Stepping Forward

We’re well into the New Year and already find companies plunging into their calendars with a zest and zeal that should yield positive results. Considering the ever changing dynamics of telecom and software industry along with the potential threats we are facing, survival and sustainability are both areas that worry a lot of organizations.

For an upcoming issue of the magazine, we called up a lot of people and asked them what their views of the new year were. Upon acquiring the feedback from various members from the ICT sector, the situation wasn’t as surprising as you would think it to be.  as alarming as it seems. Most of them claimed that the ICT industry is most likely to grow in near future in unconventional ways irrespective of the challenges we’re facing. Companies are taking active measures to incorporate changes such as in one of the interviews; Parvez Iftikhar, CEO USF, enlightened us with the fact that they have succeeded subsidizing broadband in smaller cities amongst which 60,000 people have already been catered to, allocating more than 3 billion dollars in installation of those broadband capabilities.

At another instance Badar from Google quoted that “Despite all the economic constraints the ICT industry in Pakistan has a huge potential and opportunity in the coming year. As per the 10-year report published by Morgan Stanley, Pakistan is in the top 5 countries and the fastest growing market in terms of Internet and mobile applications. In terms of Mobile applications, Pakistan is in the list of top 3 countries. We still have huge potential locally & internationally.”

Barrister Zahid Jamil expressed his views by saying, ” I see hte IT industry bravely and successfully meeting challenges in the upcoming year, despite the perception with regards to security, there seems to be ensuring business continuity and growth. Compared to the previous year, I see Pakistan heading towards recovery.”

According to the opinions we gathered, in terms of challenges identified by members of ICT industry, there seems to be a lack of proper human resources which includes people who aren’t computer literate. To add further to the misery, issue of connectivity is still prevalent among the masses. Lastly, the security situation in the country is a major concern which is leading to a general rise in the trend of cocooning and impedes technological advancements that are in line and ready to be executed.

In order to counter the challenges pointed out by the members of ICT industry, organizations should endeavor to devise a sound vision as to where they aspire to be and what sequential steps should they take to get there. This will require them to develop the capacity to integrate the strategies in alignment with technology rather than envisioning it as two parallel entities.

Let us hope that this year brings about a wide array of opportunities and our IT industry continues to flourish in a fast pace. On behalf of the CIO team, we wish you all a happy new year!!