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1 Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES TECH TALK facebook.com/pakict I S S U E 1 M A Y I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E : Message from 2 the Chairman Message from 2 the President P@SHA 3 organizes PRA info session P@SHA CEO 4 Forum P@SHA visits 5 SZABIST Success Stories 6 FEATURE STORY P@SHA holds EOGM in Lahore On January 14, 2013 Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA) held an extraordinary General Meeting in Lahore. The agenda of this meeting included discussing P@SHA s short-term and long-term goals, as well as looking into the how to s of carrying out the said plans. The meeting also served to discuss the proposed amendment in P@SHA s fee structure. Following the majority s vote in favor of the proposition, the new P@SHA membership fee rates will be applicable as soon as the approval of DGTO (Directorate General of Trade Organizations) is received. Snaps from the event P@SHA supports GDG DevFestW 9 The amended fee structure is: Corporate Membership PKR 50,000 Associate Membership PKR 25,000 P@SHA Activity Log 11 P@SHA Chairman, Naseer A. Akhtar, gave a presentation at the meeting to elaborate on P@SHA s plans and the foreseen positive impact of these plans. P@SHA plans to continue with its annual research publications, and add on to the list as it grows with time. The aim is to positively counter the dearth in research, while building the industry s knowledge base. New and upcoming initiatives and possible collaborations were also discussed. The meeting concluded with lunch and networking.

2 2 Central Executive Committee (CEC) Chairman Naseer A. Akhtar CEO, Infotech Group Vice Chairman Syed Ahmad CEO, DPL (Pvt) Ltd Treasurer Afaque Ahmed Director, Cloud BPO (Pvt.) Ltd. Secretary General Sultan Hamdani COO, Maison Consulting CEC Members Afaque Ahmed Director, Cloud BPO (Pvt.) Ltd. Ayub Ghauri SVP, Netsol Farzal Dojki CEO, Next Generation Innovation Lutfullah Khan CEO, Autosoft Dynamics Zafar Khan CEO, Sofizar (Pvt.) Ltd Caption S H A T E C H Message from the Chairman The year 2012 was an eventful one for the local ICT industry, despite the overgrown security challenges in the country. The success of the industry was, in fact, very thoroughly reflected at the 9th annual P@SHA ICT Awards Furthermore, the P@SHA Annual Conference 2012 in Lahore, and a series of other events in various cities, were some initiatives that also helped to bridge the gap within the local industry. By far, Arfa Technology Park remained a vibrant venue for ICT development activities supported by Punjab Information Technology Board, under the leadership of Dr. Umar Saif. It is indeed my pleasure to be a humble worker of P@SHA which exercises a key role in taking the local industry forward, despite the prevailing circumstances. We, at P@SHA, are devoted to eradicating the distance between small and large players of the industry so that the local ICT industry can experience a uniform growth in a collaborative mode. And that s what the P@SHA annual conference was aimed at! Furthermore, both, the Message from the President 2013 has so far been interesting to say the least. The Pakistan IT industry ended last year on a high and the stories we have heard so far from P@SHA members have been amazing under the current circumstances. There has been a 100% acquisition of a company in Lahore by a US listed firm; there have been joint ventures formed with several foreign partners; innovative products have been released; stories of angel investment in startups by larger local IT players; incubation facilities have started cropping up in different parts of the country and much much more. Activities in the first quarter have included representation at events in the US, Taiwan and Sweden and workshops and Conference as well as the Annual Awards, are initiatives that encourage both emerging and established talents while bringing them together on a single platform. Each year brings with it new challenges and opportunities. Taking into account the success of the previous year, P@SHA intends to create more opportunities within the industry which can project