The Fast of ‘Ashura (The 10th of Muharram) & Historical Significance of ‘Ashura

Abu Qatada (Radiyallahu 'anh) relates that the Holy Nabi (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) said that the fast on the 10th of Muharram atones for the sins of the preceding year. [Sahih Muslim]

Abu Huraira (Radiyallahu 'anh) reports that the Holy Nabi (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) said that after Ramadan, the fasts of Muharram have the greatest excellence. [Sahih Muslim]

Alhamdulillah, Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) has blessed us to see another year. The first month of this year is Muharram. In this month is an excellent day—the day of ‘Ashura—which falls on the 10th of Muharram. The Holy Nabi (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) recommended that we fast on this day, by his Sunnah. He also indicated how we should observe the fast of ‘Ashura.

Hakam ibn Al-Arat (Radiyallahu 'anh) relates: I went to Ibn Abbas (Radiyallahu 'anh)… I said to him: Tell me about fasting on ‘Ashura. He said, "When you seen the new moon of Muharram count the (days) and (begin to) observe fast on the 9th." I said to him: "Is it how the Holy Messenger of Allah (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) observed the fast?" He said, "Yes." [Sahih Muslim]

Hazrat Ibn Abbas (Radiyallahu 'anh) relates that when the Holy Nabi (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) said: "If I survive till next year, I will definitely observe fast on the 9th of Muharram (as well)." [Sahih Muslim]

(Note: What the Holy Nabi (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) meant was that he would also fast on the 9th as well as the 10th to which he was accustomed. We also should try fasting on the 9th and the 10th of Muharram.)


The Historical Significance of ‘Ashura


Hazrat Ibn Abbas (Radiyallahu 'anh) reports that the Holy Nabi (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) arrived in Madinah and found the Jews observing fast on the day of ‘Ashura… They said: "It is the day of great (significance) when Allah delivered Hazrat Musa ('Alaihis-Salaam) and his people and drowned Pharoah and his people, and Sayyidina Musa ('Alaihis-Salaam) observed fast out of gratitude. And we also observe it." The Holy Messenger of Allah (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) responded: "We have more right, and we have closer connection with Sayyidina Musa ('Alaihis-Salaam) than you have"; so Allah’s Messenger (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) observed fast (on the day of ‘Ashura) and gave us orders to observe it. [Sahih Bukhari and Muslim]

‘Ashura is a day of great historical significance.On this day:

1) Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) accepted the repentance of Sayyidina Adam ('Alaihis-Salaam) after his exile from Paradise;
2) Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) saved Sayyidina Nuh ('Alaihis-Salaam) and his companions in the ark;
3) Allah extinguished the fire in which Sayyidina Ibrahim ('Alaihis-Salaam) was thrown by Nimrod;
4) Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) spoke directly to Sayyidina Musa ('Alaihis-Salaam) and gave him the Commandments.
5) On this same 10th of Muharram, Sayyidina Ayyub ('Alaihis-Salaam) was restored to health (from leprosy);
6) Sayyidina Yusuf ('Alaihis-Salaam) was reunited with his father Ya’qub ('Alaihis-Salaam);
7) Sayyidina Yunus ('Alaihis-Salaam) was taken out from the belly of the fish; and the sea was divided as the nation of israel was delivered from captivity and Pharoah’s army was destroyed.
8) ‘Ashura is also the day when the kingdom of Sulaiman ('Alaihis-Salaam) was restored;
9) Sayyidina Isa ('Alaihis-Salaam) was raised to Jannah; and Sayyidina al- Imam Husayn (Radiyallahu 'anh) (the Holy Nabi’s, Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim, grandson) achieved the honor of Martyrdom(Shahadat)


Worship Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) as much as you can on ‘Ashura.

1) Whoever fasts on this day is like one who fasts all his life.
2) Whoever clothes a naked person Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) will release him from a painful punishment.
3) He who visits a sick person, Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) will grant him a reward that will not be decreased.
4) Whoever places his hand on an orphan’s head, or feeds a hungry person or gives water to a thirsty man, Allah will feed him a feast from Paradise and will quench his thirst with Salsabil (a wine that does not intoxicate). A
5) who ever takes a Ghusl on this day will enjoy excellent health and freedom from sickness and indolence. Whoever provides generously for his family on this day, Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) will be generous to him throughout this year.
6) whoever applies Kuhl to his eyes will never suffer from eye-sore again, Insha’Allah al-Aziz

O’ Allah! Bless us to perform good deeds and gain their reward on ‘Ashura. Make the new year one of unity, cooperation and success for Muslims in this city and around the world. Ameen.

I Miss You !! a true feeling by a friend....

I Miss You!

As I lay down at night
I think how things have changed
Ever since you entered it
My whole life's re-arranged
But I wish that i could see you sooner than i can
It's like you're a movie star
And i'm your biggest fan

But I miss you
Like i miss the sun on a rainy day
Like i miss the moon when it goes away
But the sun and the moon
don't mean nearly as much to me
As you do
I could live without them But i need you
And i miss you

Now that we're so far apart
I love you even more
Maybe we both love too much
But, hey, that's what friends are for
It's not that i pitty you
But I'll admit your life's been tough
I just wish that physically
I could be there when things get rough

But I miss you
Like i miss the sun on a rainy day
Like i miss the moon when it goes away
But the sun and the moon
don't mean nearly as much to me
As you do
I could live without them But i need you
And i miss you

Factors affecting Rehabilitation and Reconstruction

Much of the material in this section was originally written for the UN Disaster Management Training Programme (DMTP).

It is the experience of National Societies that the scope of rehabilitation and reconstruction depends on the following main factors:
• The nature of the disaster
• The scale of the damage
• The location of the event
• The sectors affected
• The available resources
• The quality of services and structures

Reconstruction is part of rehabilitation. It is defined as the replacement of buildings, machinery, equipment and materials destroyed or damaged in a disaster. Reconstruction must be fully integrated into long-term development plans, taking into account future disaster risks and possibilities to reduce such risks by incorporating appropriate measures. Damaged structures and services may not necessarily be restored in their previous form or location. It may include the replacement of any temporary arrangements established as a part of emergency response or rehabilitation.

We will discuss three important aspects of rehabilitation.

1. Nutritional aspects of rehabilitation
2. Water and sanitation aspects of rehabilitation
3. Construction aspects of reconstruction
4.Social and economic aspects of rehabilitation

1. Nutritional aspects of rehabilitation

The nutritional component of a rehabilitation programme aims to restore self-reliance through local production and/or market exchange, whilst ensuring a supply of sufficient basic foods, to encourage employment and self-help rather than relief, to stimulate food production by all means, and to improve storage facilities and distribution.

The restoration of food-supply systems and nutrition after a disaster may take a very long time, but the period during which relief food is distributed should be kept as short as possible and relief food should be replaced by locally-produced or traded food.

In areas with recurrent food shortages, rehabilitation should be included in development planning and not treated as a separate issue.
Food and nutrition are not separate issues and must be considered within the processes of emergency relief and rehabilitation, as the restoration of the production and marketing of local food may take a very long time and, in the meantime, it may be necessary to distribute relief food. Prolonged distribution of limited rations causes deterioration in the health of the survivors and the final withdrawal of the agencies providing relief food may precipitate a further disaster.

Nutritional aspects of rehabilitation should aim to:

• Restore local production and trade (highest priority).
• Prevent and treat malnutrition.
• Prevent and treat micro-nutrient deficiency.

In all rehabilitation programmes which involve a nutritional component, the following six questions should always be asked.

1. Who is suffering from malnutrition?
2. Why are they suffering?
3. How many are they?
4. Where are they?
5. How can they be reached?
6. What needs to be done to improve their food supply?

2.Water and sanitation aspects of rehabilitation
Water supply and sanitation have implications for all aspects of health as well as for labour quality and environment. Water is absolutely essential for life. An adequate supply of clean drinking water in sufficient quantity is a first rank priority in any situation and particularly after disasters. Sanitation is a key issue in all situations and it becomes even more important when a community is displaced outside its normal environment.
As part of their responsibility to assist the most vulnerable. National Societies should take upon themselves the responsibility to ensure that the water and sanitation needs of the most vulnerable are being met, either directly by the Society or by other appropriate government or non-government bodies. The restoration of basic water and sanitation services requires expert technical knowledge. National Societies should only become directly involved in this field where they have access to such knowledge.

