Pro Pakistani

International Pleasure Trip by Mobilink

ProPakistani — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:35:34 +0000

While Mobilink tends to lay off its employees in regards to reducing their overheads and by naming it ‘none-performance basis’, Mobilink also is spending millions of rupees on their lavish trip to international destinations.

An inside source confirms that a group of approximately one hundred people which include 3 Vice Presidents (traveling first class which is top most traveling cabin in a passenger aircraft) approximately a dozen Directors travelling Business Class, Senior Managers, Managers and selective Franchisees who left Pakistan yesterday for Bangkok – Thailand & Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia.

This is one of “those” trips where everything is paid for by the company including travel, accommodation, food & all sort of drinks, leisure & pleasure and is considered a standard practice in the company. Our source also confirm that approximately 19 million Pakistan rupees is being spent on this trip.

On one side company talks about reducing its costs and takes action by firing its staff and on the other side; the same company is taking its favorite people out on International destination for pleasure.

Prototype – Game Review

ProPakistani — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:13:06 +0000

Radical Entertainment launched a fantastic game named Prototype on 9th June 2009 in North America and on 10th June they launched their number in Europe. Game is basically a sandbox-style action game but it differs from many aspects from other sandbox-style action games. Game was released on different counsels such as WINDOWS (PC), PS3 and XBOX 360 later on game was released in Australia.

Game has got very good response regarding its reception, well formed action and wonderful open ended game play. Game spot and other websites has given 8.5 or 9 grades out of 10. Critics have tried hard to find something bad but they couldn’t, there are some factors which frustrate the player and no doubt game is a bit similar to Resident Evil and Spiderman but ProtoType has got its own individuality and has something new and extra ordinary in it. Different kind of story and its reception makes game more interesting.

Storyline of the game is very interesting. Game is set in the city of New York where some sort of virus has attacked on the city and people are getting infected with that virus. In the game the main character is ALEX MERCER means you have to play as Alex. Story starts when Alex finds himself in the stage of Amnesia (a condition in which human memory do not works properly) in a genetic engineering company (GENTEK).

He wakes up and tries to escape from there in mean while he fights with soldiers. Alex finds that he has extra ordinary super powers in himself Alex has power to absorb the powers, skills and abilities in himself. Alex can take the shapes and all the skills of others and now Alex has to find out who was the responsible for his condition. In this game Alex has to fight with two enemies at a time one is the Special Forces named BLACKWATCH (Special Military Forces).

Alex uses all the powers and absorbing skills to find out the truth. Dana (Sister of Alex) gives Alex the people who can be useful to bring back his memory. During this Alex finds his ex-girl friend Karen, Alex didn’t know that she was working for BLACKWATCH – she injects Alex with cancer and then after a bit long Dr .Ragland helps Alex to get rid of Cancer.

After all this Alex finds that DANA is kidnapped well as the story goes ahead Alex finds out his past he finds that he was a employee of GENTEK and Alex was shot by the forces and the virus went into his body accidently and he becomes a person like this and the story continues because telling you the whole story could be a cause of interest minimization……..

Game is really different from other Sand-box Style games. 1st difference is that the player can change him into any character and can absorb the skills of any person even of his enemies. Combat system is quite well organized. Alex’s combos and way of tackling his enemies is very much appreciated by the players. Alex arms turns into the dangerous blades while absorbing the powers of others.

Critics found some mistakes in the game such as repetitive game play, they also declared the story line is weak but they admired the game. Most interesting part of the game is when Alex gets into flashback of his memory open ended play also pleasures the users and. In the game sometimes you have to fight with 3 enemies at the same time you have to battle with the Special Forces, choppers and the infected people.

You can earn bonus points from the missions and can new weapons and new abilities. Extra ordinary action speed of the character creates more excitement into the user and fighting with the tanks, choppers, enemies and zombies at the same time totally changes the definition of sand-box style…..

Minimum System Requirements for ProtoType

Intel core 2 Duo 1.88 or AMD Anthlon X2 4200 or better
1 GB Ram for XP & 2 GB Ram for Vista
256 MB Graphics Card with Shader 3.0 NVIDIA 7800 or better
Direct X Compatible Sound Card
8-10 GB HARD DRIVE
XP Service pack 3 or Vista ……..

Official website: www.prototypegame.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

Downsizing or Rightsizing or Team Sizing?

ProPakistani — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:31:17 +0000

Downsizing is sub function of Selection & Recruitment, and it has been in practice since long, actually we don’t know when exactly it was discovered. Downsizing is mostly done when there arises a need, but that’s not the only rule, we have seen organizations downsizing even when need was not in place.