the growth of the industry in the global market. In the end, I would like to congratulate the winners of APICTA Awards, and a big appreciation for our team of judges and leaders of our delegation who brought back the commitment for APICTA Awards for 2014 in Lahore. This will be a landmark event for promoting Pakistan as a brand as well as a favorite ICT destination. - Naseer A. Akhtar seminars on User Experience, Big Data & Analytics as well as a Civic Hackathon that was held in partnership with Code for America, T2F & Pring. Brainstorming sessions at Universities have brought forth a new energy and ideas. The quarter ended with the P@SHA team under the leadership of the Chairman Naseer Akhtar and CEC members Zafar Khan and Sultan Hamdani went to Taiwan to bid for the Asia Pacific ICT Awards to be held in Pakistan in We won the bid. - Jehan Ara

3 I S S U E 1 P@SHA organizes PRA information session 3 P@SHA organized a Pakistan Revenue Authority (PRA) information session for its member companies in Lahore. The event was held at the Arfa Technology Park. The Chairman PRA, Mr. Iftikhar Qutub, was called in to conduct the session. The session aimed to cover global and local overviews of the taxation system, PRA s performance in recent times and IT enablement for PRA. P@SHA Chairman, Naseer A. Akhtar, opened the information session with a brief introduction of PRA and P@SHA. He then invited Iftikhar Qutub to address the audience. Qutub has over 30 years of experience under his belt, of which 15 years were in tax policy formulation in the Federal Board of Revenue, Islamabad and almost 15 years in tax administration in the field, working as Assistant Collector, Customs & Central Excise to Chief Commissioner, Inland Revenue. He started off his address with a historical perspective, discussing the origin and importance of taxation systems and their evolution across the globe. He laid special emphasis on Value Added Tax, which is a form of consumption tax. Today the entire European Union has adopted this system of taxation. VAT is a complete system of taxation with little or no room for improvement now. He enlightened the audience that while Pakistan adopted VAT in 1990, its true implementation began in 1996; Sindh started collecting sales tax in 2011 and Punjab in July Punjab has received 21 million rupees on account of sales revenue but ever since PRA s establishment, Punjab collected 13 billion rupees in just 4.5 months. Qutub also emphasized on PRA s openness to adoption of IT enablement. He extended an open invitation to the IT industry in this regard, welcoming IT outsourcing proposals, joint venture possibilities and further discussions on the concept of an IT-enabled PRA. The session was followed by a round of questions from the audience. Answering one of the questions from the audience about implication of tax on software exports, the speaker said that PRA will be refunding all commodity taxes for a software house as only hardware, telecommunications and electricity is chargeable in this case. For domestic consumption of software services, consumption tax is liable. Social media services are, however, not taxable. IT companies are advised to refer to PRA s website in order to equip themselves with necessary information regarding the e-registration process and requirement, PRA Act 2012, Rules and Regulations, Compliance Instructions and possible penalties in case of noncompliance. ANNOUNCEMENT New Managing Director appointed for Systems Limited The Chairman of Systems Limited, Mr. Aezaz Hussain announced the appointment of Mr. Asif Peer as the CEO and Managing Director of Systems Limited effective from January 1, Mr. Peer joined Systems Limited in 1995 and moved to its subsidiary in USA, Visionet Systems, in During his tenure at Systems Limited & Visionet Systems, Mr. Peer has provided valuable contributions in the development of solutions and products that acted as a catalyst to the company s phenomenal growth within the US Market. Mr. Asif Peer succeeds Mr. Ashraf Kapadia who has been Systems Limited s Managing Director for the past nine years and now has been appointed to serve as Advisor to the Board of Systems Limited.

