TECH TALK October & November 2017

Transcription

1 TECH TALK October & November 2017 ICT AWARDS October 2017 organised its 14th annual ICT Awards Ceremony during a grand event on October 27, 2017 at Serena Hotel Islamabad. UBL was the corporate sponsor of the event while other sponsors included PSEB, CARE Pvt Ltd, Systems Limited, Inbox and 7Vals. The annual event brings stars of Pakistan s technology sector on a platform to celebrate innovation and excellence. The aim is to recognize the efforts of outstanding achievers that have been making waves both locally and internationally. The event was attended by a mix of industry leaders and fresh entrepreneurs innovating in the tech sector. There were also representatives from the government, the business sector, professionals, academia and students. Entries for the P@SHA ICT Awards were received from all over the country and judging was held in Karachi Lahore and Islamabad. Chairman P@SHA, Barkan Saeed, said on this occasion that As a community, P@SHA is growing and becoming stronger each day and much of the credit goes to the talented professionals and companies that have been a part of the tech industry. The P@SHA ICT Awards are one of the many ways we bring the community together to network, collaborate, and encourage innovative ways of solving problems. As part of the event this year, there was also a panel discussion moderated by Shehryar Hydri the newly appointed Secretary General of P@SHA. Panelists included Chairman Barkan Saeed, Immediate Past Chairman Syed Ahmad, Dr Shoab Khan Founder & CEO of CARE and Jehan Ara. The discussions were wide ranging and included industry-government and industry-academia collaboration, the effort required to enable policy change and the growing startup landscape. There were also questions and feedback from the audience. Complete list of winners on page 15 1

2 APPOINTS SHEHRYAR HYDRI AS SECRETARY GENERAL 2 October

3 WORLD BANK GROUP AND SDPI ROUNDTABLES 26 September Islamabad & 9 November Karachi 2017 The World Bank Group and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) organised roundtable meetings to to identify challenges that have limited trading activity among existing and potential exporters especially small, medium and women-led enterprises, and non-traditional exporters in the context of Pakistan s falling export competitiveness and rising trade and current account deficit. Chairman P@SHA Barkan Saeed and Secretary General Shehryar Hydri attended the meetings along other staff members to share industry concerns and recommendations. These are expecteded to be communicated to the relevant policy makers at the Ministry of Commerce, which is currently seeking stakeholder inputs to develop a new Strategic Trade Policy Framework. 3

4 MEMBERS MEET DR. ARSHAD ALI 2 October 2017 P@SHA Members met Dr. Arshad Ali, Executive Director of HEC over a hi tea sponsored by Code Informatics on 2 October 2017 in Islamabad. Discussion revolved around industry academia linkages and how can HEC help in ensuring better quality of IT graduates joining the industry every year. New academic areas of AI, big data, animation and gaming were also discussed. A collaborative approach where industry can actively engage and contribute in universities was suggested. The P@SHA CEO Meetings aim to provide an informal setting for the top most management of our membership base to discuss industry issues, identify synergies, share ideas & solutions. It provides an opportunity for networking and sharing ideas on how to improve the industry and ensure sustainable growth. P@SHA MEETUP KARACHI 8 November 2017 Secretary General P@SHA, Shehryar Hydri invited Karachi and Hyderabad members for an informal discussion cum meet up on 8 November 2017 at the P@SHA Karachi office. He shared his agenda for the year which included working towards export income tax exemption beyond 2019, development of government land on public private model to provide low cost quality infrastructure to all IT companies and duty drawbacks for exporters anywhere from 5-8%. He updated members on the discussions with MoITT, PITB, KPITB and Ignite. The KP government has started work on the SEZ which is expected to provide infrastructure to our industry at par with facilities in Malaysia or UAE. He is hopeful other provinces will follow the SEZ model for IT & ITES. 4

5 SIGNS MOU WITH WI-TRIBE 28 September 2017 is pleased to announce that it has signed a MoU with Witribe Pakistan. This will enable P@SHA Members to get discounted rates from Witribe on CIR Internet. The main highlights of the MOU are: 1. Wireless CIR Internet at the price of 1400 to 1700 PKR/MBps all over Pakistan. 2. FREE one month Trial of Wi-tribe internet 5