Recently, in USA alone, hundreds of thousands of professionals lost their jobs and leftover are highly insecure. Corporations continue to cut jobs and in fact they are eyeing current fiscal year by evaluating recessions’ performance to decide the future of employers. Such a situation is called “workforce optimization in response to economy decline”.

In last two years, we observed that in Pakistan recession hit couple of sectors including banking and advertising. Resultantly, both the sectors optimized their workforce on large-scale, in which most of the banks limited their operations.

I believe before I discuss downsizing conditions, let me first discuss that what recession actually is and its impact on workforce?

What is Recession?

Recession is crunch of economy for more than 6 months consecutively with a decrease in production of goods and services by the people of the country. So in particular, every product and service oriented organization is dependent on the external customers.

As in the decline of economy customer will not be willing to buy a particular product or service because of future uncertainty in the market and eventually all this result into a burden on a particular organization. This burden is equalized by downsizing, as this is assumed the most liquid way to save some bucks.

So, if you understood what recession is and how it gets started and how it comes to an end. Then let me start the topic that why companies do downsizing.

Low Revenues
Economy Crunch
Cost Cuttings
Workforce Optimization
Low Performers – (But , company needs to do plenty of stuff before downsizing them)
Lots of other examples are available around you.

In Pakistan, we have not seen usual downsizings curve as it happened in rest of the world; reason could be that we have not been affected by recession that badly, as the western countries..

Downsizing for the sake of Team Sizing

Recently, we have seen some drastic downsizing in many industries of Pakistan. People claiming it downsizings, but I believe we better call it “Team Sizing”.

Team sizing is the concept that is usual with the change of leadership – as the new leaders comes into an organization, he/she brings in new strategy, vision and concept of a team with him. These new things are sometimes beneficiary for in-groups (like minded) and non-beneficiary for out-groups.

This is common practice that managers take their teams to next destinations whenever they switch the jobs or given new assignments and they also believe that their success is only because of their teams.

That’s what actually happened in banking sector, upon the change of leader, his/her team got changed, as he took it with him/herself, or the HR kicked the whole team out of the play land.

Again, this is not hard and fast rule, but we have observed this happening on many occasions.

Now let me discuss downsizing because of “Non-Performance”:

Now days, professional organizations are much busy in retaining the workforce instead of lay-offs, because of the cost they incurred on developing a single personnel for a particular job. So, when they do “Cost Benefit” analysis they get to know that it’s more feasible retaining an individual instead of laying him/her off. For the purpose corporations conduct proper research on these particular non performers for answering a question that why they are not performing well? And on the basis of findings they designed specific programs like:

Counseling
Trainings / Workshops
Forceful leaves (to enjoy time with family)
Needs assessment and relationship with reward
Job rotations
Task rotations
Skill set assessment and development and this list goes on!!!

Particular example that I want to quote here is of AT&T :

AT&T developed an alternative to downsizing called Resource Link, which is a temporary unit within AT&T composed of AT&T general management and technical professionals. These associates perform much of the work that AT&T previously contracted out. They work on a contractual basis for the various AT&T business units backfilling vacant positions, supporting temporary peaks in workload, providing specialized support, importing needed expertise, or providing cross-business unit experience.

Participants are AT&T associates who have been declared excess by their business divisions, or associates who have volunteered to broaden their experiences and opportunities. Approximately 600 associates participate; over one-half are volunteers who chose to work in Resource Link. This pool of employees is cost effective and helps to balance staffing needs with business needs (AT&T, 1994).

Conclusion:

Like above, there are lots of best practices available around us to take the litmus test before doing anything like downsizing. Organizations have particular policies for downsizings in intense times. But just informing of non performance and giving a job dismissal letter at spot is not an ethical practice in all over the world.

There is lot of work to do before lying off someone from job, instead of just informing that “You are no more with us!” “They follow ILO in giving 3 months’ salary in advance”, but why don’t they follow ILO in obeying other particular sections.

Organizations need to think about developing particular department for personnel’s development – most commonly known as “HRD” Human Resource Development Department or Organizational Development Department to conduct semi annually skills performance assessments and many other best practices instead of that rigged “Performance Appraisals” .

I know couple of organizations in Pakistan which are working on Organizational Development in the particular industries, but still they need transparencies and complete implementation of best practices in particular cases in the organizations. “The Next Challenge for the whole world is to build Human resources instead of laying offs as world is already scarce with built in talent professionals”.

