Oracle Wins Best Revenue Management Solution Award
May 7, 2008
KARACHI – May 7, 2008: Oracle has won Best Revenue Management Solution Award at Billing & OSS World Conference and Expo in Chicago.
Oracle has been awarded with two Billing & OSS World 2008 Excellence Awards, recognizing Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management as the Best Revenue Management Solution and Oracle Communication and Mobility Server as the Best New Product. The annual awards recognize the leaders — vendors, service providers and integrators — in the development and deployment of billing and operations support systems (OSS) technologies and solutions. [Read more]
I berry! Do you?
April 17, 2008
With the recent upsurge in BlackBerry-based services across the country, are we seeing a new trend forming? The latest Pakistani service provider to enter the BlackBerry fray is Ufone GSM. With several services popping up off the bat, and some very eye catching devices, the high-end cellular communication devices and services market is pointing towards the development of a new trend.
BlackBerry, for some, signifies business. A strong branding and marketing drive have been pivotal in creating a strong image of the devices in the business world. Despite some setbacks, the handsets and the service have significantly grown in the last few years on a global level. This growth is a sure sign of the relationship BlackBerry devices have with the business community. [Read more]
Taking the Internet to the People – Part 1
December 9, 2007
Tony Salvador & John Sherry from Intel Corporation, share the world as they see it!
Internet access is seen as a right in the developed world. It isn’t even there in many developing nations, so when it is, it is seen as a gift.
In most countries where Internet access is common, the usage patterns follow a standard; email, game-playing, travel, gambling, porn and watching YouTube. In countries where access is less easy to come by the patterns are very different; buying a permit to marry, looking for a grant to feed rabbits, even asking where next month’s rent is coming from. In many countries, the Internet is a godsend, not a right.
In Madhya Pradesh, India, an illiterate woman approaches the soochak (manager) of an Internet kiosk. She complains about a water well that is not operating, and the soochak uses a PC to enter her complaint on an electronic form, then uploads it to a local hub, where it is registered with the authorities.
In Lima, Peru, a woman needs to contact her emigrant son in New York City for money to pay a doctor’s bill. She goes to the local cabina pública, a small computer center, where VoIP allows her to make a short call to her son for a sol or less—about US 30c. In [Read more]
SMS Media Interactivity
December 9, 2007
Which companies are offering innovative SMS interactive services to their users? Umair Naeem takes a look!
With the advent of telephony and text messaging, it was quite obvious that the next phase in media interactivity would be through the cell phone. That time has now come to be, and whether you are listening to a radio station, or watching a TV program, or even watching a live sports event; text messaging allows you the opportunity to take part in the program or event and interact with the various people involved.
Arguably the first to make use of this phenomenon was the FM stations, whose RJs allowed you to text them and request songs if you couldn’t call in or if the lines were busy. Soon, what the radio was doing was being done by one and all. Turn on MTV Pakistan, [Read more]
People Power: Trends in Changing Cell phones
December 1, 2007
“Something old something new, something borrowed something blue” can be quote used best to describe the cellular phone market in
Manufacturers of mobile handsets consider developing countries little goldmines due to the increasingly hungry buying behavior of so many customers and companies. The demand for cell phones and telecom equipment empowers the import/export of these items a great deal.
Exporting local items will eventually give way to progress beyond people’s expectations providing better economies of scale and attract the attention of potential investors who may choose to look into potential business ventures in
Unfortunately there is also a dark side to the growth in the number of cell phone and telecom equipment flowing through the hands of the people in
In order to truly reap the benefits that come along with the demands of markets there must be a regulatory set of rules for all actions taken and the country should be ready for any sort of business transactions to come their way. There are very few sectors in the market that flourish in such a short span of time which is why being able to efficiently handle golden opportunities is of the utmost importance.
eMarketing in Pakistan
November 20, 2007
Internet marketing is fast becoming one of the major ways businesses put themselves on the global and national radars. It is basically a mixture of traditional marketing methods which are applied on to the internet to attract clients. The reason that Internet Marketing is such a hard task to achieve is because there are newer, better developments everyday and it has the field of internet marketing has become cut throat.
So how is it done, what does it take to keep pace with the ever changing process which in its true essence is never really complete? An internet marketer must be able to define the following factors in order to market their business successfully:
- The demographics of their target audience
- The specific marketing area
- The specific product or service
- The competitive nature of their industry
- Who the direct competitors are and how they are marketing
- Their unique selling proposition (based on target audience!)