4 4 CEOs Forum: On being productive during strikes & dharnas conducted a CEOs /COOs forum on at the P@SHA Secretariat in Karachi. The agenda of the meeting was to have a discussion amongst the CEOs /COOs of member companies to see how they have managed and dealt with the frequent calls for strikes, dharnas (sit-ins), transportation shut downs etc. without losing a significant amount of productivity. The key areas of discussion were: Hardware issues Software related issues Data management Effective communication tools Client communication Human development Keeping the situation under consideration most companies prefer to give their employees a single laptop to work in the office as well as at home. However, it is imperative to have the hard disk and BIOS level security, or encryption of hard disk in such arrangements. Some CEO s revealed that they bore additional expenses to give a second set of hardware to their critical staff to work from home as well as meet timelines. Most companies practice the trend of providing USB dongles to their key staff so that they have internet connectivity around the clock. Regarding data management and software issues, almost all the members revealed that they have switched to web based/centralized solutions for code repositories, corporate s and document sharing (via Google apps, Amazon Cloud or Dropbox etc.) to ensure work is not affected. During uncertain city situation, companies practice a time relaxation policy for employees who turn up late to work. However, the members also practice an alternate policy of observing Saturday as a working day if the office is closed due to a strike/dharna on a weekday. It was unanimously agreed that for noncritical staff, working from home should be discouraged since our cities/homes/ lifestyles have other issues such as load shedding, lack of private working space etc. and that can prevent productive output. A member company also revealed that they are using screen capturing software for the staff that works from home to ensure maximum productivity. Most companies encourage their staff to stay back late in the office premises till the situation is calmer in case of riots/ massive traffic jams instead of panicking. The need for effective communication was highlighted at the forum, whereby the member companies revealed that they have defined escalation processes for their customers on how to reach out to their primary/secondary contact points on such occasions. Interestingly, a few companies are using SMS broadcasting solutions to inform their employees if the office is operating during a strike or whether they are required to work from home to avoid chaos and confusion. In order to cope with strike calls some companies accommodate their key staff in nearby guest houses or hotels the night before a major strike is called. It was also observed that there is a rising trend of shared transportation for employees in a few organizations. Participants agreed that it was important to invest in human development on a consistent level to keep the employees motivated and to retain them for a longer time with their respective companies. S H A T E C H T A L K S H A T E C H

5 I S S U E 1 Team P@SHA visits SZABIST, Karachi Campus Team P@SHA visited SZABIST, Karachi 100 Campus. The session comprised of three speakers: Jehan Ara - President of P@SHA, Shahjahan Chaudhary CEO, Teamants and Jawwad Ahmed Farid CEO, Alchemy Technologies. The SZABISTIANS who attended the session were some of the finest students from the Product Innovation Group, which included the media sciences, computer sciences and also the business studies. The session started with Jehan Ara (President of P@SHA) informing the students about P@SHA and the key services that it offers to its members and the IT sector of Pakistan. She enlightened the audience regarding the idea behind the P@SHA Social Innovation Fund, which aims to help out young entrepreneurs, social activists, students etc. who want to use technology to create social impact in education, culture, health, poverty, or any other community problem. Shahjahan Chaudhary (CEO, Teamants), further explained how to differentiate between innovation, social innovation, entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. He told the audience how there is a shift from pure capitalism to socially positive impacting activities globally and within Pakistan. Jawwad Ahmed Farid (CEO, Alchemy Technologies) informed those present about the various projects that had already been funded by the P@SHA Social Innovation Fund. The speakers gave the students ten minutes to come up with an elevator pitch for a social impact idea which they felt could improve the community in one way or the other. The activity gave the panel members a chance to see some amazing ideas and all the three speakers gave their suggestions to students during the pitching activity. At the end of the session, Jehan Ara distributed souvenirs amongst the students who shared their ideas. Overall, it was quite an exciting, fun and constructive session. Some of the students were asked to submit their ideas formally to the P@SHA Fund for consideration by the jury. 5 P@SHA Chairman meets Secretary IT Naseer Akhtar (Chairman P@SHA, CEO-InfoTech Pvt. Ltd) met Secretary IT, Zafar Iqbal Qadir on March 7, 2013 in Islamabad, Ministry of IT to discuss issues and propose recommendations for the betterment of the ICT industry of Pakistan. The highlights of the meeting were: P@SHA s role in industry development P@SHA s activities and member services Current situation of the industry Proposed roadmap Proposed development plan During the meeting, Naseer Akhtar presented a strong case to Secretary IT about the opportunities and challenges of the ICT industry. He also talked about the positive social impact of the ICT sector and its contribution in the economic growth of Pakistan. Though there was no official agreement but the meeting concluded on a positive note as the Secretary IT promised to help in minimalizing the existing issues and taking keen interest in considering the proposed action plan for the ICT sector of Pakistan.

