A really useful comment prompted me to create a quick info graphic that shows where some of the core banking projects are happening in the Pakistan financial services industry (Thanks Junaid). Out of the 25 or so scheduled Commercial/Retail Banks in Pakistan, many are now on global core banking solutions, showing a trend of buying and implementing (with varying success) best of breed solutions that have been proven in other markets.

The trend to implement custom in house solutions seems to be on the downward trend, and these systems are being replaced instead of further upgraded it seems. This is also a natural evolution of the market, where banks want to remain banks and leave the technology to the tech vendors, a good thing for sure. Soneri might still focusing on its own solution, and some Islamic banks have been focused on developing their own solutions but to be fair, Islamic Banking is a niche with very different requirements from a conventional bank. The next step for these banks would be to also start buying local, strong solutions for specific verticals such as treasury and trading instead of trying to build these complex systems in house…

You can click here for a bigger version.

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As coke studio hums in the background I got to learn today about two great growth stories. So here goes my “rant in good mood”. In Lahore, Umar Saif’s SCI (pronounced SKY, Saif Center for Innovation), an incubation center for startups recently launched in its own 4 storey building.

In Karachi, the new TPS Tower hosted a lunch of about 30 CEOs from the technology industry, inviting them to celebrate the opening of the new TPS Tower building. TPS , as a software firm is now is big enough to have its own tower! And all this with the amazing live music of the Coke studio sessions playing in the background makes for a very resounding and optimistic feeling about the innovation and growth happening in Pakistan. Do I sound like an advertisement for music and tech industries in Pakistan?

On a side note, the FX reserves of the country are now at 12 billion, hitting a high for the year. (They were at 3 billion and everyone was freaking out a few months ago). The Taliban are on the run and all but brought down. All we need to do now is fire the KESC’s management (and the local Siemens guys) and get our local engineers to fix the problems that the organizational structure has not let them so far.

So, sooner or later, this resilient economy will explode with growth and even more opportunities. Where will you be when that happens?

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watching Jehan’s ITLOW show! Great interviews, we also need event coverage in it..better than all the crappy “IT” show attempts we still see on every other tv channel….

Here is a link to all the shows so far…

http://webstudio.ciopakistan.com/tag/jehan-ara/

That theme song is also stuck in my head with a stickman doing a funky dance to it!

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Food is serious business in Pakistan. And really, the world over. Zagat , a website for reviews and eatery listings is a multi million dollar business.  Since i know Karachi best, alot of these sites have been covered from a karachi angle, though I think a Lahori would know food alot better…A few years ago when I started karachimetro.com, I felt frustrated that there was no one seriously looking into this space in the Pakistani market. After all, atleast 6 million connected pakistanis are looking to satisfy their need for good food everyday. Here are three websites/apps that I follow and use very frequently to find a place to order from when I’m in town…there are many more that are entering the fray, it seems like all of a sudden, everyone wants to be in this space!

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Great Ad…tells you loads about what great solutions are being designed and it does it in a simple, crisp appealing way. IBM has always had great research labs while some of these ideas are a few years old their implementation still eludes us. Doesnt mention much of the work going on in IBM’s genomics/gene computing effort …but Whoever made this Ad is a genius…

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Sometimes I regret having left Inbox. Every now and then, they break the norms and do something really amazing in the industry. After a recent string of wins and successful system implementations, starting with the Habib bank project, the AIOU MOU, and then the PTCL deal, Inbox recently closed a deal with PIA to migrate them from their old IBM Z mainframe to a brand new one with high end storage. The price tag of the deal? over half a million USD. Inbox is also a much strong company and has arguably won the “battle of the system integrators” and come out as a major player over several other local firms. Someone should start tracking Inbox’s history because if it does make it, it would be the closest thing to a local Wipro, since it also is the dominant player in the local desktop market.

In a market that is essentially in the boondocks (thats british for the ones reading this in the US) , this is quite amazing to pull off such a large deal, with a tough customer like PIA. So when you now book your flight on the PIA, atleast the computer system would be alot faster and screens (might) load faster!

