security category at the APICTA 2007.

About Secure Bytes:
Secure Bytes Inc is an IT security company having expertise in the domain of Packaged Security Software and IT Consulting Services in Auditing and Vulnerability Assessment category.