6 6 GCS wins Brand of the Year Award GCS started 2013 on a positive note by receiving the highly prestigious Brand of the Year award in the category of Security and Surveillance. The ceremony was held at Marriott Hotel, Karachi with high profile people such as Mr. Shaikh Rashid Alam (CEO of Brands Foundation), Mr. Tariq Sayeed (Chairman of Brands Award Council), Mr. Zahid Malik (President of Brands Award Council), and Mr. Fazal Kadir Khan Sherani (President of FPCCI) in the panel. This year, the honor of the Brand of the Year award in Security and Surveillance was given by the Finance Minister, Mr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh to Mr. Rajan (MD of GCS) for the brilliant work done by GCS Private Ltd. On the occasion Mr. Rajan said, This is a huge honor for us, he remarked, It was not that long ago that GCS embarked on this journey of providing state of the art security solution in Pakistan. It seems almost miraculous that we got to this prominent platform in such a short time and we are very grateful to everyone who has been part of this journey. This is a team effort and the credit goes to everyone who is part of GCS. Also present at the event, Mr. Shahid Muneer (CEO of GCS) commented, Getting the Brand of the Year award has reassured us that we need to continue our hard work and provide the latest edge technology in securing Pakistan. I am very proud of our entire team and Inshallah, we will continue on this path. Ciklum acquires Kuadriga - Danish IT Outsourcing Provider Ciklum has announced the acquisition of Kuadriga, a Danish company hosting software development teams for 15 European companies in Kiev, Ukraine in Copenhagen, Denmark. Ciklum is Scandinavia s leading provider of near shore and offshore IT development outsourcing in Ukraine, Belarus and Pakistan. All the Ukrainian staff of Kuadriga has moved to Ciklum s headquarters in Kiev, which already has more than 1,100 employees serving over 200 global clients effective from April 1, This cooperation will create winners only, says Chairman of Kuadriga Lars Woerzner. Our clients and employees will benefit massively from Ciklum s large scale operational capabilities. Ciklum provides state of the art recruitment, retention and process implementation. Everything is executed with an amazing professionalism. Commenting on the acquisition, Ciklum s VP Sales and Marketing Henrik Bak says, Kuadriga s client portfolio matches Ciklum s ambitions perfectly. We are aiming at strengthening our position in the Danish & German speaking markets and looking forward to welcoming both clients and employees into our company. Ciklum and Kuadriga believe the merger will be beneficial for both the companies as it will enable them to share each other s strengths, best practices, competencies, knowledge and assets for optimal results. S H A T E C H T A L K

7 I S S U E 1 Vopium wins GSMA joyn Innovation Challenge 7 GSMA has selected Vopium, a leading innovator in global mobile communications, as the winner of the prestigious GSMA joyntm Innovation Challenge in Copenhagen, Denmark. Vopium's unique Smart Remittance solution was unanimously appointed as the winner by all judges, representing operators, developers and service providers. Inspiration behind Smart Remittance Last year an estimated $70 Billion was sent to India alone. Currently available market solutions are challenging and expensive to use, especially since many receivers do not have bank accounts. Vopium has invented a new solution that increases revenue from remittance and helps operators retain valuable customers. The Smart Remittance solution enables easy and secure transfer of money across borders and helps users keep in touch with loved ones. Enabled by joyn, users can transfer money directly to and from their operator balances. Users without joyn will be able to get money paid out via unique message codes. The Smart Remittance solution is thus fully flexible and scalable across users, devices, markets and operators. "The joyn Innovation Challenge judges felt that the Vopium entry demonstrated how, by using network APIs, the basic functionality of Rich Communications can easily be expanded to provide an effective solution to the opportunity presented by mobile remittance," said Graham Trickey, Senior Director, GSMA. Vopium will showcase the solution during Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona on the GSMA Pavilion s Innovation Laboratory, as well as on Vopium s own stand, at App Planet Hall 8.1 H44. "Beyond the Smart Remittance solution, this award proves that Vopium