…this is the third year I’ve decided not to write about or cover ITCN. What should that tell you? Alot, actually

If it looked like a telecom show last year, I bet this year it would have looked like a telecom+ISP show, if evolution theory holds…but I think there are much better, more focused, less marketing and more substance and networking oriented events out there now. Go to those. Like the P@SHA Job Fair, SI sessions or an IBM Sponsored technology event.

http://www.ittazee.com/2007/08/08/its-that-time-of-year-again/

http://www.ittazee.com/2006/09/21/have-you-noticedi-didnt-write-about-itcn/

Popularity: 53% [?]

Sometimes things just fall into place. I dont know what the “magic” ingredient was this time, but this year’s P@SHA job fair was possibly one of the most involved job fairs i have been to in the last 2-3 years.  I think two things that would stand out were (1) great venue and (2) most of the kids who showed up not only came to drop their resumes but to attend the workshops that were happening. It felt more like am Austin or Bay Area technology event than a simple job fair. There was networking, job hunting, knowledge building, all rolled into one.

Apparently I am not the only one impresed…There was coverage on atleast 8 different TV channels and Netxpress has also given a thumbs up and has posted tons of pictures here:

http://netxpress.com.pk/2008/07/20/photographs-from-pashas-career-expo-2008/

The Next stop for the event is Pindi On August 2nd. Should also be interesting given that from what I’m seeing in the industry, the Islamabed and Pindi are the new destination for outsourcing firms… while Karachi can be more akin to “Silicon Alley” in New york, Islamabad /LHR/RWP is looking more and more like “Silicon Hills” In austin or a small silicon valley….

Popularity: 79% [?]

A big thank you for everyone who attended the P@SHA job fair event and the SiG presentations. The slides from the  UI design talk I facilitated are reproduced below:

Popularity: 72% [?]

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.

More news here: http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45271&Itemid=49

Popularity: 69% [?]

As managers, CEOs, and coders at technology outsourcing shops, we have to compete on an international level for work with firms from multiple countries. One competitive differentiator we can achieve (instead of just dropping the price) is to build very usable applications. Applications that people will like to and want to use. Hey, thats what makes Apple different from, well, everyone out there.

As a start to raising awareness and moving in this direction, I will be faciliating a discussion on user centered application design this Sunday at the P@SHA career Expo. We will start with a small presentation to get things rolling and then deep dive into discussion and brainstorming.  The aim is to understand the importance of UI to users and how do firms inject a process into their development cycles to better their applications.

When : July 20, 2008, 2 pm - 3 pm
Where: Ambassador 3, Marriott Hotel, Karachi

Along with this, there is also going to be a web development SiG at the event managed by Aleem, so dont miss that. Both SiGs are back to back.

Popularity: 68% [?]

If you need to build some mindshare, get your brand out there, and attract young talent then the P@SHA 2008 Career Fair is where you need to be this July. Signing up gets you a 3×3 booth, a counter, 2 chairs and a window of opportunity to network, interview, and market your company that comes, maybe, once a year.

The Karachi event happens on July 20th, followed by Pindi (July 27th) and Lahore (August 4th).

Also, thank you organizers for setting up the fair this time at the Marriott. Much more accessible, easier and overall better than doing this at the expo center.

Go here for full details on the action: http://pasha.org.pk/

Popularity: 84% [?]

Getz Pharma just became the latest client to sign on for implementing SAP across the board in their organization. Siemens will be implementing the solution. (and why Siemens as opposed to Abacus could someone tell me?)  . Getz is one of a handful of very successful local Pharmas that have branched out into other countries and are growing rapidly.

Implementing multimillion dollar ERPs also indicates that there are local manufacturing concerns that despite the overall “slow” (6% ) growth of the economy are doing well.

Popularity: 100% [?]

….You tell the world there is a new version of your software is ready to download and you get hit by millions of requests and your datacenter (yes datacenter, not server) goes down.Not that just, Guinness might just give you a world record certificate for most downloads in a day ever.

The new version of Firefox is out, Firefox 3 and so many people are trying to get to its download that the servers are having trouble keeping up. I’ve been using the beta for awhile now and its pretty cool, actually, it kicks ass, every other browser that I’ve used. The only thing that IE 7 has on this is the nifty thumbnail view of open browser tabs. And the new Firefox zoom feature rocks… (download, install then press ctrl ++ )

If you can get it to download that is! This is what I see at 12:11am my time when I try to go to getfirefox.com should be able to get it maybe tomorrow?

Popularity: 93% [?]

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 »

Popularity: 96% [?]

…is coming up on June 17th. The two day event should highlight financial technology companies, and should be a good spot to network, discover and talk to the relevant players in the growing industry.

The event is supported by P@SHA and PSEB as well.

Sounds like our own little MEFTEC….

Popularity: 95% [?]