I have long held that given how easy it is now to build software (take a look at basecamp.com, 4 people, million dollar revenue) it is as likely for a ground breaking killer app to come out of Karachi or Lahore as California. Not as easy mind you, but as likely.
And Zivios just might prove me right. Faraz Khan and the good people at Emergen have been busy working on a next generation Active Directly killer for the last several months and in 4 days it should finally be out for beta. And its open source. And They are giving it away. Nothing better to build popularity!
Inbox Business technologies has closed the largest ever deal for Microsoft software, integration and deployment services with PTCL/Ufone. The 8.5 million dollar deal includes enterprise wide licensing for Microsoft software, and implementation of key Microsoft technologies into the PTCL /Ufone enterprise by the Inbox Enterprise Services Group. Inbox has already migrated PTCL from their domino infrastructure to Exchange from what I hear and next will be moving to single identity management.
This deal also shows that licensed software is doing very well in Pakistan. Oracle, Microsoft and IBM all have this reported record sales of their software as local large enterprises move to drop “in house built” technologies for standards in the ERP, IT infrastructure and CRM areas.
After a long wait the news is finally out : Askari Bank has awarded the entire Oracle project to techlogix for implementation and delivery. IBM has a role to play as well from what I have read, probably managing some aspects of the deployment.
The project is possibly the first of its kind, with a rollout of major Oracle apps and first example of a Bank going all out on oracle products. Rollout plans include Flexcube, Siebel CRM and Oracle financials,etc.
This also marks a switch for techlogix : one is working on a major local project (as opposed to outsourced work) and two that instead of software development, there seems to be a move towards implementation and system integration. Local demand is ofcourse higher for system integration given that most large and medium firms are over the “we’ll make our own ERP” phase and rightly so, and are moving to standard technologies and products.
Basically, the budget 2008 killed any hope the local IT hardware industry of getting some accelerated help to grow from the powers that be. Here are the few major items that will hit the hardware industry and increase the software industry’s costs as well. Read the rest of this entry »
I just saw a real live working 3D Hologram! Cisco and Musion Technologies seem to have done it… watch the video below and scroll to minute 2 or minute 8 and see what I’m talking about. Hmmm would this be a good time to buy Musion or Cisco stock?
P@SHA has released a summary of the much anticipated industry on its website, the summary is a quick snapshot of our industry’s metrics. The numbers look good, too. Links are below to the study and the posting on the site :
So i heard this on the radio the other day. Windows Vista starter edition is retailing in Pakistan for Rs 2,600. Not bad, bravo Microsoft, now instead of a one time promotion, why dont you just make this the standard price for your OS? You will kill 70% of Windows OS piracy with one blow, which probably is the aim anyway. And if you make it cheaper for students, (at UT we used to get legal Windows, office and visual studio for USD $5 per CD, no jokes.) then no one will want to go to Rainbow center to buy software CD’s
In the wake of such rampant piracy of software which really has not gone down at all in the last several years at the consumer level, reducing prices to corner the market is really is the only option, and then offering a subscription based upgrade service to hold onto that market share would work…. Most consumers will not buy pirates software if prices of the legal versions are reasonable for them.
Now, oddly,sadly,insanely enough a copy of Windows Vista will cost about as much as a full tank of petrol!!
Siebel must be making sense for local large corporation (I dont know how). While most of the world turns to salesforce.com and away from Siebel, we seem to be installing more and more of the application. Which may not be such a bad thing. Given our connectivity issues and the fact that there are certain laws that encourage corporation to keep their data in house, large hunky CRMs might be the only way to go for now.
After NIB, Emirates Global has also signed on for Siebel CRM deployment. So on my list I now have Mobilink, NIB and EIBL as companies where Siebel is being implemented.
I like Siebel though its old as a technology, but then that might be what we need, the Cultus after all is 20 years old and we still manufacture and use that thing here.
When I visited the Siebel campus a few years ago it really seemed like an innovative driven company, and yet I was never able to understand how and why they let salesforce.com take the lead from them. Anyhow, the bottom line is, that in Pakistan right now, CRMs like Siebel seem to be gaining traction. Avanza’s CRM solution also has alot of momentum and holds its own against the foreign vendors.
As reported earlier on Jan 1 on ITT, Mobilink is now no longer the only service offering Blackberrys for your obsessive email habits. Ufone has annouced in a huge ad campaign that they too now sport the device on their network.
on side note : Their new redesigned website (built with .net) is quite well done.
Inbox Business technologies has closed the largest ever deal for Microsoft software, integration and deployment services with PTCL/Ufone. The 8.5 million dollar deal includes enterprise wide licensing for Microsoft software, and implementation of key Microsoft technologies into the PTCL /Ufone enterprise by the Inbox Enterprise Services Group. Inbox has already migrated PTCL from their domino infrastructure to Exchange from what I hear and next will be moving to single identity management.
techlogix for implementation and delivery. IBM has a role to play as well from what I have read, probably managing some aspects of the deployment.
Cisco and Musion Technologies seem to have done it… watch the video below and scroll to minute 2 or minute 8 and see what I’m talking about. Hmmm would this be a good time to buy Musion or Cisco stock? 
