Category: IT news

NIC’s signs MoU with Huawei across Pakistan to accelerate Cloud and AI enablement for start-ups

Islamabad (Muhammad Yasir) Advancing their mission to promote the startup ecosystem of Pakistan, Huawei Cloud signed MoU’s with National Incubation Centers in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, during the Huawei Cloud Summit Middle East in Dubai. The summit, the first major offline ecosystem event of 2022 in Dubai, centered on digital transformation for organizations within the region and included various leaders from the Pakistani startup ecosystem including Head of Program, NIC Pakistan, Zeeshan Bin Shahid, NIC Karachi Project Director, Omar Abedin, Program Manager, Syed Azfar Hussain, Director NIC Lahore and Quetta, Mr. Nauman Zaffar, along with other senior NIC and Huawei officers.

This is the first time any cloud company has brought together to bring all together all major incubation centers on one table, on such a grand scale, to discuss the ideas and challenges they face. The partnership hopes to enable a “Digital Pakistan” and aims to bolster the implementation of Cloud technology as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) through knowledge sharing. Under its terms, Huawei Pakistan will provide the NIC’s with start-ups special cloud service packages and allow their participation in its international competitions.

In addition, Huawei will enroll relevant selected start-ups to the Huawei Cloud Spark Program, its global accelerator that provides training on cloud computing and talent, as well as funding support for tech-enabled start-ups ready to scale. The goal is to expand relationships through collectively agreed talent capacity building. Such actions will culminate in a pool of highly competent and in-demand professionals who are capable of creating job opportunities.

NIC Karachi, Project Director, Omar Abedin joyously stated at the signing,

“Partnerships with Huawei like these are essential for not just the growth of Pakistani startups but they reiterate the confidence the world has in Pakistani talent.”

“NIC believes great things happen when we team up. This collaborative synergy with Huawei secure and stable solution will enable the Pakistani startup ecosystem to achieve new heights” said Zeeshan Bin Shahid- Head of Program, NIC Pakistan.

Director NIC Lahore and Quetta, Mr. Nauman Zaffar stated, “Our partnership with Huawei Cloud is a colossal step to enable start-ups and small-medium enterprises in Pakistan to leapfrog towards tech adoption and optimization. The opportunity to innovate and digitize with Huawei Cloud services is limitless, and the window for Pakistani start-ups to accelerate growth and scale up is now. We are thrilled to have partnered with one of the top five cloud services in the world, so our start-ups can actively contribute to a reliable and strong ecosystem that is propelled by data and driven by technology.”

Mr. Wang, Regional VP Huawei, stated on the occasion, “We are pleased to partner with the National Incubation Centers, who are driving the knowledge-based economy of Pakistan. Globally, Huawei is committed to enhancing the tech enablement of startups through Huawei Cloud and launch the Spark Program to facilitate the startup ecosystem in Pakistan, with the aim to incubate and accelerate tech startups towards a connected and intelligent world, as a friend and a technology partner.”

Huawei is the chief IT and Telecom equipment supplier in Pakistan. Huawei has established secure end-to-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices, and cloud computing.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Supernet Limited plans to raise Rs475 million through Initial Offering of its 18.81 per cent of post-offering share capital. The capital being raised by listing the firm on the GEM Board of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) will consist of fresh equity of Rs275 million in Supernet and ‘Offer for Sale’ by Telecard Limited of Rs200 million.

Supernet is the first technology company to be listed on GEM Board of PSX.

The issue consists of 21,111,121 Ordinary Shares, representing 18.81 per cent of the total post-offering paid up capital of Supernet of face value of Rs10 each.

The entire issue will be offered through Book Building on April 12-13 for which registration will Start from April 7 at a Floor Price of Rs22.50 per share, including premium of Rs12.50 per share. The upper limit of the price band will not be more than 40 per cent of the Floor Price.

Super Net is being offered at FY22 PE of 6.7 vs Avg. IT sector PE of 22X, offering significant value to the investors.  Out of the total issue, 8,888,889 shares are being offered as Offer for Sale by Telecard and 12,222,232 shares are being offered as fresh equity.

Recently, Supernet Group is aggressively expanding into Cyber Security, Power Solution and IT & Infrastructure Solutions business. The proceeds from listing will be utilized to finance the expansion plan.

For expansion into new business segments, SNL has set up two new subsidiaries: Supernet Secure Solutions Private Limited and Supernet Infrastructure Solutions Private Limited . Another subsidiary, Phoenix Global (Supernet Global Solutions), is a UAE based company that offers a wide range of IT & Communication solutions to its international clients. Supernet’s clientele include major banks, mobile operators, leading MNCs, government and defence institutions, etc.