3. Construction aspects of reconstruction
Construction covers a wide range of activities from the distribution of materials for emergency/temporary shelter and building houses, to the reconstruction of public buildings such as schools, hospitals or health posts. Before embarking on major civil engineering construction projects such as cyclone shelters, housing complexes, reconstruction of schools or hospitals, it is also essential to carry out a proper feasibility study which should lead to a clear project description and detailed project agreement. The project must be managed by a professional engineer.

4.Social and economic aspects of rehabilitation

National Societies should concentrate upon the following social aspects of rehabilitation:
• Ensuring the follow-up of victims, assessing their needs and resources and giving support, encouragement and guidance
• Keeping in contact with concerned authorities and community agencies for co-ordination purposes, through a specially designated person
• Helping arrange for the resumption of children schooling, in co-operation with the proper authorities, if there is a prolonged shelter operation
• Planning or continuing activities that will contribute to the rehabilitation effort, such as: recreational programmes, special programmes for the elderly and the disabled (e.g. day centres).
In general National Societies will only play a peripheral role in economic rehabilitation. Where they do play a role, their programmes should aim to:
• Target those individuals and families whose economic security has been most threatened by the disaster
• Replace household economic assets lost in the disaster, such as tools, seeds, agricultural animals
• Where old economic activities cannot be restored National Societies should consider programmes to stimulate the growth of new activities which will be directly accessible by the most vulnerable
Just as every disaster is different, every rehabilitation programme will take place in a unique set of circumstances. Nevertheless, experience in past disasters suggests that the National Societies should use the following principles.
• Many victims do not need help in making future plans only the resources to implement them
• Economic and social planning should meet the needs of the victims, not the planners
• Disasters bring out latent problems; economic, social and emotional
• Disaster victims need to have confidence in National Society personnel in order to accept counselling or assistance in community organisation programmes. As far as possible, National Society personnel should be appointed with the expectation of remaining over the emergency period and into the rehabilitation period
• There is a need to maintain contact between the National Society personnel and the victims. This is very important because after the first emotional public reaction, disaster victims are usually left alone to cope with their problems
• Communities as well as individuals need help during this phase. National Society personnel skilled in community work (community development, community organisation) can play a key role in helping the community to: focus on the problems, mobilise resources, get organised

Sectors affected
A comprehensive rehabilitation and reconstruction plan should take into consideration both the physical and non-physical needs of the communities. Failing to ensure that rehabilitation needs are addressed in all their complexity can have adverse consequences. First, it may result in large investment in buildings without the necessary inputs to help the victims become psychologically fit, socially coherent and economically self-sustained. Secondly, it is important to recognise the links between physical and socio/psychological recovery. For example, when disaster victims are active in rebuilding their houses it can have an important economical and therapeutic value. Thus double dividends may result from their active involvement in physical rebuilding.

Organization Structures in Project Management

A project is defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI), as a temporary Endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service”. In lay person terms a project is a grouping of tasks with a specified start and end date, a specific and defined objective, a budget and resources assigned to the effort.
A project is one time event that creates or manages change. Either you are implementing something new such as a new program, a new system or you are enhancing existing programs or systems. Repetitive task or performing the same task again and again is not by definition projects.
To manage a project, a company or authority has to set up a project organization, which can supply the resources for the project and service it during its life cycle.
There are three main types of project organizations:
1. Functional;
2. Matrix;
3. Project or task force.
Functional Organization: This type of organization consists of specialist or functional departments each with their own departmental manager responsible to one or more directors. Such an organization is ideal for routine operations where there is little variation of the end product. Functional organizations are usually found where items are mass produced, whether they are motor cars or sausages. Each department is expert at its function and the interrelationship between them is well established.
In this sense a functional organization is not a project-type organization at all and is only included because when small, individual, one-off projects have to be carried out, they may be given to a particular department to manage. For projects of any reasonable size or complexity, it will be necessary to set up one of the other two types of organizations.
Matrix Organization: This is probably the most common type of project organization, since it utilizes an existing functional organization to provide the human resources without disrupting the day-to-day operation of the department. The personnel allocated to a particular project are responsible to a project manager for meeting the three basic project criteria, time, cost and quality.
The departmental manager is, however, still responsible for their ‘pay and rations’ and their compliance with the department’s standards and procedures, including technical competence and conformity to company quality standards. The members of this project team will still be working at their desks in their department, but will be booking their time to the project. Where the project does not warrant a full-time contribution, only those hours actually expended on the project will be allocated to it.
Project Organization: Project Organization is a structure that is specifically designed for executing projects. It is specifically tailored to meet the demands of complex projects by isolating unique work and maintaining a strong focus on completing the project. Once the project is completed, this structure disbands. This structure is effective in maintaining dedicated resources throughout the life of the project.
The major criticism of this structure is that it is inefficient in transferring technology and the use of resources. Also, by the time the members actually begin acting as a cohesive team, the project is over and the organization dissolves. Since this project has dedicated resources throughout its life, major inefficiency ensues when there are underutilized employees during certain parts of the project.
Project objectives define target status at the end of the project, reaching of which is considered necessary for the achievement of planned benefits. They can be formulated as S.M.A.R.T.E.R;

1. Specific
2. Measurable (or at least evaluable) achievement
3. Achievable (recently Acceptable is used regularly as well)
4. Realistic (given the current state of organizational resources)
5. Time terminated (bounded)
6. Ethical and Recorded

The evaluation (measurement) occurs at the project closure. However a continuous guard on the project progress should be kept by monitoring and evaluating. It is also worth noting that SMART or SMARTER is best applied for incremental type innovation projects. For radical type projects it does not apply as well. Goals for such projects tend to be broad, qualitative, stretch/unrealistic and success driven.

Customer Retention:In View of Total Quality Management

Customer Retention

Customer Retention is the activity that a selling organization undertakes in order to reduce customer defections. Successful customer retention starts with the first contact an organization has with a customer and continues throughout the entire lifetime of a relationship. A company’s ability to attract and retain new customers, is not only related to its product or services, but strongly related to the way it services its existing customers and the reputation it creates within and across the marketplace.

Customer retention is more than giving the customer what they expect; it’s about exceeding their expectations so that they become loyal advocates for your brand. Creating customer loyalty puts ‘customer value rather than maximizing profits and shareholder value at the center of business strategy’. The key differentiator in a competitive environment is more often than not the delivery of a consistently high standard of customer service.

Customer retention is not only a cost effective and profitable strategy, but in today's business world it's necessary. This is especially true when you remember that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customer and clients. With these statistics I am wondering why most marketing and sales campaigns are designed for the new customer.

Take for instance the wireless telephone companies; if you sign a new contract you are given a large rebate or even a free cellular telephone. If you are a current customer you have the privilege of paying full price. Can someone please explain that methodology to me. With this type of promotion are we not just pushing current customers and clients to seek services elsewhere when their contract ends?

Perhaps we need to rethink our marketing and sales strategies, after all many experts will tell you that it's five times more profitable to spend marketing and advertising dollars to retain current customers than it is to acquire new customers. In years past the importance of focusing on customer retention was not as important, stickiness came naturally. We shopped in our neighbourhood shops and our corner grocery stores. We had a personal connection with our service providers and the thought of shopping at another store would have never crossed our minds.

That has all changed now. Our stores our larger, the majority of the sales personnel don't know that you even exist. Not to mention that now we have the convenience of the Internet and do a large portion of our shopping online, where you are known by your email address. As a result, customer loyalty has disappeared and large corporations and virtual storefronts are unable to ask the millions of disloyal customers what caused them to stray.

However, there is a solution. Sophisticated technology and database equipment has made it possible for specialized firms to make attempts at customer retention through database marketing programs. Establishing a detailed client database will allow these companies to keep track of personal information and individual preferences of all their customers. This enables them to provide better service and value. Just like the corner grocery store owner kept information on 200 customers in his head, the large superstore can now keep track of 20,000 customers through its customer database. With effective implementation of customer databases, companies will be able to re-establish contact with customers, and will be able to work successfully towards increasing customer retention, repeat sales, and customer referrals.

To achieve the objectives of the database and customer retention programs, the entire campaign should be designed and carried out with the customer in mind. The exercise will only be effective if the customer recognizes and associates some value with being part of your database. If they do not perceive value in your program all of your communications, coupons, special offers, and newsletters will be discarded. Your customers have been inundated with meaningless "junk" mail and email spam, so embed your campaign with value.