is an innovative and leading provider of rich communication solutions", says Vopium CEO Tanveer Sharif, "Vopium can today provide partners with proven OTT solutions, as well as innovative solutions and transitions to joyn/rcs based solutions. Lumensoft s CANDELA RMS selected by Servaid Pharmacy Retail Network Servaid Pharmacy Pvt. Ltd. is the largest Pharmacy Retail Chain in Pakistan and has 25 pharmacies across the country. Servaid Pharmacies is owned by Servis Sales Corporation. Servaid evaluated available solutions in the market and finally decided to deploy locally made software solution CANDELA at their pharmacies. CANDELA is already the choice of many top retail brands of Pakistan. Servaid has made this purchase decision to modernize their operations, optimize stocks at pharmacies and to make sure that required medicines are available for their customers on time. LumenSoft s retail management system, CAN- DELA, has been providing efficiency to the retail industry for more than 10 years and has won many awards locally and internationally. Have a Story that needs telling? Let us promote you through our newsletters and digital media. Send in your company s success story at services@pasha.org.pk (For P@SHA members only)

8 8 Abacus celebrates 25 years of transforming business Abacus Consulting - a leading consulting, technology and outsourcing firm commemorated its 25 years of successful business at the Royal Palm Golf & Country Club, Lahore. For over a quarter of a century, Abacus has been offering cuttingedge business solutions, which have enabled its clients to transform their aspiring visions into realities. The event, which was attended by over six hundred guests, was organized to celebrate 25 years of collaboration and synergy between Abacus, its prestigious clientele and strategic partners, setting benchmarks of excellence in the industry. Asad Ali Khan, Founder and President of Abacus welcomed the guests on the occasion, while Paul Batchelor, Board Member of Abacus, who had flown in from London for the occasion, also addressed the audience. On the occasion, Asad Ali Khan said, For more than 25 years, Abacus has been at work to transform businesses into successful enterprises. We offer our clients a unique portfolio of Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing services with end-to-end integrated solutions, duly supported by a solid corporate governance structure and guided by a stringent value system. It is indeed a matter of great personal pride and privilege that the small firm that began its journey in 1987 is today reckoned to be the thought leader and transformation partner of choice by leading business entities in three continents across the globe. Of course, I would give credit for all this to the hardworking, honest and dedicated people of Abacus. TEXPO s President wins CIO of the Year Award The CIO of the Year Award is a recognition of leadership and innovation in technology applications within an organization. The award is certainly an achievement for both Dr. Sarfaraz Alam and TEXPO. From an IT company in the Middle East to a Global Information Technology Services and Solutions Provider, TEXPO offers its expertise in Technology Infrastructure, Application Development and Business & IT Consulting with outstanding track record across the Middle East, Central and South Asia, North America, United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. Dr. Sarfaraz Alam, President TEXPO won the CIO of the Year Award by Teradata at the 11th National IT Excellence Awards at Serena Hotel, Islamabad. Dr. Sarfaraz has been an ardent endorser of the IT sector and has positively contributed to the growth and productivity of TEXPO under his profound leadership. Mr. Robert Ewing (Counselor Economic Affairs) was the chief guest and Mr. Mohammad Tariq Malik (Chairman National Database) was the guest of honor on the occasion. They acknowledged Teradata s efforts in encouraging IT professionals and IT development in Pakistan. They also congratulated all the winners for achieving excellence in their respective fields. The event was largely attended by government officials, influential personalities, CEOs and Heads of IT companies from the national and global tech arena. S H A T E C H T A L K S H A T E C H