This is also fact that with recession, lay-offs are common to observe as most of the companies do not have good profits in achieving their targets, so particular remedy for remaining at the same profit or at bit low profit point is to lay-offs, but again it is in the case of recession not in the case of non-performers.

Qubee – New Wimax Operator about to Launch

ProPakistani — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:51:54 +0000

Qubee, a Wimax Operator in Pakistan, is set to roll out their services in Pakistan.

“Qubee is the creation of a group of global telecoms professionals who saw that a new technology called WiMAX could really change the internet experience for millions of people worldwide.”

They are currently in Karachi only. But they will soon hit other cities. Currently, they are offering business users packages but they will soon hit the residential area market. Tariff is not out yet. But according to their website, you can get info via Customer call.

According to their own description,“We’re a new business providing business customers and very soon residential customers in Pakistan with the best possible internet services. That doesn’t just mean broadband connections that are fast and reliable; it also means providing the best possible customer service and support, 24/7.”

Their vision: “We aren’t just making the internet work, we’re making it work beautifully. And now it’s yours to enjoy.”

They have given coverage map of their service area. You can see for yourself that if you area is having the Qubee service or not.

They are also coming with Wi-Fi enabled CPEs to meet people demands.

For any queries regarding Qubee, call on 11–10–QUBEE (78 233) or Email them at questions@qubee.com.pk

They have got excellent website .. really appealing colors with version for narrowband (low bandwidth) and broadband users.

For NarrowBand, go here

For Broadband, go here

Telenor to Ship ZTE Supplied USB Modems

ProPakistani — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:35:44 +0000

Telenor has inked a deal with ZTE to buy up to two million USB modems over the next twelve months. The deal covers Telenor’s 13 operating companies in countries including Denmark, Hungary, Malaysia, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine.

“ZTE was selected for this agreement, alongside one other supplier, based on a combination of product performance and quality, and the ability to quickly customise products to suit our customers,” said Kjell Nordhagen, Terminal Procurement Director, Telenor Group. “They outperformed the competition on virtually every criteria so the decision was easy for us.”

ZTE is the world’s second largest and fastest growing supplier of data cards and sold over 10 million data cards in 2008, a 426% increase over 2007 sales. Shipments in Q2 2009 are expected to be over five million.

via Cellular News

Ovex Technologies awarded ‘Most Promising Reseller’ by Kaspersky

ProPakistani — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:46:38 +0000

Ovex Technologies is conferred the title of “Most Promising Reseller (2008-2009)” by its partner “Kaspersky Labs”, on the occasion of the 1st Kaspersky Lab Reseller Conference. This event hosted by Trillium Information Security Systems, was held on the 25th of June at the Pearl Continental Hotel, Rawalpindi.

Ovex Technologies offers comprehensive Kaspersky Lab security solutions that include anti-virus and Internet security, a wide range of mobile security products as well as hosted security services. This diverse protection helps make Ovex’s software solutions portfolio one of the best and safest in the business.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Faisal S. Khan, CEO, Ovex Technologies said, “Attaining the highest pedestal of sales performance for a truly global I.T. company like Kaspersky Labs, is a matter of great pride and motivation for the team of OVEX technologies. I would like to thank the Kaspersky management for recognizing our work in promoting and developing world-class I.T. and software security products.”

Ovex Technologies offers a comprehensive portfolio of Infrastructure, Software, Security and Outsourcing solutions. It serves a myriad of domestic and international clients, including many industry leaders. Ovex employs over thirteen hundred dedicated professionals, who render world-class services from seven state-of-the-art facilities, located in Pakistan’s three metropolitan hubs of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.

Kaspersky Lab is a global organization that employs over 1300 highly-qualified specialists. With its central offices in Moscow, this leading I.T. company currently works in more than 100 countries across the globe, providing protection for over 250 million users worldwide. Since decades, Kaspersky Labs have been working on exposing, analyzing and neutralizing IT threats.

Top Level Reorder Continues at Mobilink

ProPakistani — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:43:31 +0000

We are just told by our sources that Tariq Rasheed has been appointed as Chief Strategy Officer, while Irfan Farooq has been appointed at acting Chief Information Officer at Mobilink.

Mobilink’s spokesperson has confirmed these appointments that happened just a while ago.

It merits mentioning here that Aamir Ibrahim left the seat of Chief Strategy Officer vacant, after he moved to Telenor.

Moreover, Rashid Khan, CEO Mobilink is strengthening his position by bringing Tariq Rasheed as head of strategy, as you may know both of them come from same company back in nineties.

By the way, we are yet to see CFO’s place filled, which is vacant for many months now.