A few values-add strategies that you can use include:

* Membership cards and programs that entitle your customers to special offers, discounts, or preferential treatment.

* Welcome, acknowledgement, sales recognition, thank you statements.

* After sales satisfaction and complaint inquiries and surveys.

* Event oriented communications in which the customer is genuinely interested.

* Enhanced and empowered customer, after sales, and technical support.

Development of the Policy Approach and its Impact in IT sector of Pakistan

Development of the Policy Approach and its Impact-an perspective of Pakistan Software Export Board and its Polices

A policy is typically described as a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome(s). However, the term may also be used to denote what is actually done, even though it is unplanned.
The term may apply to government, private sector organizations and groups, and individuals. Presidential executive orders, corporate privacy policies, and parliamentary rules of order are all examples of policy. Policy differs from rules or law. While law can compel or prohibit behaviours (e.g. a law requiring the payment of taxes on income) policy merely guides actions toward those that are most likely to achieve a desired outcome.
Policy or policy study may also refer to the process of making important organizational decisions, including the identification of different alternatives such as programs or spending priorities, and choosing among them on the basis of the impact they will have. Policies can be understood as political, management, financial, and administrative mechanisms arranged to reach explicit goals.
Policy is define as “ the activities of government and techniques used to make decisions regarding its activities have always been studied through various disciplines with in the social sciences”, over the last three decades there is an increased interest in the analysis of policy in order to understand and improve the decision-making capacity and outputs of the government.
Issues Impacting Policy Development Process
The four issues that can impact the policy are:
1. Universal
2. Advocacy
3. Selective
4. Technical
Now we will discuss them one by one.
Universal Issues
Universal issues affect large numbers of people in all walks of life. The designation of an issue as universal is not permanent; that is. These issues change with logical and economic conditions. Universal issues or problems are viewed as serious and imminent and concern is such that people feel government must intervene.
Advocacy Issues
Advocacy issues stand lower on pubic hierarchy of concerns than universal issues. For much of the population they are often potential rather than actual problems. Advocacy issues are usually introduced and promoted by interest groups claiming to represent board public interests. Although these types of issues don’t initially strike people as critically important and may or may not elicit government action, once a solution is identified large numbers of people may see government action as appropriate.
Selective Issues
Selective issues are those in which special interest groups promoting their own interests attempt to pose as promoting the public interest. These issues are usually matters affecting identifiable special interest groups or populations that may be identified geographic, demographics, occupational or other criteria. The costs of solving problems raised by interest groups for their specific causes are passed on to the public at large, since the solution to the problem in this manner is more or less “free” to the special interest group. Such issues also tend to generate intense commitment and activism for access to the policy agenda and government support.
Examples include the implementation of tariffs that result in higher prices fro consumers, residents living near nuclear waste sites or the use of hazardous materials that are within current acceptable government levels.
Technical
Usually the public has little or no interest in technical issues due to their complex nature and the less visible political attention they receive. Technical issues have no public profile but represent the vast majority of the government’s day to day regulatory activities. The public is very often content to leave to these policy issues to the experts. However when there is a major failure in managing the technical issues such as water contamination or the spread of a virus technical issues can shift into universal issues with public demand for government intervention.





Government Policy Making: Factors of Influence

The legislative system with in which the government operates play a central role in the policy making process.
Legislatures are found nearly in all societies, albeit in different forms. They serve to provide even nominally representative institutions legitimacy in law making by discussing and passing public policies.
Legislatures have some common characteristics which can be used to define them. These include:
A claim on legitimacy based on representing the public or publics
Power over law making
Nominal equality of membership
Processes for collective decision making
Legislatures serve three central functions:
Representation
Law Making
Oversight
Representation
Legislatures are often the branch of government in which popular complaints, dissatisfactions and demands for action are often articulated. In democratic system, the public has greater access to the legislature through their elected representative, over which they have a large claim for action and accountability than they do on other government officials. Legislative proceedings are often also organised to include debate and discussion with the public such as through advisory committees and hearings.
Law Making
Law making is an important tool that formally articulates and translates citizen preferences into policy through enacting legislation. Law making can be a difficult process and usually requires that the differences in public preferences as articulated by various representatives are reconciled. In most legislated bodies, reconciliation of various public interests in law making is carried out through committees. Committee systems provide forums for different groups to express their differences as well as environments that foster compromise and decision.

Oversight
Oversight occurs after a law is passed. It involves monitoring executing activities for efficiency, probity and fidelity.
In parliamentary systems with a dominant majority, oversight tends to be less developed than in presidential systems where different parties can control a branch of the government.
Useful oversight powers include:
The ability to remove executives
The power to get information from the executives
Control of appropriations and expenditures
System of monitoring and assessing the executive branch
Other Purposes/ Functions
Legislatures can also serve the following purposes:
Serving as an electoral college to put governments into power in parliamentary systems
Making decisions when election results are inconclusive or in dispute in presidential systems
Implementing apportionment formulae recognising ethnic, religious, language, gender, economic and geographic differences for representation in the legislature for national integration
Providing an arena in which policy ideas might be incubated

Now we will discuss that how a policy change in government sector particularly in information technology has help many private organizations to help them in growing, generating thousand of jobs and increasing the GNP.
We will study the roll of Pakistan Software Export Board, its Facilitation to new companies.


Pakistan Software Export Board
PSEB is a guarantee limited company with a Board of Directors comprising representatives of the Government, industry associations and the private sector. PSEB is Government-owned, and is mandated to promote Pakistan’s Information Technology (IT) industry. In order to achieve this objective, PSEB undertakes a number of programs:
About 700,000 square feet of IT-enabled space has been leased out to IT companies in PSEB-designated IT Parks, and there are plans to construct several new Parks over the next couple of years.
PSEB also operates one of the most successful quality certification programs in the world, under which 110 IT companies have received International Standards Organization (ISO) certification.
There are a number of human resource development initiatives, including an internship program which has received national recognition for placing 2500 interns within the IT industry – 80% of whom have been permanently employed.
PSEB works extensively with the international and domestic media in order to promote Pakistan’s IT industry, and also subsidizes participation in international trade shows and delegations. Under a new targeted marketing program, Pakistan’s key strengths in animation, call centers, finance, gaming, medical transcription, and other areas will be offered to promising markets.
PSEB also plans to launch a Venture Capital (VC) Fund that will be part of an ecosystem for IT financing. The organization also advocates industry perspectives with a number of Government agencies related to data protection, intellectual property protection, tariffs, taxation, and other areas.
Facilitation activities offered to IT companies include assistance in visa processing, call center certification, software import, and access to a number of PSEB-commissioned, as well as international studies and reports.
All PSEB activities are part of an integrated strategy and action plan whose mission is to achieve fast track growth of the Pakistani IT industry from 2 billion dollars in 2006 to 10 billion dollars by 2010 – including global export receipts, domestic IT services, software and hardware. History
In 1995, it was felt by the Government of Pakistan that to guide and nourish the development of the software industry in the country, and to provide one-stop facilitation on behalf of all ministries, departments and agencies of Government of Pakistan in matters relating to the setting up of the software development and export business in the private sector, an organization needed to be created as no such existing Government of Pakistan Department was providing the said services. It is important to note that, at that period, significant strides were being made by India in this direction.

In line with this realization, Private Software Export Board (PSEB) was established by means of an executive order vide Cabinet Division’s notification dated 12th June 1995. The said notification outlined the composition and functions of the Board. The Board of Directors comprises of seven members, all nominees of the Federal Government. One nominee is traditionally from the private sector. The primary and most significant task entrusted with the board was the formation of a national software policy to facilitate the rapid development of the Pakistan software industry.

The word ‘Private’ in the name of the organization was substituted by the word ‘Pakistan’ by the Ministry of Communication, Government of Pakistan in September 1997. Hence the name became “PAKISTAN SOFTWARE EXPORT BOARD (PSEB)”.