Founded in 1995, it is one of the country’s leading telecommunications service provider and systems integrator. The company offers a full portfolio of local-to-global integrated communications infrastructure solutions to telecoms, defense, private firms and government sectors/customers and has a pool of highly trained and experienced human resource in wide range of communication and IT technologies spread across Pakistan in more than 200 cities and towns.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Terming the start of fully equipped Centre of Excellence of National Vocational & Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC), Islamabad, a milestone achievement, Federal Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood has said that the country direly needs skilled youth as it would play a significant role in creating job opportunities as well as national prosperity.

The minister expressed these views while inaugurating the NAVTEC Centre of Excellence (CoE), Islamabad, which has recently been upgraded with all state-of-the-art facilities. He said that Pakistan needs to also grab more jobs share in the international labour market and we can achieve this goal through provision more and more skills training facilities across the country.

He said this Centre would facilitate in training of trainers and trainees for the modern technologies and skills to compete in the national and international labour mark.
The event was attended by Additional Federal Secretary Education and Professional Training, private sector representatives, relevant TVET bodies, teachers and students.

The upgradation of this Centre is supported the TVET Sector Support Programme (ssp) which is funded by the European Union, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in close collaboration with NAVTTC, Technical Education and Vocational Training Authorities (TEVTAs) and a number of public and private sector organizations at national and provincial levels. The TVET SSP is supporting the establishment of five Centres of Excellence across the country.

Speaking at the ceremony, Cluster Head for Training and Sustainable Growth for Decent Jobs GIZ Pakistan, Mr. Olaf Handloegten, appreciated this initiative and hoped that the NAVTTC management will take advantage of the upgraded training facilities for both TVET teachers and trainees and devise mechanisms to ensure that this CoE lives up to its full potential. “Now it’s time for NAVTTC and the private sector to ensure sustainability of these efforts and achievements,” he maintained.
Earlier, in the opening remarks, Chairman NAVTTC Syed Javed Hassan said, “We are overjoyed that the CoE in Islamabad is now complete and being turned over to the NAVTTC to set an example for all of Pakistanis in providing outstanding training to instructors and trainees.”

The NAVTTC CoE with modern technologies seeks to foster excellence in training delivery for youth and TVET practitioners. The initiative will assist in the building up of a competent workforce with better job opportunities.

In total, five CoEs are to be established through up-gradation from which one has been completed last year in Peshawar and others are in Lahore, Kotri and Hub. These CoEs will provide a cascading model of teachers training, upscaling of skills for trainees, modern lab facilities, and career counselling and job placement services under the one roof.

The NAVTTC CoE in Islamabad is the second Centre of Excellence to achieve accomplishment. The institute was established in 1976 with the aim to provide quality technical training to Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) teachers, including Mandatory Teachers Training. Upgraded to Centre of Excellence and supported by state-of-art facilities, the CoE faculty is now to drive forward continuous professional development of teachers while offering high quality courses for students.

• Industry leaders to meet in Dubai for the first major HUAWEI CLOUD offline event of 2022.
          •    Huawei and industry partners to discuss best practices and insights on how organizations can better leverage cloud and AI technologies.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Huawei, a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, will be hosting the HUAWEI CLOUD Summit Middle East & Africa, the first major offline event of 2022 in Dubai from March 28th – 29th. The summit will bring together over 100 industry leaders to discuss best practices and insights on how the government and public sectors, finance, carriers, media, e-commerce, gaming, and other industries can better leverage cloud and AI technologies across various functions.

Throughout the summit’s different sessions and presentations, Huawei executives and experts will highlight the cloud’s integral role in the region’s digital transformation. Customers and Partners will also share their own successful use cases in cloud transformation.

During the event, Huawei will also highlight how HUAWEI CLOUD can accelerate digital transformation of the organisations in the region, while also minimising the carbon footprint from their IT infrastructure to hit the sustainable development targets, speed up the development of new apps and business processes, and enable organizations to innovate faster.

The company will also demonstrate why business leaders should adopt Cloud Native 2.0 architectures to boost innovation and digitalization. As one of the earliest adopters of container technology, Huawei has accumulated rich practical experience and provides fully vetted, full-stack container services for enterprise users to migrate applications to the cloud and succeed in the Cloud Native 2.0 era.

Frank Dai, President, HUAWEI CLOUD Middle East, said, “The HUAWEI CLOUD Summit MEA 2022 is being held against a backdrop of digitization trends that began during the pandemic and are now shaping the regional business landscape. The summit allows us to take stock of the rapid progress that the Huawei Cloud platform has made in the past few years, demonstrate our unmatched value proposition in the public cloud space, and invite our customers and partners to innovate together.”  