9 I S S U E 1 9 P@SHA supports GDG DevFestW 2013 The GDG DevFestW was held at the Sheraton Hotel, Karachi. GDG DevFestW where the W stood for women, was organized by Google Developers Group (GDG) Karachi, sponsored by Google and supported by P@SHA. The agenda of the event was categorically divided into three slots: Green (Beginners to Intermediate Developers) Blue (Intermediate to Advance Developers) Red (Non-technical and Technical) The event started with the recitation of the Holy Quran followed by a welcome speech by the GDG Karachi organizers - Faraz Baig and Syed Shoaib. Next up there was a motivational speech by Badar Khushnood (Pakistan Country Consultant at Google Inc.), who emphasized on cross-platforms while making games and apps to enhance monetization. The Green slot began with the keynote speaker Madiha Chan (Software Engineer at Google Inc.), joining in on Google+ Hangout live from USA. She spoke about Android Development and mentioned how she found Android much easier than Objective C. The next speaker for the Green slot was Aditiya Gupta from Mumbai who enlightened the audience about Android security. Gupta has made his name as a mobile security expert and information security researcher. During the lunch break there was a showcase of Android apps made by female developers. The participants also received certificates for displaying their work during the event. The Blue slot was one of the most interesting sessions as Imran Moinuddin (CEO, NexDegree) took the stage and talked about Performance Engineering. The useful and resource rich talk was followed by an interactive brainstorming and ideas sharing session with Google developers. Lastly, the Red slot started with Imtiaz Noor Muhammad (Manager GBG Karachi) and Neha Saeed (Manager Projects Asia Pacific for a North American Group company, Via Marketing Services) speaking about Ad-Words. The final session was an extensive panel discussion on Online Privacy and Online Career Opportunities. The panel included renowned speakers such as Jehan Ara (President of P@SHA), Sana Saleem (Director of Bolo Bhi), Fariha Akhter (TPS), Farzal Ali Dojki (CEO, Next- GenI) and Maria Mahesar (RedBull). The panel discussion was very interactive, and gave the audience an opportunity to engage with the speakers who had plenty of interesting experiences to share with the audience. Although Google was the main sponsor of the event, other sponsors included Red Bull, which kept the speakers as well as the audience charged up throughout the day; and Sam s Cake Factory that won the hearts of everyone present at the event by giving away delicious Android cupcakes. Badar Khushnood wrapped up the event with a closing speech, while Jehan Ara distributed a Google Chrome Box and Nexus Q as giveaways to two lucky members from the audience. To sum it all, GDG lived up to its tradition of organizing an extremely interactive and informative event and ensured that everyone took back some useful tips as well as created linkages within the community.

10 10 Karachi Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship (KITE) Launch Karachi Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship (KITE) is the newest addition to the local academic arena. KITE is a project of The Education Enrichment Foundation (EduEnrich) a not-for-profit organization. Located at Korangi Creek in Karachi, KITE aims to provide students with education that will enable them to become successful entrepreneurs. The campus is an impressive architecture with state-of-the-art facilities, lecture theatres, interactive classrooms as well as seminar rooms. Part of KITE s prime objective is to provide an ecosystem of inter-disciplinary education, applied knowledge and entrepreneurship, the campus houses a Professional Development Center (KITE-PDC) and a Technology Incubation Center (KITE- TIC), providing multiple opportunities and endless possibilities for academia-industry research, practical work experience and continued learning. EduEnrich is working with a clear vision and dedication towards creating educational opportunities for the Pakistani youth in globally growing fields, enhancing their employability skills, and empowering them to pursue higher standards of living. TPS and Allied Bank sign payment switch upgrade contract Allied Bank Limited (ABL) decided to upgrade its payment switch with TPS next generation multi-channel payment solution IRIS. A payment switch is an extremely vital software application for any bank that drives e-banking and directly affects services such as ATM, POS machines, Debit/Credit cards, Internet, Mobile banking etc. Therefore, looking at IRIS reliability, scalability, parameterization and cost-effective growth, Allied Bank opted for IRIS as its inhouse payment switch. IRIS is a sophisticated payment application that offers a one window solution for transaction