Since PSEB was operating on a small scale and its main activities were limited to company registrations and renewals, limited interaction with the local software industry, and occasionally participation in seminars and international exhibitions, it was realized that opportunities in the IT sector could be better tapped if PSEB were to become a more independent organization. PSEB was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Ordinance - 1984, in June-1998.Major Functions
Undertake research and study on the state of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector and propose strategies for fast track and sustainable development of the Pakistan IT industry including software and services, IT enabled services, and hardware in both export and domestic markets.
Study the laws and regulations of various competitor countries and propose improvements and modifications in Pakistan public policy impacting the IT industry in the light of Pakistan’s requirements.
Register IT companies in Pakistan and propose and provide fiscal, regulatory and corporate incentives and facilitation to them. Act as a one-stop shop to cater to all the needs of an IT company for setting up or facilitating its IT business ventures in Pakistan. Act as a bridge between the private IT companies and the various government bodies.
Work with telecom regulators and operators to reduce broadband bandwidth tariffs and rates and improve quality in order to maintain international competitiveness.
Plan, develop and establish “Software Technology Parks” and IT Parks in Pakistan
Determine human capital requirements of the IT industry and work to address these needs in collaboration with other entities.
Develop and execute a marketing plan to help local software companies reach out to potential clients abroad, attract and facilitate foreign software firms to establish their software development facilities in Pakistan. Arrange the participation of Pakistani IT Industry in domestic and international IT events. Provide protocol, hosting and match-making facilities for foreign delegates and investors. Establish a web portal for customers, investors and companies and prepare and disseminate marketing collateral.
Develop company capability by assisting them in acquiring quality, security and other certifications.
Facilitate company growth by enabling access to equity and debt financing and by fostering an entrepreneurial culture.
Undertake targeted development of sectors like ERP for Small and Medium Industry and Open Source Technologies to boost these sectors and create a snow ball affect.
Management-TeamPSEB is registered as a Guarantee Limited company with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. Owned 100% by the Government of Pakistan, it falls within the administrative control of the Ministry of Information Technology, and is governed through a Board of Directors appointed by the Prime Minister. Chaired by the Federal Minister for Information Technology in his ex-officio capacity, the other Directors on the Board include the Chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau, the Federal Secretary IT, the Federal Secretary Finance, the Managing Director PSEB, the President of the Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA), and a prominent member of the IT industry, currently Mr. Atif Rais Khan, CEO of LMKR. All the Directors except for Mr. Atif Khan are on the Board by virtue of their official positions and not in their individual capacities.
PSEB obtains funding from three sources:
A direct grant from the Federal Government, in the form of an annual budget.
PSEB also generates some funds through the registration fee that it collects from the IT companies, and also from the sale of bandwidth within the IT Parks that it manages.
PSEB manages projects funded by the annual Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) through the Ministry of Information Technology. These funds are typically in the range of Rs. 60 million per year.
PSEB employs a core group of about 109 people, with various others being employed on PSDP projects as per the demands of each project. With regional offices in Karachi and Lahore, PSEB’s head office is in Islamabad, which is where the senior management team is located.
Key Financial Points IT in Pakistan

Pakistan’s economic recovery has gained further traction during the fiscal year 2004-05.The Real GDP grew by 8.4 percent in 2004-05 as against 6.4 percent last year and surpassed the target (6.6%) for the year by a wide margin. In service sector export relating to IT and IT enabled services (ITeS) during 2004-2005 accounted for US$ 48.50 million, which is transacted through the State Bank of Pakistan. Whereas the export target for current fiscal year that is 2005-2006 are made for US$ 72.00 million.

Information Technology (IT) is revolutionizing the way, in which we work in evolving business climate. Pakistan is rich in human resource, which constitutes the foundation for any major IT initiative. The technology has emerged as fastest growing sector in Pakistan. During last 10 years, Pakistan has been developing human capital and infrastructure to cope with rapidly advancing IT world.

IT Sector in Pakistan can be categorized in three-sub sectors: Software, Hardware and Communication & Service Industry. Pakistan’s software industry widely seen as “great enabler” that provides an opportunity to play a greater economic role in the fast globalizing world. According to conservative estimates, there are about 350-500 software houses in Pakistan working in local and export market in areas of database management, internet applications, CAD/CAM management system etc.

The software industry can be categorized on the basis of products/ services and market. On product/services basis the industry is focusing on product only, services only and hybrid operations that are both product and services including changes in existing products. On market basis the industry can be categorized as Domestic Focused Local Firms, Export Focused Local Firms, Export Focused Foreign Firms and Dedicated Development Center.

The ability of Pakistan to produce quality software is based on our abundant pool of IT professionals. Pakistan is producing about 5,500 IT graduates annually but there is need to utilize their potential and facilitate their innovations. The online services with unmatched security and superior customer satisfaction are required to enhance market and open new horizon for the sector.

There are only 100 business-to-business (B2B) users in Pakistan compared to 75,000 in Hong Kong, which is top of the list. The business-to-consumer volume is greater but no statistics are available. Just how low narrow the base of B2B business is evident from the fact that the number of B2B users in Sri Lanka is ten-times to Pakistan. Iran has a same number of B2B users it enjoys a better rating than Pakistan as far as infrastructure readiness, awareness/education and investment in the e-commerce is concerned.

As the global IT and IT-enabled services (IT/ITeS) industry matures, quality certifications are becoming critical to success of products and services. PSEB has developed an especially designed incentives program to assist IT/ITeS companies in Pakistan for securing these certifications.

ISO 9001-2000
Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)
Customer Operations Performance Center (COPC)

The Government of Pakistan has provided several incentives to investors for promoting the IT industry in the country. The government has designed IT policy and regulations for the promotion of Information Technology. The Focus areas of Pakistan IT Policy are:

1. Human Resource (HR) Development
2. Infrastructure Development
3. Software Development









INTRODUCTION

Pakistan’s economic recovery has gained further traction during the fiscal year 2004-05. The exceptionally strong growth was strengthened by accommodative macroeconomic policies, growing domestic demand, renewed confidence of private sector, fiscal discipline and competitive exchange rates. During the year 2004-2005 Pakistan’s economy extended in all three major components namely, agriculture, manufacturing and services. The Real GDP grew by 8.4 percent in 2004-05 as against 6.4 percent last year and surpassed the target (6.6%) for the year by a wide margin. The growth in year 2004-2005 is supported by a healthy performance in large-scale manufacturing (15.4%), impressive recovery in agriculture (7.5%) and a strong growth in services sector (7.9%).

Service sector is one of the major contributor of country’s growth, grew by 7.9 percent in
2004-05 aided by remarkable growth in finance and banking sector (21.8%), wholesale and retail trade (12.0%); and a modest growth in transport and communication (5.6%). The per capita income in dollars has grown at an average rate of 13.5 percent per annum during the last three years rising from $ 579 in 2002-03 to $ 657 in 2003-04 and further to $ 736 in 2004-05.

Exports were targeted to grow by 11.3 percent in 2004-05 rising from $12.3 billion last year to $13.7 billion this year, thereby registering an increase of $1.3 billion in absolute terms.

One-half of the net increase in exports amounting to $651 million has come from the non traditional exports items, followed by 27 percent from other manufactures and 13.4 percent from primary commodities exports.

1. Information Technology

Information Technology (IT) is revolutionizing the way, in which we work in evolving business climate. In a short period of three decades, computer science has developed from branch of electronics to one of the largest engineering disciplines itself. The reason for the rapid growth in the demand for software development is lead by the widespread use of computers in everyday life, evolution of high-powered general-purpose computers and low cost of maintaining, debugging of software products. The potential in the field of software development is still growing worldwide.

Pakistan is rich in human resource, which constitutes the foundation for any major IT initiative. The technology has emerged as fastest growing sector in Pakistan. During last 10 years, Pakistan has been developing human capital and infrastructure to cope with rapidly advancing IT world. The Government is fully aware of IT being the driving force in the new millennium. Presently, IT industry is in take off stage and catching up with regional and global industry. Pakistan is also sharing internationally in IT. Pakistan is in best position to take on the challenges in the global market. IT Sector in Pakistan can be categorized in three sub sectors:

Software Industry
Hardware Industry
Communication and Service Industry


1.1 Software Industry

Pakistan’s software industry widely seen as “great enabler” that provides an opportunity to play a greater economic role in the fast globalizing world. According to conservative estimates, there are about 350-500 software houses working local and export market in areas of Database management, Internet applications, CAD/CAM management system etc.

A detail survey of Pakistan software market based on top leading 60 software houses representing the total software market. It shows that there are over 4,000 technical and professional employees with an average of 66 employees in an organization. Out of these software houses 32% of the software companies reporting annual revenues of more than a million dollar with some reporting more then $5M, another 36% between $200K and $1M, and the rest 32% less than $200K. On the whole these companies had experienced an employment growth of about 27.5% and a revenue growth of 37.4 % over last year.

