I am working on a XML project for the financial industry. It is my belief that the Pakistan Financial Sector should have its own XML schemas (or DTD's) so that industrial cross-communication can be easier. You can read more about this project at http://www.rafay.com02.com
The computer experts should excel in enabling innovative markets, integrating transparent supply chains and strategizing ubiquitous relationships as they do in harnessing and delivering robust information systems.
One of the first programs to integrate the disciplines of Computer Sciences and Business Administration was started by Hamdard University, City Campus. Known as BSBI (Bachelor of Science in Business Informatics), the program:
"is a unique blend of Business Administration and Computer Science courses. The Program has been designed to develop modern managers in the application of Information Technology in business activities to bring about changes in concepts, systems and organizational structures."
Other institutes like KASBIT have also started such a program. Other universities in Pakistan should also offer such degree programs.
As the Internet continues to infiltrates our lives, the digitization of business processes is becoming akin to enterprise survival. While the western corporations have shifted some or all of their processes to the digital world, Pakistan has yet to trap the monster. Amongst a number of other compelling reasons for this failure, the consumers' skeptical attitude towards the electronic paradigm is the most visible hindrance. According to market research firms, over a trillion dollars in revenue would be generated through the Internet by the year-end. Clearly, Internet may just have the answer to some of our macroeconomic problems like employment and poverty.
The customer awareness is mandatory for survival of e-commerce in Pakistan. Customers must be made to understand that a transaction over the Internet is only as risky as its offline counterpart. The digital world is no different than the real world in terms of fraud and theft. On the contrary, Internet is a haven for consumers with a restricted budget that offers convenient and cost-effective access to the global markets. Building the customers' confidence should, thus, be the cornerstone of any ecommerce promotion initiative in Pakistan. The companies must take a proactive approach by educating the customers on the pros of e-commerce.
As a first step, e-enabled companies should use the Internet to facilitate business processes that do not require the customer to delve out any personal information over the Internet. Since the aim is to alter the perception and the misperceptions of ecommerce, customer services and customer relationship management (CRM) programs are the optimum candidates for rudimentary digitization in Pakistan. According to Gartner Group, 68 percent of all customers switch over because of poor customer service. If this is not enough to make our IT pundits and managers listen, then what is?
CRM is the fundamental means of increasing sales. Whereas, such initiatives involved significant costs in the past, the digital era seeks to impress upon other investments such as organizational commitment to customer satisfaction. Money is no longer a stress factor. In other words, CRM via Internet comes really cheap if you consider the long-term benefits of a solid and trustworthy relationship with your customers. There are plenty of sites that offer CRM programs - just do a search on Google. You can also check out
We have to understand that customer confidence is a function of organizational commitment to the customers. In the digital era, where there is a massive influx of quality information, customers have to be pampered and treated like royalty. Trust is the key element of any relationship and the one formed with your customers should not lack it. The goal of customer satisfaction should be communicated subliminally to smooth out the public's apprehensions about transactions on the Internet.
The e-commerce mantra also dictates an expansion of services to facilitate transactions. Currently, Citibank is the only one to offer Internet merchant accounts that accept Pakistani Rupee credit cards on the Web. It is not about growth of e-commerce in Pakistan. Rather, the question remains whether Pakistan has what it takes to capitalize on the tools of e-commerce. Just as malls and markets characterized the pre-digital era, the future is almost certain to be dominated by e-commerce.
According to The Gartner Group:
Food for Thought: Where are We?
The purpose of spyware software is not to illegally monitor your Internet activities. Rather, it is to obtain information aboutconsumer tastes, preferences and behavior on the Net that wouldhelp the merchants in providing better goods and services. It is a giventhat consumers while on the Internet have very different attributes than when offline. And, market research is an absolute necessity to figureout this behavior pattern. Spyware is just another way to conduct this marketresearch about the wired consumer.
Like other things, spyware and adware technology has been exploited bycertain individuals/groups. The provision of net-adverts is whatkeeps necessities like email, MSN, Internet (in some countries), web hosting, 1000 MB Gmail service, voice mail, etc. FREE!
I have just come to know that the US has passed an anti-spyware bill. Absurd is all that I have to say. Even if spyware was all badand had no value-strings attached, how would such a bill be enforced?Internet has no boundaries; it has no demarcations; it has nolaw enforcement of its own; it has no judiciary and neither are thereany lawyers. The bill is a waste of time and money.
And what about the spam mail? Could it ever be stopped? Hardly.So before we Pakistanis think of following suit by adopting the bullshit legislations, THINK TWICE! We hardly have the resourcesto go chasing after something like this.
Chatting as a medium of communication has gotten loads of attention. It is, perhaps, an activity undertaken by all netizens- surpassed only by our familiar friend, the email. It is, however, unfortunate that most people in Pakistan use chat as a means to satisfy their lust or, as they say in the local lingo bachee set karna. Don't get me wrong. I have probably tried to catch a girl's attention once or twice over the chat. Personally, I feel that there is nothing wrong with trying to find that one true love over the net. However, I do desist the fact that chatting has become akin to a singles' bar to most Pakistanis.
All chatting is not bad. As the world gets digital by the second, and a Net connected PC become synonymous to owning a TV, chatting can serve as a good tool to groom the Pakistani students' communication skills. Why not teach students how to provide top-notch customer support by means of IRC (Internet Relay Chat) - afterall, the future would demand our IT graduates to know the digital etiquettes. More and more web sites now offer customer support via the chat rooms.
The problem, in my opinion, remains on the academic side. Most of the universities in Pakistan ban chatting in the computer labs. By banning something, we force the students to put on their rebel's hats and do what they shouldnt be doing in the first place. We need to change our education system to accomodate the latest Internet technologies in the curriculum. After all, in order to prepare students for the future, we need to make use of tools that are for the future. And, what better tool than the massive Internet.
Are Prime Minister Aziz, Dr. Atta-Ur-Rehman and stakeholders of major universities listening?