processing, debit and prepaid card management, ATM controller, transaction and ATM network monitoring, integrated channel management and ADC CRM. IRIS will enable ABL to upgrade its network to support chipcards, improve mobile banking and provide value added services to its customers TPS and ABL have assigned a dedicated team of senior personnel who would ensure that the strategic project is managed in the best manner. Speaking on this occasion, Muhammad Sohail (CEO- TPS Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd) said, It gives us immense pride to be a trusted partner of ABL, and be a part of ABL s continuous retail payment growth initiative. We greatly value ABL s confidence and trust in us and we are certain that the partnership of TPS and ABL will deliver long term benefits. TPS and ABL have been associated with one another since 2003 with the setting up of a transaction switch called Phoenix. In the past 9 years the collaboration has seen tremendous amount of success as TPS has assisted ABL in handling a network of 700+ ATMs and managing the card life cycle of over a million debit cards. S H A T E C H T A L K S H A T E C H

11 I S S U E 1 P@SHA Activity Log 11 LHR, Oct 10 P@SHA Annual Conference 2012 LHR, Nov 28 P@SHA PRA Information Session LHR, Nov 29 P@SHA supports Retail Conference LHR, Dec 1 P@SHA supports Water & Sanitation Hackathon 2012 Brunei, Dec 2 Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) LHR, Jan 14 P@SHA EOGM KHI, Jan 19 Brainstorming session on Internet Freedom KHI, Feb 26 P@SHA visits SZABIST KHI, Feb 26 P@SHA offers grant at Ladies Fund Press Conference KHI, Mar 9 P@SHA supports GDG DevFestW LHR, Mar 23 P@SHA supports UXD Workshop with Sheba Najmi LHR, Mar 30 P@SHA supports DrupalCamp KHI, Apr 6-7 P@SHA supports Civic Hackathon KHI, LHR, ISL May 8 P@SHA supports Google tech seminar KHI, May 16 Seminar on Big Data & Analytics with Nauman Sheikh 2012 O N D 2013 J F M A M LHR, Oct 10 P@SHA ICT Awards KHI, Nov 30 P@SHA supports TiECon 2012 Mind Your Business KHI, Dec 5 P@SHA CEOs Forum LHR, Dec 12 P@SHA CEOs Forum KHI, Dec 23 P@SHA supports GDG DevFest Karachi LHR, Jan 15 P@SHA CEOs Lunch LHR, Jan 24 Executive Lunch Group Mumbai, Feb P@SHA delegation to Nasscom India Leadership KHI, Feb 27 P@SHA CEOs Forum on strikes, dharnas & shut-downs KHI, Mar 6 Executive Lunch Group KHI, Mar 19 P@SHA visits CBM KHI, Mar 29 P@SHA CEC Meeting KHI, Mar 30 P@SHA supports UXD Workshop with Sheba Najmi KHI Apr 15 P@SHA supports GDG Tech-talk Session on Cyber Security LHR, May 20 Seminar on Big Data & Analytics with Nauman Sheikh

12 12 Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & Room 310 3/F Business Center Block 6 PECHS Shahrah-e-Faisal Karachi Facebook.com/pakict pasha.org.pk Phone: services@pasha.org.pk Warid Telecom joins hands with TRG to enhance Customer Experience Warid Telecom and The Resource Group (TRG) have signed an agreement whereby TRG will provide a significant set of Call Center services to Warid Telecom s subscriber base in the country. The company has outsourced its Karachi Call Center operations to TRG. This outsourcing will ultimately translate into greater operational efficiencies and better customer experience for Warid subscribers. While speaking on the occasion Mr. Muneer Farooqui, CEO Warid Telecom said We are pleased to partner with TRG, who have the expertise in providing world class customer services. Our objective is to further enhance the customer experience and make it worthwhile. We are very excited about our partnership with Warid Telecom, said Mr. Nadeem Elahi, TRG s Country Head for Pakistan. TRG is not only Pakistan s largest exporter of IT-enabled services, but a leader in providing Business Process Outsourcing solutions to renowned brands across the globe and in Pakistan. The Warid-TRG agreement is also not a typical outsourcing arrangement, rather it is a strategic partnership where TRG is in close collaboration with Warid s staff of 120+ personnel at the Karachi facility and is committed to working with the same staff in bringing about efficiencies both in the operations and technology front over the next several years. This is important because it shows the tremendous faith and commitment that Warid has placed in TRG s capabilities and market reputation. Warid-TRG strategic partnership strengthens our resolve to provide highly innovative and cost-efficient solutions to our customers adds Fahad Shameem, Director Sales at TRG. This enables organizations to substantially standardize costs and boost productivity in their core businesses.