These companies derive their revenues from export and domestic markets in a ratio of 60:40. On the exports side, they derive 22.5% revenues from products and 38.5% revenues from services. The majority of the product-exports are “customized” rather than “shrink-wrapped” products. On the domestic side, however, the ratios are somewhat reversed with products and services contributing 23% and 16.5% respectively. The industry is serving the private sector markets with around 85% of the total sales going to private sector (local and foreign combined) and the rest going to public sector, equally divided between domestic and foreign.

1.2 Hardware Industry

Computer hardware industry can be defined as design, development, manufacturing and maintenance of all products, components that form building blocks of an IT infrastructure. Computer hardware manufacturing is extremely capital intensive industry. Presently, there is no state of the art hardware manufacturing activity in Pakistan because imported hardware components are available in abundance and on cheaper rates. Especially after the emerging in China as a big computer hardware manufacturer & supplier, the prices of hardware components have been reduced.
In this scenario, the computer hardware manufacturing facility in Pakistan is not currently available and feasible. Mostly the computer vendors are assembling the imported parts and components but some companies like INBOX, RAFFLES, MICRO PAK etc. have developed organized assembly lines and are producing small components like casings of PCs.




Following categories included in the scope/definition of hardware industry:-

Computing Devices: Desktop Computing Devices, Servers and Mainframes, Work
Stations, Mobile Computing Devices including Hand-held computing devices
Computer Mother Boards and Cards including: Computer Processor, Mother
Boards, Mother Board Cards/Chips, Device Interface and Controller Cards
Other Computer peripherals (input/output device): Computer Monitors,
Keyboards, Mouse, Digitizers, Pointing Devices, Printers & Plotters, Scanners of all kinds, Multi-Media Kits, Gaming Devices, All kinds of computer output devices.
Computer Networking Products: Hubs, Routers, Networking Switches, Computer
Networking Connectors, Fiber Optical Cables and networking accessories like,
Connectors, Patch Panels, Back Boards, Wiring Block, Surface Mount Boxes
Power Suppliers for Computing Devices: Switch Board Power Supply,
Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS)
Storage Devices Including: Magnetic Hard Disk Drives with Controllers, Floppy
Disk Drives, CD Rom Drives/CD Read-Write Drives, Digital Versatile Drives
(DVDs), Back Up Devices like Tape, DLT, ZIP, RAID Drives etc.
Consumables: Floppy Disks, Writable/Re-writable CDs, Backup Media like
Magnetic Tapes, Optical Devices, ZIP/ZAP Disks, Toners/Ink Cartridges/Ink for
computer output Devices
Computer Communication Equipment: Multiplexers, Modems including Cable
Modems, Wireless Datacom Equipment – including Set top boxes for Video and
Digital Signaling, Computer Interface Equipment with the Hand-Held Devices like
Pagers, Mobile Cellular Phones etc.

1.3 Communication and Service Industry

Pakistan IT industry equipped with modern and rapidly expanding telecommunication system with highly skilled and economical work force. Total 1900 cities/towns/villages have been provided Internet facility and total telephone lines installed by March 2005 were 5.5 million as against 4.4 million up to June 2004 last year.8 Pakistan’s Tele industry is growing at a reasonable steady pace since last decade. PTCL is playing a leading role in promoting telecommunication sector in the country. Its achievements are significant in last three years. It added about one million new fixed lines and established Ufone, a new GSM company.





2. IT POLICY AND GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS:

The government has designed IT policy and regulations for the promotion of Information Technology in the country, which express that ‘the Government shall be the facilitator and enabler to encourage the private sector to drive the development in IT and Telecommunications’.

2.1 IT Policy

The vision of the Policy is to harness the potential of Information Technology as a key
contributor to development of Pakistan and the broad-based involvement of the key
stakeholders. The Focus areas of Pakistan IT Policy are:

Human Resource (HR) Development for the local IT industry to position as an important
player in the international IT market.

Infrastructure Development: For world class-enabling infrastructure and a series of IT
Parks and Incubators across the country would be established.

Software development Integrated efforts to develop software industry with focus on exports (in addition to the local market) would be undertaken. This would include encouragement of local software houses in Governmental projects, local content development, Urdu and regional language software development, promotion of software exports through establishment of international marketing network, special bandwidth rates for software exporters, encouraging joint ventures, hiring of international consultants for global business development and fiscal and regulatory incentives for software exporters through state bank of Pakistan.

Hardware Industry Development: Focus on developing the areas that are within Pakistan’s reach, in terms of technology and resources and in which the country could have a competitive advantage which include the waiver of duties and taxes on the hardware, incentives to reduce the cost of raw material and inputs, encourage fund research and development in the universities and engineering colleges through faculty chairs, matching grants and focused joint projects.

Internet: To encourage competition, avoidance of un-necessary regulations, provision of low cost, reliable and broadband internet access, universal internet access in the areas connected with the telecom network, free internet access for public sector, universities and support for the development of national internet content.

Incentives: Invest in various fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to nurture, develop, and promote the use of IT in organizations, promotion of venture capital industry financing by the banks and DFIs, creation of investment friendly environment, changes in rules to allow the technology companies to be listed on stock exchanges of Pakistan.
IT Promotion & Awareness: A massive IT promotion and awareness campaign that
includes provision of continued support and funds by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) for the participation in world IT/computer trade fairs, exchange of delegations, posting of IT specialists in Embassies and Commercial Consulates, promotion of IT use by the head of the government, ministers, and all other key figures.

IT Usage: To embark on an aggressive program to improve efficiency and provide quality
services to the citizens of Pakistan, IT would be inducted at all levels of government. Key
projects thus launched would include government online, electronic governance project and e-commerce network.

Legislation: To provide protection and enhance the confidence of users, providers, and
facilitators of information services, legislation based on the recommendations of the working group comprising. Take actions in the areas of digital signature act, Intellectual property & copyright act and the consumer protection act.

Regulations: Concentrate on regulatory framework to avoid violating policy. It would be
ensured that excessive regulations do not stifle industry investment and growth.

Action Plan: It is an integral part of the IT Policy. The action plan provides a framework for implementation of the IT policy which includes priority areas, specific projects that can be conceptualized, formulated, assessed, prioritized and implemented. Eleven working groups in respective areas working on devising IT policy and action plan:

Working Groups for IT Policy

i. HR Development, Training and Education ii. IT in Government and Databases
iii. IT Market Development and Support iv. IT Fiscal Issues
v. Telecomm, Convergence and Deregulation vi. Cyber Laws, Legislation and IPR
vii. IT and Telecom Manufacture and R&D viii. Internet
ix. Software Export x. E-Commerce
xi. Incentive for IT investment













3. Government Regulations

a) Custom Duties and Taxes

Government of Pakistan has given tax exemption on the income from export of computer software and related services. As per the 2nd schedule - exemptions and tax concessions of the Income Tax Ordinance Clause 133:

"Income from export of computer software and its related services developed in Pakistan: provided that the exemption under this clause shall not be available after the 30th day of June, 2016."


b) Import Procedure

Software houses/companies are exempt from customs duties and leviable taxes on import of hardware/software tools, which are not manufactured locally, and to be used for software development and export purposes. Central Board of Revenue (CBR) Notification No. SRO 358 (i) /2002 for a complete list of equipment exempted can be seen in customs import tariff.

c) Realization of Export Earnings

Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) had approached the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)
for evolving a procedure for realization for export earnings by the software houses/companies for export of software. Accordingly, the State Bank of Pakistan has evolved a procedure, and issued Circular No. 2/FEB.1 (51) Software-96 in this regard. A software house/company must be registered with PSEB and the State Bank of Pakistan, in order to realize its earnings and to avail Export Finance/Refinance Scheme.

d) Export Finance/Refinance Scheme

The State Bank of Pakistan had allowed a financing facility under the Export Finance Scheme for export of computer software by the software houses / companies. Exports in such cases are required to be made according to the procedure laid down in Circular No.2/FEB.1 (51) Software-96.

The State Bank of Pakistan has issued Circular No. 23 and laid down the rules and procedures for getting finance / refinance facility for export of software by the software houses/companies. Subsequently State Bank of Pakistan has issued a Circular No.13 of 2000 allowing banks to accept the contract/export order as collateral for bank borrowing under the Export Finance Scheme.



e) Grant of Work Permits to Foreigners
The Government has decided to simplify procedure for grant of permission to expatriate
foreign personnel to work in Pakistan.