The summit will also review the progress of the HUAWEI CLOUD Oasis Program launched in September 2021 to support technology enterprises and ecosystems in the Middle East. At the time, Huawei pledged to invest $15 million over three years to assist 3,000 experts in the region, support over 1,500 consulting and technical partners, and empower more than 100 SMEs to develop their cloud capabilities.

Separately, Jimmy Zhao, the CEO of game developer Chain X Game, will also preview REVOLAND, the first blockchain game built on HUAWEI CLOUD, set for release in April 2022.

HUAWEI CLOUD has emerged as an essential platform for internet companies and organizations to go digital. Five years into its development, HUAWEI CLOUD has attracted 2.6 million developers, 28,000 consulting partners, 9,000 technical partners, and released 6,100 Marketplace products. In the Middle East, HUAWEI CLOUD offers more than 220 services, 19 data centers, over 200 local partners, and a growing list of more than 80 marketplace offerings.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Huawei and Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) recently signed a contract to offer cloud services to the Information Technology (IT) industry that will enable digital transformation in the public sector in Pakistan Cloud Summit 2022, Karachi.

Federal Minister for IT and TelecommunicationMr. Syed Amin-ul-Haque and Federal Secretary IT and Telecommunication Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput witnessed the contract signing ceremony. Member of IT MoITT, Mr. Junaid Imran, CEO of Abacus Pakistan, Ms.Fatima Asad, CEO of Huawei Pakistan Cloud, Mr. Shahzad Rasheed, MD of PESB, Mr.Osman Nasir, along with other officials from MoITT and Huawei Pakistan were all present at the Summit.

PSEB is an apex government body mandated to promote Pakistan’s IT Industry in local and international markets.Huawei Cloud is gaining momentum in Pakistan and has shown a clear value as the only HyperCloud present in Pakistan.

The 4^th industrial revolution is armed to make everything connected and intelligent. This Cloud Summit brought stakeholders from the industry and public sector together to discuss about the future opportunities cloud presents. Experts shared key insights.

Earlier, addressing the Pakistan Cloud Summit 2022 as the chief guest Federal Minister Mr. Syed Aminul Haque said the first Cloud Policy by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) was the greatest milestone achieved by Pakistan. He also paid his gratitude to Huawei Pakistan for organizing this event and playing its part in cloud adoption in Pakistan.He stated at the event,

“The first step towards the accelerated adoption of cloud computing is the establishment of a Cloud Office at Ministry of IT& Telecom. This office will act as the flag bearer for cloud adoption in Pakistan and will define the criteria for the accreditation of Cloud Service Providers according to domestic and international standards.”

Speaking at the summit, Federal Secretary IT and Telecommunication, Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput said,“The world is moving fast towards the transformation of IT and IT services, therefore Pakistan’s agrarian economy should shift towards an IT-based economy.” He also thanked Huawei for hosting this event on cloud computing and trusted that they will play their part in accelerated digital adoption in Pakistan.

Talking about the cooperation with Huawei Cloud in Pakistan and Abacus, MD of PESB, Mr Osman Nasir mentioned how Cloud adoption in public sector of Pakistan will enable the Government of Pakistanto utilize latest technological solutions available in the ever-evolving ICT industry.

CEO of Abacus Pakistan, Ms.Fatima Asad expressed thanks to Huawei’s Latest Cloud technologies transfer cooperation and Cloud adoption across Pakistan.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Leading global research firm, Everest Group®, has recognized NdcTech, an award-winning partner of Temenos, as a major contender in its Temenos IT Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2022. NdcTech is a leading service provider in the banking sector and has been a long-standing partner of Temenos for more than 20 years.

The PEAK Matrix® evaluates service providers on the dimensions of Market Impact, Vision & Capability. It also considers other relevant factors like competitive landscape, strengths, weaknesses and Temenos service capabilities. Based on these factors and the exceptional performance in the global market, NdcTech has been recognized as a Major Contender

The report highlights the performance, role, and significance of NdcTech and other important strategic partners of Temenos who have played a vital role in carrying out large-scale digital transformations of Banks across the globe and have been a front runner in delivering maximum value to their clients.

Ammara Masood, CEO & President, NdcTech shared her thoughts on this achievement: “This is a proud moment for everyone at NdcTech. This recognition is a testament to NdcTech’s market impact globally and ability to deliver successfully. Established 22 years ago, we started with the vision to build Banks of the future by harnessing the power of technology. This recognition is an incredible honor for us and will continue to give us the positive momentum going forward.”