6 ICT AWARDS 2017 JUDGING October 2017 conducted ICT Awards 2017 judging in Lahore on 18th at CTO247, Islamabad on 19th at DPL Pvt Ltd. and Karachi on 19th at The NEST I/ O. There were three panels of judges in each city, we are thankful to the following individuals for investing their resources and helping us adjudicate the ICT Awards Abdul Aziz, Adnan Arif, Afaque Ahmed Ahmed Ayub, Amin Ansari, Ashraf Kapadia Athar Imran, Badar Khushnood, Barkan Saeed Faisal Khan, Faizan Siddiqi, Haider Altaf Janjua Hasan Mubarak, Jawwad A. Farid, Khurram Samad, Murtaza Zaidi, Owais Zaidi, Raza Matin Shahjahan Chaudhary, Shehryar Hydri Syed Ahmad, Syed Ali and Talha Munir Khan 6

7 FINTECH INNOVATION ICT AWARDS JUDGING 21 October 2017 UBL partnered with ICT Awards 2017 to add a Special Award Category of Fintech Innovation. The winner of this category got cash prize of PKR 500,000/- and a chance to work with UBL to strengthen their solution. This category sought applicants who are working on innovative solutions that enhance the experience of banking customers, grow access of banking products or improve internal processes of financial institutions for better serving their customer demands. The three areas this category focuses on included 1. Best Fintech of the Year 2. Payments Innovation for accessing formal Banking Products 3. Data Analytics Innovation for the Financial Sector Special judging session for the Fintech Innovation Category of P@SHA ICT Awards was conducted on 21 October. The judges for this session were Omer Ehtisham, Samina Rizwan and Ammar Waheed. SERVICE SALES CORPORATION TO USE CANDELA M FOR THEIR MANUFACTURING UNIT LumenSoft Technologies announced that Service Sales Corporation has selected and deployed Candela M for their manufacturing unit. A product of LumenSoft, Candela M enables manufactures to track the entire production process from buying of raw materials to the delivery of finished goods. Candela M is fully integrated with Candela RMS, this means the manufacturing process gets integrated with retail operations, and the finished goods on completion are pushed in the warehouse of Candela RMS. On this occasion, Abdul Aziz CEO LumenSoft said, We are very pleased to welcome such a prestigious customer and believe Candela M will play a role in streamlining the manufacturing processes of Service Sales Corporation. I would like to thank our employees who have been working hard to get all manufacturing procedures in place in order to satisfy the required standards for manufacturing software. 7

8 PAKISTAN S FIRST-EVER PYCON! 40% Discount for P@SHA Members P@SHA brings a unique opportunity for it s members to be involved in Pakistan s first ever PyCon and discover the tremendous opportunities in the world of Python. Companies can promote their brand as sponsors or avail heavily discounted rates for their teams. In the last five years, Python has been the fastest growing programming language in the world. Pakistan s burgeoning Python community is gearing up to organize its first-ever PyCon event, which cannot be possible without your support and participation. Register before November 25 to avail 40% discount on your ticket. P@SHA members simply need to write their company name and membership number in this section in the form: Your expectation(s) from the conference. Your membership will be confirmed by P@SHA for the PyCon organisers and the discount will be applicable while making the payment on the date of the event. ( Reserve your spot today! ) Event overview Venue: Fast-NU, Lahore Date: December 16, 2017 There is something interesting for everyone! Sponsors: This is an opportunity for Pakistan s tech industry to actively collaborate and share resources making this a milestone moment and a chance for your organization to be one of the pioneers in the middle of it all. To know more about PyCon PK s sponsorship packages; info@pycon.pk Call: Ayesha Mehmood I Nudrrat Khawaja I Students: Meet the CEO s and other professionals of the IT industry and pave the way for a career in working with the language of the future. Software Professionals: Missing out on the world s most popular programming language? Discover how Python is innately suited to applications in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, and what that means for you. Pythonistas: Level up your Python skills by meeting other Pythonistas. Forge new connections and help build a stronger tech community in Pakistan, united around the programming language you love. REGISTER TODAY! (Limited Spots) CHAIRMAN P@SHA AT 36TH PSEB BOARD MEETING 20 October 2017 Chairman P@SHA Barkan Saeed at the 37th PSEB Board Meeting in Islamabad on 20 October