4. Market Analysis

Market Demand

The Market demand is moving upward due to the fact that the country’s financial
community—the business houses, investors, and business managers—are learning how to manage the IT and the IT professionals are learning how to manage the “business” parts of the IT business. Pakistan’s market demand can be viewed by Last year growth at around 37% in revenue and 27% in terms of technical and professional employment. Another encouraging sign is the increasing number of Pakistani owned foreign firms being located to Pakistan as well as the reverse brain drain caused by returning Pakistani entrepreneurs who see the relatively less competitive and virgin market at home as a tremendous opportunity for setting up a Pakistan based company.

IT industry had been recognized by global IT companies as being a rapidly growing Market place, and this is reflected by the fact that companies such as Cisco, Motorola, and others have recently set up their corporate offices in the country, to cater for the growing demand. Overall IT market size far exceeds expectations, and that the opportunities being created both in the public as well as the private sector indeed were very exciting.

The demand in the market exists for the following solutions and services.

 Financial and Leasing Solutions  Banking, ATM Solutions
 Inventory, Payroll and Marketing Solutions  Retail Store Systems
 Mortgages, Portfolio Management  Call Center Automations
 Health Care Solutions  VOIP Billing
 Manufacturing and ERP Solutions  Traveling and Hotel Management System
 Project Management and Business Intelligences
 Human Resource Solutions


5. GAP Analysis or Opportunities in Market

The following opportunities are present in IT Sector of Pakistan:

Development of packaged software
Quality training and development of specialized human resources
Re-engineering and computerization of government/public sector and private sector organizations installation of network (LANS, WANS, etc)
E-information switch over to Urdu as a computer language
Reorganization and growth of communications infrastructure
Foreign exchange earning potential utilization of available educated human resources pool unlimited e-commerce potential
Global and domestic Internet explosion
World-wide growth and lowering of cultural barriers due to the use of the internet and
Government drive for documentation will provide growth opportunities
Entertainment potential of IT and the internet


6. Project Concept

The project has concept of export oriented software development house with corporate
presence in Lahore, Pakistan and International market target major in USA or UK to utilizes the cutting edge technology and offer full range of business application solutions for the corporate, financial and industrial sectors. The Project's strategic vision will be provide the clients with quality systems to stimulate their growth in the existing competitive markets.

Three important aspects are being considered while developing the project:

1. Robust, and extensible architecture and design
2. Good software quality
3. On-time delivery

The planning to achieve these objectives required;

Employing a highly professional and experienced staff in all aspects – project
management, architecture, design, development and QA

Ensuring continuous personal and professional growth through on-going training

Having a well-developed organization structure, and well-defined responsibilities
With in the company in order to ensure good teamwork, coordination, and timely product delivery

Impact of Capacity Planning in Industrial Sector

Impact of Capacity Planning in Industrial Sector
In view of Operations Management

Introduction

Systems design is the process or art of defining the architecture, components, modules, interfaces, and data for a system to satisfy specified requirements. One could see it as the application of systems theory to product development. There is some overlap and synergy with the disciplines of systems analysis, systems architecture and systems engineering.

Overview

If the broader topic of product development "blends the perspective of marketing, design, and manufacturing into a single approach to product development, then design is the act of taking the marketing information and creating the design of the product to be manufactured. Systems design is therefore the process of defining and developing a systems to satisfy specified requirements of the market or customer. Until the 1990s systems design had a crucial and respected role in the data processing industry. In the 1990s standardization of hardware and software resulted in the ability to build modular systems. The increasing importance of software running on generic platforms has enhanced the discipline of software engineering.

Object-oriented analysis and design methods are becoming the most widely used methods for computer system design. The UML has become the standard language used in Object-oriented analysis and design. It is widely used for modeling software systems and is increasingly used for high designing non-software systems and organizations.

A good website starts life in the design stage. There are several aspects of the site that are formed at this stage, including among other things, layout, color, sound, content, functionality and maintainability. No reasonable person would start to build a house without designing it first; no reasonable website builders should begin construction without a design either. While I admit there may be a better chance of succeeding with the un-designed website than with the un-designed house, you are selling yourself short if you skip the design stage. A friend of mine says (about programming computer systems) "you can't debug a system; you can only debug a system design. Sure you can fix the syntax things, but it's in design where the bugs are eliminated -- or introduced!" Wise words! The same holds true for a website, though by "bug" we might mean something a little different.
If design is so important, how should we go about it? This introduction is intended to help you take a structured approach to the design of your site, and maybe make life easier as you revisit some aspects of your earlier work. This is a process I go through all the time with my own sites. The more you do, the more you realize the benefits of good design work.
I used the analogy of a house design a moment ago; there are some good parallels to be drawn between these two types of design. The design of a house involves not only the appearance of the finished house, but also the material of which it is made, the manor in which the material is used (sorry, I can never resist a good pun!), the time and expense required to put it together, the ease of access and the usability of its rooms and the building's durability and maintainability. A website design involves the look and feel of the site, the languages and server resources it will use, the programming and data structures involved, the time and programming abilities needed, end-user ease of use and site maintenance.

Knowledge Management in Organization

Management Information Systems
Introduction
We define knowledge management as a business activity with two primary aspects:
Treating the knowledge component of business activities as an explicit concern of business reflected in strategy, policy, and practice at all levels of the organization.
Making a direct connection between an organization’s intellectual assets — both explicit [recorded] and tacit [personal know-how] — and positive business results.
In practice, knowledge management often encompasses identifying and mapping intellectual assets within the organization, generating new knowledge for competitive advantage within the organization, making vast amounts of corporate information accessible, sharing of best practices, and technology that enables all of the above — including groupware and intranets.
That covers a lot of ground. And it should, because applying knowledge to work is integral to most business activities.
Important sub-topics
We detect connections with several well-known management strategies, practices, and business issues, including
Change management
Best practices
Risk management
Benchmarking
A significant element of the business community also views knowledge management as a natural extension of "business process reengineering,"
There is a common thread among these and many other recent business strategies recognition that information and knowledge are corporate assets, and that businesses need strategies, policies, and tools to manage those assets.
The need to manage knowledge seems obvious, and discussions of intellectual capital have proliferated, but few businesses have acted on that understanding. Where companies have take action and a growing number are doing so implementations of "knowledge management" may range from technology-driven methods of accessing, controlling, and delivering information to massive efforts to change corporate culture.
Opinions about the paths, methods, and even the objectives of knowledge management abound. Some efforts focus on enhancing creativity — creating new knowledge value while other programs emphasize leveraging existing knowledge.

Why we need knowledge management now
Why do we need to manage knowledge? Ann Macintosh of the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (University of Edinburgh) has written a "Position Paper on Knowledge Asset Management" that identifies some of the specific business factors, including:
Marketplaces are increasingly competitive and the rate of innovation is rising.
Reductions in staffing create a need to replace informal knowledge with formal methods.
Competitive pressures reduce the size of the work force that holds valuable business knowledge.
The amount of time available to experience and acquire knowledge has diminished.
Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work force lead to loss of knowledge.
There is a need to manage increasing complexity as small operating companies are trans-national sourcing operations.
Changes in strategic direction may result in the loss of knowledge in a specific area.
To these paraphrases of Ms. Macintosh’s observations we would add:
Most of our work is information based.
Organizations compete on the basis of knowledge.
Products and services are increasingly complex, endowing them with a significant information component.
The need for life-long learning is an inescapable reality.
In brief, knowledge and information have become the medium in which business problems occur. As a result, managing knowledge represents the primary opportunity for achieving substantial savings, significant improvements in human performance, and competitive advantage.
It’s not just a Fortune 500 business problem. Small companies need formal approaches to knowledge management even more, because they don’t have the market leverage, inertia, and resources that big companies do. They have to be much more flexible, more responsive, and more "right" (make better decisions) — because even small mistakes can be fatal to them.
Categorization of knowledge management approaches
The term "knowledge management" is now in widespread use, having appeared in the titles of many new books about knowledge management as a business strategy, as well as in articles in many business publications, including The Wall Street Journal. There are, of course, many ways to slice up the multi-faceted world of knowledge management. However, it’s often useful to categorize them.
In a posting to the Knowledge Management Forum, Karl-Erik Sveiby identified two "tracks" of knowledge management:
Management of Information. To researchers in this track, according to Sveiby, "… knowledge = Objects that can be identified and handled in information systems."
Management of People. For researchers and practitioners in this field, knowledge consists of "… processes, a complex set of dynamic skills, know-how, etc., that is constantly changing."
Sveiby’s characterization is on target, but it may not capture the full flavor of the important distinctions in approaches to organizational knowledge management.
We have adopted a three-part categorization:
(1) Mechanistic approaches (2) Cultural/behavioristic approaches(3) Systematic approaches to knowledge management
Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management
Mechanistic approaches to knowledge management are characterized by the application of technology and resources to do more of the same better. The main assumptions of the mechanistic approach include:
Better accessibility to information is a key, including enhanced methods of access and reuse of documents (hypertext linking, databases, full-text search, etc.)
Networking technology in general (especially intranets), and groupware in particular, will be key solutions.
In general, technology and sheer volume of information will make it work.
Assessment: Such approaches are relatively easy to implement for corporate "political" reasons, because the technologies and techniques — although sometimes advanced in particular areas — are familiar and easily understood. There is a modicum of good sense here, because enhanced access to corporate intellectual assets is vital. But it’s simply not clear whether access itself will have a substantial impact on business performance, especially as mountains of new information are placed on line. Unless the knowledge management approach incorporates methods of leveraging cumulative experience, the net result may not be positive, and the impact of implementation may be no more measurable than in traditional paper models.