- A reasonable budget
- How we are going to track campaign effectiveness
- How the sales process should be handled
- How are we going to track and manage closing rates
- What systems could be put in place to increase sales
- What is the follow up going to be (repeat customers, referrals, etc..)
- Campaign timelines & responsibilities
Successful E-Marketing will enable a business to generate relevant traffic to their websites through search engines, achieve top rankings for keywords and key phrases for which their potential customers are looking for, meeting the requirements of clients, enabling your customers to find you and not your competitors etc.
Companies that provide E-Marketing services are ARFY.NET who is the pioneer of SEO outsourcing to Pakistan, Sofizar SEO Specialists and many others. These companies mission is to provide strategic planning, design and development of technological solutions so that they can meet clients’ requirements and make generous profits.
Another form of E-Marketing which is quick and cost effective is e-mail marketing. E-mail marketing has become very popular now because of the quick response rates close to 35% and that it can reach an unlimited number of people at the same time. There is also an option of a newsletter which is an excellent means of promoting products and services that a company has to offer to a wider range of people.
If people like what they see, they could forward the e-mail to their list of contacts and so forth which is called viral marketing allowing your potential customer base to dramatically increase. Viral marketing will only happen if the e-mail provides substantial information that is attractive and informative simultaneously leaving the reader wanting to choose your products or avail the services you have to offer.
Internet marketing is a phenomena which allows businesses to have a strong web presence, generate income and meet the needs of the online customers at the click of a button. If it is used to its potential businesses can not only meet the requirements of their company and clients but also aim for bigger and better goals which will enable them to project their name on a universal level.
Teaching Aids
February 9, 2007
Umair Naeem takes a look at the teaching aids around us!
A natural synergy is often said to exist between teaching and technology, whereby computers and the Internet can take great steps towards the two-fold goal of making learning more interactive and fun for children, and easier to impart for the teachers. Unfortunately though, this synergy is difficult to obtain, especially in countries such as ours where computer aided teaching is something that is yet to take off. Add this to the existing lack of resources and education in Pakistan and it is difficult to see how the future could see technology and education moving together. Still though, it takes a few people to take up something before the rest can follow, and so it’s always a good idea to have a look at some of the ways in which technology can be used with teaching.
Pakistan Studies
Let’s start with one of the core subjects of most students’ school life, Pakistan Studies. Pakistan Studies is a course that encompasses the Geography and History of Pakistan, along with taking a slightly briefer look at Geography and History of the World. On the surface, it appears that these are subjects that are miles apart from technology usage, but then things are not always what they seem. [Read more]
Online Communities: The Good, Bad & Ugly!
December 9, 2006
Humans are social animals, and the said aspect has become a part and parcel of their daily lives. As they go on through life, they tend to stick within communities, relate themselves to their peers, create friendships and form various cliques. It is with these communities, cliques, peers and friends that they interact and communicate, and drive a sense of satisfaction and completion. This sense of contentment is driven by the acceptance that individuals derive from those that surround them, and this acceptance even forms an important part of the famous Maslow pyramid of human self-actualization. It hence becomes a little surprising that as technology and the Internet tighten their grip over the world; the level of human interactions continues to decrease. Online Virtual Communities are now the rage, and seem to be slowly but surely creating an ever growing niche for themselves.
It is not surprising that technology has given us the freedom to sit on our PCs and still be able to interact with someone possibly in
The What!
The most definitive description of an online or a virtual community revolves around an online, Internet or Intranet based community, existing through the interactions of the individuals within that community, all of whom communicate solely through the internet. These online communications attempt to simulate all of the intricacies of a face-to-face physical interaction, and allow for an exchange of conversations, ideas and opinion without any constraint with regards to geographical location. As a result of the said freedom, online communities are able to take on a number of personas. They can be development oriented, as showcased by the massive online communities that collaboratively produce open source code, or they can be based on the need for social networking, such as Orkut and its likes. Online communities can even be entire virtual cities, such as the Warcraft Universe.
Just as they can be utilized for a number of areas, a virtual community can be structured to allow for different degrees of social interactions. The participation of the individuals within the community can range from simply adding comments to forums and blogs, to having interactive conversations in chat rooms, to competing with players from all over the world in simulated gaming environments such as Warcraft or X-Box Live.
Typical to human psychology, some of these communities further break up to form cliques and communities within communities. Some of the newer more popular communities are [Read more]