9 FIVE LITTLE KNOWN BUT IMPORTANT BENEFITS FOR IT/ITES COMPANIES IN PAKISTAN BY BARKAN SAEED 12 November 2017 There are certain benefits for IT/ITeS companies in Pakistan. Most of them are unknown by most companies in Pakistan. I will briefly write on some of those benefits so you can start using them today. # 1 Yes You can Open a USD Bank Account When you visit a bank and ask them to open a bank account in USD for your company, you will not be allowed to do so by the bank most of the time. However, there is a state bank rule which you can show to the bank to allow you to open a bank account in USD. You can show this rule to bank to open the bank account. The only limitation is that whenever your inward remittance comes in, you will be only allowed to keep 35% of your earnings in it. You must be registered with state bank as exporter to avail this facility You can check the rule here #2 Exchange Rate on Exports Your export income is automatically converted into PKR by Bank accounts. This forces you to use the state bank rate. Furthermore, the banks charge anywhere from 30 paisa to 3 PKR per USD as their profit when converting your USD. We at P@SHA have done some deals with banks like HBL where you get max 30 paisa deduction. However, it is still not enough. Here I would like to tell you about another secret which I myself came to know a few months back and this can be a big money saver for you. Exporters can retain their export proceeds for a period of 3 days and they can sell to any authorized dealer. They don t need to do it with their own bank at all. chapter12.htm#7 It is permissible for exporters to retain the export proceeds including Advance Payments in foreign currency with an Authorised Dealer in Pakistan for three working days and to sell the same within this period to any Authorised Dealer. The foreign currency so retained shall be kept by the Authorised Dealers in Special Exporters Account outside their Exposure limits. This simply means that they can get their export proceeds converted into PKR by a bank of their choice or a dealer in the open market. Please note however that state bank registration as exporter is must for benefit #1 and benefit #2 #3 Special Rate for Internet All Software companies require high speed internet. The term used for this is CIR Internet which means it is not shared between users. Wi-tribe, Multinet and Mobilink have a deal for software companies which allows them to give 50% discount on their listed prices for IT/ITeS company registered with P@SHA. Using these deals you can get CIR Internet as low as 1300 PKR/MBps #4 Export Refinancing There is a scheme where exporters can get loan from commercial banks for upto 180 days. This scheme is beneficial when you have an order to complete and you need financing for it. Normal rate for IT/ITeS is 11% however, you can get rebate of 0.5% to 1.5% based on your export performance. Please note that banks still require a collateral and IP (copyrights, trademarks) are not considered a collateral in Pakistan yet. #5 Software Parks Buildings that have only software companies can be declared as Software Parks. This allows them to get industrial rate tariff which is significantly cheaper than the commercial rates. This is hugely beneficial for companies as it reduces the electricity bills for them especially data centers that require 24 hour electricity and cooling. P@SHA is working with government to bring more benefits to IT/ITeS companies like subsidized long term financing rates, lower export refinancing rates, cash rewards for exporters, special economic zones for IT/ITeS companies, reduction of custom duties and subsidized electricity rates. 9