Cultural/behavioristic approaches to knowledge management
Cultural/behavioristic approaches, with substantial roots in process re-engineering and change management, tend to view the "knowledge problem" as a management issue. Technology though ultimately essential for managing explicit knowledge resources is not the solution. These approaches tend to focus more on innovation and creativity (the "learning organization") than on leveraging existing explicit resources or making working knowledge explicit.
Assumptions of cultural/behavioristic approaches often include:
Organizational behaviors and culture need to be changed … dramatically. In our information-intensive environments, organizations become dysfunctional relative to business objectives.
Organizational behaviors and culture can be changed, but traditional technology and methods of attempting to solve the "knowledge problem" have reached their limits of effectiveness. A "holistic" view is required. Theories of behavior of large-scale systems are often invoked.
It’s the processes that matter, not the technology.
Nothing happens or changes unless a manager makes it happen.
Assessment: The cultural factors affecting organizational change have almost certainly been undervalued, and cultural/behavioristic implementations have shown some benefits. But the cause-effect relationship between cultural strategy and business benefits is not clear, because the "Hawthorne Effect" may come into play, and because we still can’t make dependable predictions about systems as complex as knowledge-based business organizations. Positive results achieved by cultural/behavioristic strategies may not be sustainable, measurable, cumulative, or replicable and employees thoroughly "Dilbertized" by yet another management strategy may roll their eyes. Time will tell.
Systematic approaches to knowledge management
Systematic approaches to knowledge management retain the traditional faith in rational analysis of the knowledge problem: the problem can be solved, but new thinking of many kinds is required. Some basic assumptions:
It’s sustainable results that matter, not the processes or technology … or your definition of "knowledge."
A resource cannot be managed unless it is modeled, and many aspects of the organization’s knowledge can be modeled as an explicit resource.
Solutions can be found in a variety of disciplines and technologies, and traditional methods of analysis can be used to re-examine the nature of knowledge work and to solve the knowledge problem.
Cultural issues are important, but they too must be evaluated systematically. Employees may or may not have to be "changed," but policies and work practices must certainly be changed, and technology can be applied successfully to business knowledge problems themselves.
Knowledge management has an important management component, but it is not an activity or discipline that belongs exclusively to managers.
Assessment: Unrepentant rationalists in the business world are taking a systematic approach to solving the "knowledge problem." We will also find evidence of such approaches — as well as a less formal use of the term systematic knowledge management. Systematic approaches show the most promise for positive cumulative impact, measurability, and sustainability.

