News and Press Releases

AbacusConsulting Launches AbacusCloud (NGO)

AbacusConsuting, signed a strategic alliance agreement with Exelsys, UK, a leading global provider of specialized new Cloud computing platform.

The contract was signed by Mr. Ali Shaukat, Director AbacusConsulting and Mr. Kyriacos Fiakkas, CEO, Exelsys, at a ceremony held at AbacusConsulting's Head Office. Also present on the occasion were, Mr. Asad Ali Khan, President, AbacusConsulting, Ms. Fatima Asad-said, Director, AbacusConsulting, and Mr. Abbas Ali Khan, Partner, AbacusConsulting.

The partnership will enable AbacusConsulting to deliver AbacusCloud to customers in Pakistan, UAE, and Afghanistan.

National Bank of Pakistan selects IBM for Business Continuity Services

National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has selected IBM (NYSE:IBM) for Business Continuity and Resiliency Services (BCRS) to ensure uninterrupted services and protection of crucial data in the event of a disruption. The new agreement enables the bank to meet the stringent resiliency requirements of the State Bank of Pakistan and reduce the need for split-second decision making during an emergency.

The National Bank of Pakistan is the largest commercial bank operating in the country. It recently redefined its role and has moved from a public sector organization into a modern commercial bank. Similar to many institutions its size, NBP did not have the resources to maintain and manage a facility in another geographic location, so the company looked to IBM to consolidate its centralised servers from different locations around the country, to one centralised server.

"National Bank of Pakistan ITD took a landmark initiative in June 2011 to consolidate all the twelve regional centers into a centralized location. To mitigate the risks of having all the data in a centralised environment and to have proper disaster recovery and business continuity we selected IBM BCRS.  We selected the vendor that has the relevant expertise and capability to provide business continuity services required by EBS" said Mr. Mahmood Siddiqui, CIO of NBP.

The IBM solution will equip NBP with an improved processing capability, enable the bank to run its core banking and payment solutions applications with a round the clock availability and allow the Bank to the meet challenges of any site issues through a disaster recovery setup. IBM will also  ensure a highly available IT infrastructure as well as providing NBP a Disaster Recovery Site – as mandated by the State Bank of Pakistan.

Today's marketplace is defined by intense competition, consolidation, globalization and increased government intervention all contributing to a more challenging environment for banks to operate.

IBM is driving the strategic use of technology inside banks like the NBP to gain real-time visibility of risk positions in order to more quickly and nimbly respond to changes in market conditions."Companies are increasingly turning to IBM's Business Continuity and Resiliency Services to plan, implement and manage IT operational risk management strategies," said Adnan Siddiqui, Country Sales Manager, IBM Pakistan. "By helping reduce the impact of particular risks, IBM is helping to bring peace of mind to the National Bank of Pakistan and its customers."

The agreement was signed in the second quarter of 2011.

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About National Bank National Bank of Pakistan is the largest commercial bank operating in Pakistan. Its balance sheet size surpasses that of any of the other banks functioning locally. It has redefined its role and has moved from a public sector organization into a modern commercial bank. The Bank's services are available to individuals, corporate entities and government. While it continues to act as trustee of public funds and as the agent to the State Bank of Pakistan (in places where SBP does not have a presence) it has diversified its business portfolio and is today a major lead player in the debt equity market, corporate investment banking, retail and consumer banking, agricultural financing, treasury services and is showing growing interest in promoting and developing the country's small and medium enterprises and at the same time fulfilling its social responsibilities, as a corporate citizen. For further information about National Bank Pakistan, please visit www.nbp.com.pk

About IBM
For more information about IBM please visit: http://www.ibm.com

Embracing "Social Business" in Your Workplace

In today's business climate, companies are facing more pressure to accomplish work faster, more efficiently, and with fewer resources. This challenge has caused companies to rethink the strategies they have in place and the models by which they run.

Improving the way we work isn't about working harder - it's about working smarter.

In the past decade, the workplace has undergone a radical transformation. We've all seen a generational shift in work styles, and the rate of change has been dizzying. As a new generation of social media-savvy workers and students have emerged, social networking tools are quickly becoming a staple in the enterprise. With the cultural embrace of everything social, how can companies benefit from adopting a social workplace.

One of the largest Kosher Meat Shop in UK chooses Sabri Technologies for the development of their Ecommerce Web Portal

About Sabri Technologies

Sabri Technologies is a growing Pakistan based Software and Web Development Company. Provides high Quality Software Services for customer. SabriTech have a proven track record in helping clients turn Internet Business ideas into a reality. Successful and profitable online businesses are what we consistently build.

LUMS professor among ‘World’s Top Young Innovators’

Dr Umar Saif, a Professor at Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) has just become the first Pakistani to be recognised as one of the top 35 innovators of the world. The MIT Technology Review has named him as one of their 35 'World's Top Young Innovators for the year 2011'.

No surprise, given his background; Saif started out at Aitchison, went on to Lums, did his Doctorate at Cambridge and ended up doing his Post doctorate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The MIT Technology Review (TR35) recognizes the world's top 35 young innovators that are radically transforming technology as we know and this is the first time in the past decade that a Pakistani has been recognised.

Saif says that he couldn't have done it without Lums. While talking to The Express Tribune, he said, "It would have been difficult at other universities. There are certain things that Lums has gotten right. The faculty is empowered and hiring and promotion is all done based on how research active you are."

"I am tenured at Lums and I cannot be fired. The rest of the universities in Pakistan have more of a teaching focus. Lums lets me do only two to three courses a year. This gives me ample time to do my research." Saif now joins an elite group of researchers and technologists including the likes of Google's Seregy Brin and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

While talking about one of his projects, SMSall.pk; he excitedly explained that it was like Twitter and that it was fanning out at an exponential rate in Pakistan.  "Political parties, media channels; everyone is signing up for it," he exclaimed. SMSall.pk is Pakistan's largest SMS social network and has sent close to 4 billion SMS for users in Pakistan.

Technologies developed by Saif's research group and startups are used by millions of people in the developing world. Other notable technology isBitMate, which enhances the speed of Internet in the developing world using peer-to-peer technology.

The MIT Technology Review selects the top innovators after a rigorous evaluation process. Judges, who are leading experts in their fields from universities such as MIT, Stanford and Harvard, consider hundreds of high-impact researchers and entrepreneurs from all over the world, out of which top 35 are chosen for the award.

When asked about the innovation process. Saif explained that he had a startup incubator called the Saif Centre of Innovation. "It deals with new projects the same way as Silicon Valley," said Saif. People, mostly students come to me when they want to do a startup. "We keep discussing the idea till it is viable. Then we put together a team, distribute equity – I am always a minority stakeholder.  Then I give the startup money to get it off the ground." Saif says that the reason these projects are successful is because he gets the kids to run these companies. And they work 18 hours a day to get their ideas to work.

Saif is working on some incredibly innovative start ups right now. One uses mobile phone cameras to allow illiterate people to understand English. People can take pictures of English text – newspaper clippings, labels, anything – from any cell phone, MMS it to a number and they will get a call back that that reads out the text to them in Urdu.

Best of all, Pakistan need not fear losing Saif to any other country. Because he has no plans to move his home base out of Pakistan. Even though he spends some time visiting other universities to get some work done, Saif says that he is in Pakistan to stay permanently.

Source: http://tribune.com.pk/story/237797/lums-professor-among-35-worlds-top-young-innovators-2011/#.TlR3vRRy_Fd.facebook