10 ZRG RECEIVES GOLD MEDAL AT 5 TH FPCCI AWARDS 4 October 2017 ZRG International has been awarded a gold medal in recognition of an outstanding performance during the year 2016 by FPCCI. This is the 5 th time that ZRG has been awarded with this prestigious title. During a recently held ceremony at PC Hotel Karachi, FPCCI acknowledged the private sector companies of the country for their services and achievements. The chief guest for the event was Honorable Governor Sindh, Mr. Muhammad Zubair. The ceremony was attended by a number of prominent personalities of the country. ZRG is a recognized leader in the highly specialized CTI and business communication solutions space. The company has successfully deployed enterprise level projects for mission critical contact centers in the Middle East, Pakistan and Africa. These solutions are providing information and services to millions of users through live agent and self-service applications. FPCCI has been playing an active role in advocating and voicing the aspiration of private sector. Recognition awards from Government bodies like FPCCI could be classified as a motivational factor for private sector like ICT, which keeps it striving and inspired towards the achieving greater heights. For over 22 years, ZRG has been providing exceptional services to its clients and has maintained long term relations with a progressive customer base. With an innovative line of ICT solutions and the high quality professional services, the medal awarded to ZRG reconfirms and strengthens its position in the industry. ZRG is servicing clients with state of the art technology solutions and systems for leading banks as well as prestigious organizations including TCS, PSO, Indus Motor, Sanofi, EFU Life, Allianz, MultiNet, PTCL and many others. TPS AWARDED AT 5 TH FPCCI AWARDS 4 October 2017 Pakistan's most promising companies were celebrated on the evening of October 04, 2017 at the 5th FPCCI Achievement Awards by the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry. TPS is proud to announce that it was honored with the FPCCI Achievement Award for its Payaxis Payment Gateway Solution. The solution was implemented for JazzCash to provide a convenient and secure online payments platform to their customers. The Achievement Award is a special recognition awarded to companies that have done exceptionally well in their respective fields and created an impact in society. The award further strengthens TPS' position as a progressive company that is committed to continuous innovation and superior payment experience. Speaking about the award, Shahzad Shahid, CEO TPS, stated, "TPS continues to be recognized by the industry as excelling in the cards & payments space. This medal belongs to every member of the TPS Family who has built the company brick by brick so much so that it is now a trusted name in digital payments." Jaffar Shirazi, Head of Digital Partnerships & Mobile payments, JazzCash said, "We congratulate TPS on winning this prestigious industry award. Their solution has enabled JazzCash Online Payment Gateway to bring convenience to the people of Pakistan. As online shopping is now more convenient and secure, the ecommerce industry is taking off in the country and JazzCash is proud to be playing a key role in helping the industry shape up." 10

11 BANK NIZWA SUCCESSFULLY GOES LIVE WITH IRIS MONEY TO LAUNCH DIGITAL WALLETS EXD IMPLEMENTS SAP AT PABC October 2017 Excellence Delivered(ExD) successfully implemented the One- Stop-Shop (CRM, Finance, Purchasing, Production, Sales, MRP & Banking) SAP Business One ERP Solution at Pakistan Aluminum Beverage Cans Limited. SAP HANA will adapt to the growth of PABC without operation or user restrictions and storage limitations. The consequent ease of access to the required information would enable the team at PABC identify their sales opportunities, launch new products and offer advanced customer support. Improved Business efficiency because of a unified information center will help with decision making and generate new business for the organisation. PABC will experience enhanced business control with the fully customized dashboards showing real-time updates, alerts, reminders and statistics. The ExD support team will ensure that PABC s journey towards transformation and innovation remains unhindered. TPS announced that Bank Nizwa, Oman s first dedicated Islamic bank, has successfully launched its wallet program on TPS IRIS Money platform to offer digital wallets & payment services to its customers. Mobile is now becoming the primary channel for most consumers globally, driving more commerce than any other channel. With mobile penetration of more than 150%, Oman has a huge potential for Mobile Financial Services. The Central Bank of Oman (CBO) has strategized the country s digital payments road map to tap into this omni -present channel. With the launch of national wallet program by CBO, Oman s digital financial penetration will grow manyfold, acting as catalyst of conversion to cash-light commerce. Capitalizing on this opportunity with IRIS Money, Bank Nizwa has successfully launched mobile wallets, providing seamless, convenient and fast payment options to its customers. Mobile wallet are serving as a digital extension of the bank s services, enabling the bank to expand its market reach, acquire new customers and unlock new revenue streams. Arif Al Zaabi, Acting Head of Retail Banking at Bank Nizwa said, Mobile banking continues to be one of the fastest growing forms of digitization, representing a highly efficient method of conducting transactions for banking customers. We are proud to be one of the first banks to provide e-wallet services in the sultanate. Our new e- wallet service merges this effective payment service with the principles of Islamic finance, offering a wide-range of seamless money transfer options. Along with this innovative technology, we are ensuring that every interaction customers have with our e-wallet is convenient, secure, and fast no matter where they are. 11

