CIO Year Ahead ’10 Roundtables: ‘Forging new IT/Business Strategies in 2010’: CIO Year Ahead’10 Roundtables were held on 3rd March’ 2010 at Sheraton, Karachi from 10:00am to 3:30 pm.
This event, an extension of The Year Ahead ’10 Summit held at Karachi Sheraton in Decmeber 2001 which discussed the Annual IT Report with members of the World Economic Forum via Video Conference. The report assesses the network readiness of countries and analyzed Pakistan’s position on a global scale.
The objective of the CIO YearAhead Roundtables is to gather business-technology leaders and influencers along with vendors on one platform in order to discuss strategies to improve the State of Business in 2010. Furthermore, the discussion and interaction is geared to help them engage in active discourse on how to plan IT buying and selling for the year in focus.
The theme of the event, which has been produced in conjunction with CDC and sponsored by Intel, encompasses four roundtables with approximately 10 delegates, each highlighting four distinct challenges that we encounter in the facet of dynamic and volatile environment. The themes of the 4 roundtables include themes of Forging New IT/Business Strategies for 2010, Hardware and System Integrators, IT Security and Managed Services. Strategies to collectively overcome challenges in the new age are geared towards stimulating the economic activity in Pakistan and, for many of the companies, in the region.
Shahida Saleem, Chairperson of Standing Committee at the FPCCI commented, “These discussions are critical to garner growth because they prove that IT is not operating in isolation. Once industries understand how to use IT to drive business, that’s when we will have positive growth.”
The event was sponsored by Central Depository Company of Pakistan, Intel, Cisco, OvexTech, CommTel Systems and supported by PSEB and FPCCI.

Video-conferencing system inaugurated: A video-conferencing system set up by the Sindh information technology (IT) department was inaugurated on Tuesday by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, with a call to Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan, Chief Secretary Fazal-ur-Rehman and district coordination officers (DCO) of various districts.
Khan congratulated the chief minister on successful completion of the project. Shah added that the project was initiated on the orders of President Asif Ali Zardari, for regular assessment of the performance of DCOs, and functionaries of all provincial departments. For the first phase of the project, the CM directed Sindh IT secretary to connect the offices of provincial secretaries, senior Board of Revenue members, etc, before June 2010. The system will also be connected with the offices of the president and the prime minister of Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Shah said that Rs100 million have been allocated to each district government for the renovation of deteriorated school buildings, and the provision of toilets, electricity, drinking water, compound walls and staff. The CM also asked all DCOs to send details of the expenditure. He added that a consolidated report of provincial and district government development schemes, with targets, funding and progress thus far should be communicated to him.
On a suggestion from the Sindh governor, the CM announced a Tele-Medicine Project in all major hospitals of the province. The health and IT departments will work together in this regard, and will later connect with medical universities as well. The Sindh governor said that during a visit to the Gambat Hospital, he observed that certain chronic patients needed to be referred to the guidance and advice of specialists. Shah termed it a better idea and said that in the first phase, the project will be initiated in teaching hospitals.
Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan said that the Media City project should be initiated as soon as possible. He also suggested an award for the Sindh IT minister from the president and the prime minister of Pakistan.

Dell’s first Centre of Excellence in Karachi: Dell inaugurated its first state of art showroom (Centre Of Excellence) in Karachi. Managing Director South Asian Growing Economies Ali Jaleel and Managing Director South Asian Developing Markets Varinderjit Singh were also present on the occasion. They shared their experiences with the media in term of Dell’s foot print in Pakistan and future prospects.
According to Jaleel, Dell has been operating in Pakistan for a few years now, but this Center of Excellence is a prelude to expanding the Dell’s operations in Pakistan. Dell has four partners namely Mega Plus, Gerry Softlogic, DWP and Shahnawaz.
Moreover, Dell has strategic partnership with Microsoft and Intell. Varinderjit Singh, Managing Director – South Asian Developing Markets, was excited about IT prospect in Pakistan. According to him, Pakistan is one of the most important developing market for Dell. Dell is planning to go beyond conventional computing and become solution centric.