Houstonian Corner (V10-I7)

Pakistan Is Ready For Effective & Efficient Outsourcing Services: Yusuf Hussain – MD PSEB

The Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America’s (OPEN) Houston Chapter organized a symposium at The Briar Club Timmons Lane with the theme of: “Global Trends in Emerging Technologies”. OPEN Houston Chapter is a non-profit orgnaiztion dedicated to support & promote entrepreneurship among individuals of Pakistani heritage in Texas (www.open-houston.org / E-Mail: info@open-houston.org)

Entrepreneur Faisal Amin, Members of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce – USA and Staff of United Central Bank (including Zafar Khan and Shams Siddiqui) assisted OPEN with this Symposium, which consited of three parts: During the first session, the evolving new technology and latest trends in this field were discussed. Panelists included Walter Ulrich, President, Houston Technology Center; Mark Ellison, Director, Texas Emerging Technology Fund and Yusuf Hussain, Managing Director, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB). Moderator was Richard M. Scruggs, Director CNVE – Texas A&M University. Most recent inclinations towards Nanotechnology were discussed.

Nanotechnology refers broadly to a field of applied science and technology, whose unifying theme is the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale, normally 1 to 100 nanometers, and the fabrication of devices with critical dimensions that lie within that size range. It is a highly multidisciplinary field, drawing from fields such as applied physics, materials science, interface and colloid science, device physics, supramolecular chemistry (which refers to the area of chemistry that focuses on the noncovalent bonding interactions of molecules), self-replicating machines and robotics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, biological engineering, and electrical engineering.

Yusuf Hussain informed about how students of National University of Science and Technology in Pakistan have used Nanotechnology to develop systems where blood flow can be controlled during a patient’s operation in hospital. He further informed how students at LUMS Lahore have used this technology to develop voice recognition for various languages. He said Pakistani companies have been maturing ever since PSEB came into being in 1995 and with the IT cities being developed in Pakistan and Echo System being prepared, Pakistani Entrepreneurs are ready to serve the world market: Pakistan may slightly lack in capital as compared to huge enterprises of USA, Japan, China and India, but in terms of quality, efficiency and effectives, Pakistan is not far behind any. He asked everybody to visit their website: http://www.pseb.org.pk/

Walter Ulrich, President, Houston Technology Center and Mark Ellison, Director, Texas Emerging Technology Fund; explained how capital and expertise are available for companies, who mainly run their operations from Houston and/or State of Texas. This is the reason Faisal Amin recommended to Yusuf Hussain, who accepted that Texas is now going to be the location for IT upsurge rather than the Silicon Valley and Pakistani High Tech Companies will strongly consider establishing their central offices here in Texas. Yusuf said talks with Continental Airlines, Children Hospital, BMC Technologies, Greater Houston Partnership and others have been most fruitful and this all will result in benefits for the consumers of the new technologies and companies from Pakistan, who will not only profit themselves, but will create employment opportunities here in Texas.

During luncheon, Phaneesh Murthy, CEO of iGATE Global Solutions Ltd. gave the keynote speech about the concept of outsourcing and how his company started this. It came under the idea of having discontinuous work day for a company, as when the employees of the company are off at work in the evening, another office of the company opens in another part of the world as it is morning there and productivity remains almost nonstop. He said future business models must include this element that employees are not paid on hourly basis, but they are paid of effort and results.

The last segment of the symposium was “Successful Marketing and Professional Development”. Panelists were Dick Huebner, President – Houston Minority Business Council; Mary Nugent, VP Worldwide Software Consulting – BMC Software and TengBeng Koid, COO-Global Business Development – ION Geophysical. Moderator was Bruce Flory, VP Business Development – SAGA Consulting. Several techniques were learnt as to how to market products and services in diversified markets, like USA, UK, Japan and so on.

For more information about similar events and activities, please contact Faisal Amin, President Texas Trade Council and Honorary Investment Consular – Government of Pakistan at 281.324.0934 / 281.788.9573.

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