12 GITEX October th Gitex Technology Week was held at World Trade Center Dubai 8-12 October Several delegates from Pakistan were at the exhibition and conference to meet customers and partners from around the world including MENA, North America, Europe, Asia and Far East. 3RD MOBILE COMMERCE & DIGITAL BANKING SUMMIT 18 October DISRUPT 4-5 November 2017 The Mobile Commerce & Digital Banking Summit & Exhibition, organized by the The Professionals Network (TPN) took place on 18th, October, 2017 at the Marriot Hotel Karachi. The conference covered areas like diverse skill blend of industry professionals offers the best knowledge and expertise found today in the fast evolving major national and international event world. 3rd Mobile Commerce & Digital Banking Summit held in Karachi. s technology incubator The NEST i/ o organized a two day conference titled 021Disrupt on 4-5 November in Karachi at a local hotel. The conference speakers included Sam Mallikarjunan Executive Strategist, HubSpot, Alden Richards Consultant, Brown University, Jeffrey Paine Founding Partner, Golden Gate Ventures, Enis Hulli Venture Partner, 500 Startups Istanbul, Charles Ludwig Investment Manager Oman Technology Fund/Wadi Accelerator, Riyad Abou Jaoudeh Executive Director, Middle East Venture Partners, Felipe Milan Community Development Manager SendGrid and Khurram Jamali Country Lead Pakistan at Google Dr Syed Ismail Shah discussed the future scope of IoTs, smart cities and the role of Pakistan s mobile operators in this regard. He said that IT and Telecom development are the top priority of the government due to its essential role in overall progress of a country in today s world. He also mentioned the number of initiatives MoITT has taken in the recent past to accelerate the IT growth in Pakistan. Dr. Ismail Shah said : The MoITT and PTA has a much clearer vision or welldeveloped thought process for the development of IoT and smart cities and has discussed it in its Vision

13 MEETS MD KPITB 3 November 2017 Chairman P@SHA Barkan Saeed and Vice Chairman P@SHA Haider Janjua met Managing Director KPITB Dr. Shahbaz Khan to discuss challenges and opportunities for IT & ITES industry. P@SHA MEETS TARIQ IKRAM EX-CHIEF EXECUTIVE TDAP 26 October 2017 LAHORE MEETUP 28 September 2017 CEC Members Asif Peer, Ahmed Ayub and Shahzad Shahid met past TDAP Chairman Tariq Ikram on 26 October 2017 at the TDAP head office in Karachi. Ayub Ghuari joined the meeting from TDAP's Lahore office. The meeting aimed to discuss the upcoming TDAP conference and how the IT & ITES sector can utilize trade offices of Pakistan missions around the world. P@SHA Lahore member meetup led by CEC member Badar Khushnood was held on 28 September. The group decided to hold regular monthly meetups for the larger IT industry (including but not limited to freelancers) of Lahore and neighbouring cities. Badar Khushnood said In addition to general networking, we hope to have constructive and pragmatic discussions around further growing the IT industry and solving our problems collectively. 13

14 MEETS PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION OF PUNJAB 23 OCTOBER 2017 participated at the Punjab IT Policy meeting of Planning & Development Commission of Punjab on 23 October was represented by Chairman Barkan Saeed, Secretary General Shehryar Hydri, ex Chairman & CEC Member Naseer A Akhtar and CEC Member Syed Ali. JUMPSTART PAKISTAN S LAUNCHPAD17 12 October 2017 Chairman P@SHA Barkan Saeed speaking to participants at JumpStart Pakistan s LaunchPad17 in Islamabad on 12 October