Evolution of Management Sciences

Evolution of Management Sciences

Introduction
Management science (MS), is the discipline of using scientific research-based principles, strategies, and other analytical methods, such as mathematical modeling to improve any organization's ability to enact rational, meaningful business management decisions.
The field is also known as Operations Research (OR) in the United States, or operational research in the United Kingdom. These three terms are often used interchangeably to describe the same field.
We have studied the management strategy of a US company based in California with its branch office in Islamabad, Pakistan. We will see how the impact of globalization and management helped this company increasing the profits and lowering the cost of overheads.
//
Overview
Management science is concerned with a number of different areas of study
1) Developing and applying models and concepts that may prove useful in helping to illuminate management issues and solve managerial problems. The models used can often be represented mathematically, but sometimes computer-based, visual or verbal representations are used as well or instead
2) Designing and developing new and better models of organizational excellence. A leading influence in this area is the work of Dr. Mark Draper which combines insights from the fields of knowledge management, cognitive psychology, leadership training, learning theory, and modern behavioral psychology.
Dr. Jim Collins's work at Stanford presents the important scientific facts about how to turn a good organization into a great one. Dr Draper's work focuses more on how to create new powerful and effective organizations.
Management science research can be done on three levels
The fundamental level lies in three mathematical disciplines: Probability, Optimization, and Dynamical systems theory.
The modeling level is about building models, analyzing them mathematically, gathering and analyzing data, implementing models on computers, solving them, playing with them - all this is part of Management Science research on the modeling level.
The application level, just as any other engineering discipline, has strong aspirations to make a practical impact and be a driver for change in the real world.
The management scientist's mandate is to use rational, systematic, science-based techniques to inform and improve decisions of all kinds. Of course, the techniques of management science are not restricted to business applications but may be applied to military, medical, public administration, charitable groups, political groups or community groups.
History
Its origins can be traced to operations research, which made its debut during World War II when the Allied forces recruited scientists of various disciplines to assist with military operations. In these early applications, the scientists utilized simple mathematical models to make efficient use of limited technologies and resources. The application of these models within the corporate sector became known as Management science.
Theory
Some of the fields that are englobed within Management Science include:
• Data mining
• Decision analysis
• Engineering
• Forecasting
• Logistics
• Probability and statistics
• Project management
• Supply chain management
as well as many others.
Applications and Uses
Applications of management science are abundant in industry as airlines, manufacturing companies, service organizations, military branches, and in government. The range of problems and issues to which management science has contributed insights and solutions is vast. It includes:
· scheduling airlines, both planes and crew,
deciding the appropriate place to site new facilities such as a warehouse or factory
managing the flow of water from reservoirs,
identifying possible future development paths for parts of the telecommunications industry
establishing the information needs and appropriate systems to supply them within the health service, and
identifying and understanding the strategies adopted by companies for their information systems
Management science is also concerned with so-called”soft-operational analysis”, which concerns methods for strategic planning, strategic decision support, and Problem Structuring Methods (PSM). At this level of abstraction, mathematical modeling and simulation will not suffice. Therefore, during the past 30 years, a number of non-quantified modeling methods have been developed. These include morphological analysis and various forms of influence diagrams.
Uses of Management Science
Applications of Management Science are abundant in industry and government. Airlines and overnight mail systems use mathematical models to create efficient, dependable flight schedules. Manufacturing companies use quantitative techniques in virtually all strategic and operational areas such as choosing a new plant location, controlling production, or implementing statistical quality control. Service organizations such as banks, hospitals and investment firms all rely on Management Science to ensure their operations combine customer satisfaction with a high degree of efficiency. The military branches of the government depend on computer-based quantitative models for logistical planning and mobilization.
Company Introduction
We have chosen OVEX Technologies, one of the largest BPO’s in Pakistan and studied different best practices and change management aspects to see what difference knowledge bought into it.
Employing over 900 employees and with seven state-of-the-art facilities in Pakistan's three major cities, Ovex is the largest third party offshore BPO and Information Technology Solutions provider and the second largest exporter of IT services in Pakistan, serving both domestic and international clients. Owned substantially by En Pointe Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENPT), Ovex boasts a highly prestigious list of clients.Leveraging partnerships with industry leading global technology vendors like Cisco, IBM, EMC and Microsoft, Ovex Technologies, an ISO 9001:2000 certified company, provides a comprehensive set of services to support the design, installation, operation, management, and continuous improvement of IT infrastructures.The Outsourcing Solutions portfolio offers services related to IT/Service Desk Outsourcing, Contact Centers, and BPO. Various companies rely on Ovex as a trusted strategic partner to address areas such as Customer service, Telemarketing, Inbound Sales, and Data Entry or functions such as Back Office Support, Accounting, HR and Software Development.
Ovex provides a comprehensive set of services to support the design, installation, operation, management, and continuous improvement of IT infrastructures. IT Solutions portfolio consists of:
1. IT Solutions
IT Infrastructure
Software Solutions
2. Outsourcing Solution
Ovex Technologies offers outsourcing services and solutions of varied scope, using a range of methods. These includes professional staffing for individual projects, complete responsibility for IT management within the organization, and management of complete business processes using the Business Process Outsourcing method.
Outsourcing Solutions includes:
•IT/Service-Desk-Outsourcing• Contact Centers• BPO
We are going to focus on Outsourcing, which emerged in early 1990’s as a result of globalization and its impact on organization and company’s race towards cost cutting and increasing the revenue.
What is outsourcing? What benefits a company can get out of it? Why it is important in today’s economic world?
Outsourcing is subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, (information) technology and resources[citation needed]. Outsourcing became part of the business lexicon during the 1980s. It is essentially a division of labour
Elaboration
Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider. The client organization and the supplier enter into a contractual agreement that defines the transferred services. Under the agreement the supplier acquires the means of production in the form of a transfer of people, assets and other resources from the client. The client agrees to procure the services from the supplier for the term of the contract. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities, real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions like telemarketing, CAD drafting, customer service, market research, manufacturing, designing, web development, content writing, ghostwriting and engineering. Off shoring is the type of outsourcing in which the buyer organization belongs to another country.
Outsourcing and off shoring are used interchangeably in public discourse despite important technical differences. Outsourcing involves contracting with a supplier, which may or may not involve some degree of offshoring. Offshoring is the transfer of an organizational function to another country, regardless of whether the work is outsourced or stays within the same corporation/company.
With increasing globalization of outsourcing companies and with evolution of management sciences on a broader view ,the distinction between outsourcing and offshoring will become less clear over time. This is evident in the increasing presence of Indian and Pakistani outsourcing companies in the United States and United Kingdom. The globalization of outsourcing operating models has resulted in new terms such as near shoring, no shoring, and right shoring that reflect the changing mix of locations. This is seen in the opening of offices and operations centers by Pakistani companies in the U.S. and UK. A major job that is being outsourced is accounting. They are able to complete tax returns across seas for people in America
Multisourcing refers to large outsourcing agreements (predominantly IT).Multisourcing is a framework to enable different parts of the client business to be sourced from different suppliers. This requires a governance model that communicates strategy, clearly defines responsibility and has end-to-end integration.
As discussed earlier that Ovex is owned by En Pointe Inc. USA which is a company mainly into IT hardware and Software reselling. En Pointe Inc. has thirteen offices in USA and more than 1000 employees creating sales and generating revenue of 200 million USD every year. Only from the California state the head office in California receives 350 orders per day from different government and commercial clients.
The whole process starts from marketing the different products from big manufacturers like HP, Dell, Cisco, Zebra Printers, Lexmark, Linksys, Adobe, Sun and Symantec. Order fulfillment, purchasing, packing & shipping and finally the invoicing is a big task. Physical buying and shipment in all over US is very big task in terms of time and money.
Marketing > Sales > Purchase Order > Processing > Buying > Shipping > Delivery End > Invoicing
The life cycle of En Pointe’s strategy is shown above. The over heads of employee, physical offices, warehousing cost, purchasers, shipping with en Pointe labels, invoicing was making the task very difficult. Order fulfillment itself is a big task in terms of entering the correct product as per purchase orders. The company was paying almost 100 million USD in terms of all costs of rents, wages, offices and warehouses. After all the study the management decided to use IT solution for its life cycle but how? Different experts from different fields of IT, purchasing, order fulfillment and finance were hired to develop a system which can cut down the cost and increase the company’s revenue. For this purpose there arises a need of Enterprise resource planning (ERP).
ERP is a company-wide computer software system used to manage and coordinate all the resources, information, and functions of a business from shared data stores. An ERP system has a service-oriented architecture with modular hardware and software units or "services" that communicate on a local area network. The modular design allows a business to add or reconfigure modules (perhaps from different vendors) while preserving data integrity in one shared database that may be centralized or distributed.
Ideally, the company was looking for an ERP system which can deliver a single database that contains all data for the software modules, which would include:
Manufacturing
Engineering, bills of material, scheduling, capacity, workflow management, quality control, cost management, manufacturing process, manufacturing projects, manufacturing flow
Supply chain management
Order to cash, inventory, order entry, purchasing, product configurator, supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, inspection of goods, claim processing, commission calculation
Financials
General ledger, cash management, accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets
Project management
Costing, billing, time and expense, performance units, activity management
Human resources
Human resources, payroll, training, time and attendance, rostering, benefits
Customer relationship management
Sales and marketing, commissions, service, customer contact and call center support
Data warehouse and various self-service interfaces for customers, suppliers, and employeesAccess control - user privilege as per authority levels for process executionCustomization - to meet the extension, addition, change in process flow
Best practices are incorporated into most ERP vendor's software packages. When implementing an ERP system, organizations can choose between customizing the software or modifying their business processes to the "best practice" function delivered in the "out-of-the-box" version of the software.
Implementation
After the decision to implement the ERP system, En Pointe has a wide scope of applications and processes throughout their functional units; producing ERP software systems that are typically complex and usually impose significant changes on staff work practices. Implementing ERP software is typically too complex for "in-house" skill, so it is desirable and highly advised to hire outside consultants who are professionally trained to implement these systems. This is typically the most cost effective way. There are three types of services that may be employed for - Consulting, Customization, Support. So this SAP Company which hired for all the three functions and SAP R/3 Module was selected as the En Pointe’s ERP Solution.
After the implementation phase the biggest task was Data migration and its one of the most important activities in determining the success of an ERP implementation. Since many decisions must be made before migration, a significant amount of planning must occur. Unfortunately, data migration is the last activity before the production phase of an ERP implementation, and therefore receives minimal attention due to time constraints.
The following were steps of a data migration strategy that helped with the success:
Identifying the data to be migrated
Determining the timing of data migration
Generating the data templates
Freezing the tools for data migration
Deciding on migration related setups
Deciding on data archiving
The implementation took about eight (8) months.

Targets
After implementation of ERP system what were the main targets which En Pointe received were
Having a Database of all the Hardware and Software parts
Creating a Database and updating it time to time for effective usage
Having the current level of inventory any time round the clock
Connecting the Manufacturers and Vendors with ERP
Using EDI ( enterprise data integration) helped Enpointe to Connect with Manufacturers and Vendors online
Online booking of the material ordered by the customer
Online tracking of the order shipped by the shipper/vendor
Cost saving of hiring 100 purchasers present on locations
Cost saving on warehousing
Cost saving in terms of time and delivery excellence
Conclusion
By implementing the ERP solution SAP, which was also outsourced project along with the operational project of En Pointe, it cost company 18.9 Million USD; this includes consultant’s fee, trainings and testing.
After this company was able to cut down the jobs of 500 employees and hiring 200 employees in Pakistan at Ovex, which gave them cost savings in salaries which was a huge saving.
Due to low salary structure in Pakistan and by usage of IT the cost savings in terms of salaries were 5 million USD a month.
Moreover, using the IT knowledge management and using the EDI linking between the company and the manufactures/vendors saved time in buying as no physical presence was requirement and it was taken care by ERP solution (online buying from manufacture/vendor).
The Vendor was also paying the delivery charges and these were included in the price of the product. Logistics saved 19 million USD on average for the company during one fiscal year which also includes the extra cost of warehousing and cost of running the warehouse operations and wages.
ERP solution gave round the clock service over the internet to link between customer-reseller-vendor and which improves company’s creditability in the market.
An estimated there are 35 thousand resellers registered online in America and all the company’s are providing the same products than the only difference which can attract the customer is service.
If we summarize this all case study we see that management sciences basics were used at its peak to make the change management attitude in the management to take a big decision for a big return. Best practices were used in implementing the ERP and Risk of money was taken as well. This all needs perfection, commitment and hard working from all the stake holders involved in this whole activity.