On an additional note, Mobilink is undergoing countrywide reshuffle – we know that directors and area managers are being shifted from one place to another. We are not sure about the strategy behind this massive reorganization, but one can predict major development going on.

Ali Zafar to Sing for Mobilink Now [Picture]

ProPakistani — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:28:55 +0000

Ali Zafar, the latest entry in the Mobilink Jazz Family, is seen getting his “Jazz On” at a Mobilink Contact Centre. The superstar created a stir amongst the customers present as he reactivated his Jazz SIM to once again become a part of Pakistan’s largest cellular family.

Ali Zafar was Telenor TalkShawk’s Brand ambassador for past three years, before his contract expired last month. There went a huge discussion on this move by Mobilink to get Ali Zafar on board. Read here our yesterday’s post for more details on this.

Zong Announces Per min, Data Based and Unlimited GPRS Packages

ProPakistani — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:59:08 +0000

We have covered before about Zong’s hourly GPRS packages, their unlimited and limit based internet packages for mobile users, which really changed the way people use internet while on the go.

Now at this point of time, they are introducing couple of new incentives and reportedly a campaign to aware mobile customers about available options they have got to use internet while on the move.

By the way, all packages can be subscribed through SMS or IVR (whatever is more convenient to you – all options will be available on IVR after July 5th, 2009).

Details on the packages are as follows:

		Default Packages	Time Based Packages	Monthly Packages
Prepaid	Zong Free	Rs. 10/MB Charging unit 8kb	Rs 0.25 per min Activation charges Rs10	2 GB bundle Rs 2004 GB bundle Rs 400 Truly unlimited – Rs 999
Prepaid	Zong 12 Anay	Rs15/MB Charging unit 8Kb	Rs 0.25 per min Activation charges Rs10
Postpaid		Rs15/MB Charging unit 8Kb		Truly unlimited – Rs 400

All rates are exclusive of taxes…!

As you can see, there are variety of packages available for internet lovers. Time bases, Size based and unlimited, both for prepaid and postpaid. Rs. 0.25 per min for prepaid looks very attractive to me, meaning that – one can check his/her email in just Rs. 1 – that’s wow.

How to Subscribe

To subscribe, prepaid customers can either call IVR 905 or send the following SMS to the SMS short code 905 for the respective packages

Sub2GB and send to 905 – for activation of 2 GB bundle @ Rs 200
Sub4GB and send to 905 – for activation of 4 GB bundle @ 400
SubUnlimited and send to 905 – Rs 999
Menu and send to 905 – for all commands
Postpaid customers can subscribe to the unlimited Internet package by dialing 905 only

Incase GPRS bundle users are interested in check how much of their bundle package has been consumed, they can simply send ‘balance’ to 130

PTCL, TWA Establish Local Internet Peering

ProPakistani — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:59:01 +0000

In a joint ceremony held at Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Headquarters, PTCL and Trans World Associates (TWA) have signed an agreement on establishment of local Internet peering for routing of domestic Internet traffic. It was decided that initially the link between two parties will be of Fast Ethernet providing a peering capacity of around 80 to 90 Mbps.

This arrangement will bring cost efficiency vis-à-vis international IP bandwidth by restricting local internet traffic within the country. Besides that, it will also provide routing efficiency especially in accessing the locally hosted websites. Considering as a major step towards Information Communication Technologies (ICT) revolution, the arrangement will also have an indirect impact on proliferation of local internet content development in the country.

In continuation to its role as an industry facilitator, PTA was mutually working with PTCL and TWA for establishment of Local Internet Exchange Point(s) in the country. In this regard a number of discussions and deliberations were carried out by PTA and necessary solutions for implementation of said peering arrangements were conversed. Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen in his remarks appreciated the efforts of the ICT Directorate of PTA, PTCL and TWA for working on the project and said that this initiative would bring a remarkable effect on Internet industry of Pakistan. The Chairman also highlighted that the ICT Directorate at PTA has embarked on several other projects that would soon bring fruitful benefits and productive results for the consumers and the industry. PTCL and TWA valued PTA’s exertions and ensured their continuous corporation for the betterment of Internet industry.

It may be noted that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) of Pakistan seek international Internet connectivity through PTCL and TWA. The domestic Internet traffic originated by ISPs of the country is being routed through international hops as currently no mutual peering points exist in Pakistan. The present routing scenario is resulting in unnecessary delay for the local internet traffic, burden on International Internet links and increase in average per bit delivery cost of ISPs. With this agreement, all such issues will be addressed and local internet traffic will be fastest.