A side note : Alot of recent changes in my life are prompting me to blog a bit slowly, but there is a broadband review, a new smart phone review, and some website reviews coming up. plus new authors and design changes. Ah, when will I find the time!!

The story is also covered on netxpress here:

http://netxpress.com.pk/2009/01/inbox-to-provide-ibm-system-z-mainframe-server-and-ds8300-storage-solution-to-pia/

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For the time being, we are on top. And In many areas, I think we’ll stay there. Given the overall depressing state of the gloom and doom news all around, techlahore does a great job of showing us how bright things are :

http://techlahore.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/pakistan-has-worlds-largest-wimax-network-will-america-catch-up-wonders-tmcnet/#comment-1086

PS to the American media : It wont hurt to quote these facts between your biased Pakistan-is-not-good reporting. I will never deny that this country has problems, but ignorance and bending the truth ticks everyone off, really.

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Not about Adobe AIR, or Google Docs. But Google Native client, an attempt, similar to them ol’ Java applets that just got released and I’m sure the best brains at Microsoft are dissecting line by line to see how it works (right? right?) . Still in testing, but coming up fast on the horizon, here comes another challenge for Microsoft’s domination of the client desktop market.

Traditionally, Microsoft Office’s strength has not only been the fact that its very deep in terms of features and abilities, but also the fact that you can double click and open a 4MB word or excel file in a matter of seconds, and open something like change tracking without everything crashing. (and there are plenty universities, students, financial professionals, you name it, who have that requirement) . 

Google Docs as yet cannot match this, and one of the reasons I dont take it seriously for my daily work is the same, I have way too many complex excel sheets, and word documents with fine formatting that Google Docs cannot match or open yet. I like the fact that its web based, but thats secondary to me compared to ease of opening, editing saving files. I have a laptop, I backup alot, and I dont need the ‘cloud’ so much (yet!). Adobe AIR, while promising, is still not built to utilize the client desktop’s resources, (like Google wants to) has only as yet released some small (but very useful) apps.

So here comes Google Native Client, aka another approach to browser-launched client side computing , Read the rest of this entry »

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So I was expecting, 30 people, maybe. Who would be interested in blogging anyway? Well, about 100-150 showed up, and showed me that the blogging scene here in Karachi was thriving happily. Google, Wateen and CIO Pakistan did a great job on the panel and the topics discussed, though alot of it was about making $$$ , Google did a great job of sponsoring the event and they had some great insights into stats, analytics and adwords. Overall, the message was quite relevant and clear: Differentiate yourself and write sincerely about what you can.  

Great show CIO, Google and Wateen! Several pro bloggers, and aspiring bloggers showed up, it was fun hanging out and meeting everyone! 

Alot of pictures here: http://ciopakistan.com/category/eventupdates/bloggers-meet/

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Its actually free, most of the time. Anyone can read your source code if you have a web application. Indeed thats how alot of us work now, there is no harm in extending other peoples code (as long as you respect the license). Its called Open source. Linux was built this way, so are many other apps. Vertical expertise on platforms, yes there is some demand there. We do not need php developers anymore. We need wordpress experts, linux experts, facebook application experts, and iPhone/Mac coders. Coders with deep, geeky knowledge of one platform.

There are facebook clones, twitter clones, clones of clones. What does that tell you? It tells you that there are enough developers out there who can build your application or idea (which is usually the first, and simplest problem).

So Mr tech entrepreneur, while you are hip, cool, geeky, techie,etc , your problem eventually is never going to be the technology. You’ll figure that bit out. You need a guru marketer(s), and amazing, honest, decently dressed sales guys. Sell, sell sell, share, sell, market market market. Your brand, your domain, your service. That is the cycle you want to establish right after your beta is out there. So, whats your barrier to entry once your app is out there in beta? How will you make money (please dont say just advertising!) , kill the competition and build your brand? Not a very techie problem, but one you need figure out before version 3, nonetheless.

Then wait for it all to dissapear. Just like you use email, if your users use your app/service/product, and once it fades away into daily life, its timeless. And so is the revenue  

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