NdcTech’s 20+ years of legacy of providing unmatched transformational services to the banking sector, skilled expertise on Temenos product stack, in depth knowledge of accelerated methodologies and tools, compliance to the central bank’s regulatory requirements, and focus on customer-centricity have been the key drivers towards achieving this recognition.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) The remote-work world that we embraced at the height of the pandemic has evolved with blended, hybrid environments now taking center stage. This will define the post-pandemic business landscape, according to Microsoft’s latest Work Trend Index (WTI).“The best of both worlds” is what employees surveyed in the WTI are after: 73 percent want flexible remote-work options to continue, while, at the same time, 67 percent are craving more in-person time with their teams. WTI figures show that 46 percent of the globally surveyed employees were considering leaving their current employer because they can work from home.

In the EMEA region, this figure, although lower at 36 percent, is still significant. As such, a company’s approach to hybrid working will define “who stays and who goes,”the index notes. What’s the sentiment in Pakistan?Last year, news outlet Nikkei Asia reported that emerging nations such as Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh have a strong presence in the global remote-work market. In fact, the article notes that, in 2020, workers from these countries made up over 80 percent of the remote workforce. With economies reopening after pandemic-induced lock downs, companies will be able to implement an effective hybrid workspace, having had equal success operating exclusively in-person and exclusively online.

The importance of balancing the two comes down to employee well being – offering the flexibility of remote work alongside the collaborative, social aspect of seeing colleagues in person. Just like the rest of the business world, we’re learning as we roll out these hybrid-enabling changes. On what we’ve learnt, Nicole Herskowitz, Microsoft Teams General Manager, highlights that hybrid meetings have been a game-changer for shaping a successful work environment.

For Microsoft, Herskowitz shares that following the “ABC” practice on Teams-based meetings has been key. The ‘A’ is for Audio, because having the right tech to give everyone an equal opportunity to be heard clearly is a cornerstone of inclusive collaboration. The ‘B’ is for Bring Your Own Device (turning on your camera but muting your mic). ‘C’ is about Collaboration; specifically, about assigning a facilitator to streamline interactions between virtual and in-office meeting attendees.

As the WTI highlighted, enabling successful hybrid working will mean re imagining office space and investing in supporting technology. Microsoft has innovated on the technology front with new Teams Rooms features to better manage the messy middle. There’s a Front Row layout where the video gallery is at the bottom of the screen, spread out horizontally.. The Surface Hub capabilities in Teams Rooms have also been enhanced to offer more ways to collaborate seamlessly.

Contracts will help ZTBL strengthen the communication and IT infrastructure of their nationwide branch network

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Supernet has been awarded multiple contracts worth over PKR 450 Million by Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) after competitive bidding process. The contracts will help ZTBL strengthen the communication and IT infrastructure of their nationwide branch network, mostly in the rural areas of Pakistan.

Supernet is actively upgrading communication infrastructure of the bank with multi-medium communication networks enabling availability of high level uptimes for branches to communicate with their head office. This will be a managed service model where Supernet will do installation and configuration of its Wide Area Network with ZTBL’s already existing devices for end-to-end seamless communication. The nationwide presence of Supernet’s engineering resources will ensure smooth and fast deployment of this system.

Furthermore, Supernet will also upgrade current Local Area Network (LAN) at all of the bank’s 450+ branches across Pakistan, ensuring installation of high quality passive infrastructure of power and data communication. Bank’s appetite, demand and design of next generation LAN will ensure a long term and durable infrastructure availability in remote areas, which is quite a challenge.  

ZTBL’s Executive Vice President and CIO, Mr. Aamir Zaffar Chaudry commented, “We are depending upon the Supernet outreach in rural areas to help us in our LAN & WAN projects /operations. Our past experience with Supernet gives us the confident that they will come good on our expectations”.  

Mr. Hassan Jafri, Vice President and Business Unit Head of Supernet commented, “Award of these contracts translates trust of our client in our services. We are excited and keen to be part of strengthening networks for ZTBL that will ensure helping our country’s agriculture -ecosystem. We will continue working with ZTBL to bring further innovative solutions and their implementation to deliver a true essence of technology for agriculture.”

Supernet Limited, one of Pakistan’s leading telecommunications service provider and systems integrator, has been operating since 1995. Supernet offers a complete range of enabling ICT solutions with the expertise to, delver, deploy and maintain them anywhere in the country through a dedicated team of technology professionals. With presence of its engineering resources all over Pakistan, Supernet has a long-standing experience of providing ICT services to corporate customers. Supernet has expanded its portfolio of services to include cyber security solutions, power solutions, IT Infrastructure solution and software & application solutions.