15 ICT AWARDS 2017 WINNERS & RUNNERUPS 27 October 2017 Best in Application Tools & Platforms Runner Up: 7Vals EZ Enterprises Winner: Appricot Studio ConsoliAds Best in Communications Winner: Contegris (Pvt) Ltd Intellicon Best in E-Learning Runner Up: Netsol Technologies Ltd. ICAN s Training Portal Winner:Knowledge Platform Learn Smart Classroom Best in Financial Industry Application Runner Up: E-Processing Systems Private Ltd. One Load Runner Up: Netsol Technologies Ltd. NFS Ascent Winner: Avanza Solutions Cipher Best in Government & Public Sector Winner: LMKT (Private) Limited VO8 Runner Up: National Radio & Telecom Corporation CIS Runner Up: RAR Multibiz Services Pvt. Ltd. Lady Health Worker LHW Best in E-inclusion and Community Winner: Transparent Hands Crowdfunding Platform in Healthcare Best in Media & Entertainment Technologies Runner Up: Snapture.pk Winner: Cricingif Best in Research & Development Runner Up: NUST College of E & ME OphthaHelp Winner: NUST College of E & ME IntelliHealth Best in Retail and Supply Chain Management Winner: Bramerz FISHRY Best in Security Application Runner Up: LMKT Pvt. Ltd Map View Winner: Trillium Information Security Systems T- Eye Threat Intelligence Platform Best in Tourism & Hospitality Winner: Fetch Sky PeekabooGuru Best Startup Runner Up: Consumer Facilitation Technologies Runner Up: Cricingif Winner: Neurostic Pvt. Limited Best Tertiary Student Project Runner Up: NUST PNEC ENENT LV THREE PHASE AUTOMATIC LOAD BALANCING Runner Up: NUST College of E & ME, Smart Health Monitoring of the Elderly using Smart Sensors Winner: Institute of Integrative Biosciences, CECOS University, Peshawar NoColi Innovation in Fintech (Special Category Sponsored by UBL): Beat Fintech of the Year Winner: CreditFix Payments Innovation Winner: Oscar Data Analytics Winner: Love for Data Best in Service Innovation Runner Up: QuickStart Pvt. Ltd Winner: EfroTech Services Best in Mobile Application Runner Up: WeRplay Run Sheeda Run Runner Up: 10Pearls Pvt. Ltd Spyd Winner: Fetch Sky PeekabooGuru Best in Animation Winner: WeRplay Best in Project Management Runner Up: 10Pearls Pvt. Ltd. Winner: Systems Limited Best in BPO Runner Up: Systems Limited Winner: Ovex Technologies Pvt Limited Best in Managed Services Runner Up: Trillium Information Security Systems Winner: Systems Limited Best in Gender Diversity Runner Up: WeRplay Winner: Xgrid, Co. Best in Brand Development RUnner Up: Xgrid, Co. Winner: Cricingif Best in HR Excellence Runner Up: Systems Limited Runner Up: 10Pearls Pvt. Ltd. Winner: WeRplay Best in Social Media (Non IT Company) Winner: COMPETITIVE EDGE DIGITAL Best in Social Media (IT Company) Winner: Bramerz Best in CSR Winner: Maison Consulting & Solutions Best in Application Tools & Platform Runner Up: 7Vals EZ Enterprises Winner: Appricot Studio ConsoliAds 15

16 CHAIRMAN VISITS STP FIRE AFFECTEES 26 October 2017 Chairman Barkan Saeed visited companies who had to shift their offices due to the devastating fire at STP 3 last month. Companies complained the new buildings they have shifted to do not have an STP status therefore are subject to regular utility and rental charges, the Chairman assured the companies that P@SHA is talking to MoITT to grant STP status to these buildings. CHAIRMAN P@SHA BARKAN SAEED WAS THE CHIEF GUEST AT COMSATS WAH VISIOSPARK2017 Chairman P@SHA Barkan Saeed was the Chief Guest at COMSATS Wah VisioSpark2017 competition, he distributed trophies to the winning participants and faculty. Secretariat: 14th Floor DPL Pvt Ltd, ISE Tower Jinnah Avenue, Islamabad, Pakistan Tel: Regional Office: Office 301 CitiView Plot 157, BYJCHS Shaheed e Millat Road, Karachi, Pakistan Tel: secretariat@pasha.org.pk, services@pasha.org.pk, sg@pasha.org.pk 16