The Hindu Business Line : IT cos providing expertise to Pakistan entities

Mumbai, April 19 Indian IT companies are generally quite keen to speak about their entering new geographies, but not when it comes to Pakistan. Although they are wary of talking about it, a handful of them are doing business in Pakistan in a silent, low-profile yet calculated manner.

Business Line has learnt that companies such as i-flex Solutions, Nucleus Software and 3i Infotech have been doing technology-related work for organisations in Pakistan for a couple of years now.

Pakistan-based companies have a lot of legacy systems to deal with and are keen to invest in the next round of automation, according to a senior official with a firm that provides examination software to an education board in Pakistan. He believes that the demand has significantly increased after the formation of a democratic government in Pakistan last month.

Apprehension about coming under the microscope of various security agencies is prompting Indian vendors to be low key about their Pak activities. Spokespersons for 3i Infotech and Nucleus Software admitted they were doing work in Pakistan but declined to elaborate further.

Mr Mustafa Moonim, Vice-President, Europe and Middle East Sales of i-flex - one of the few companies to openly talk about its engagement in Pakistan – said i-flex has already bagged a client-a-piece in the Islamic banking and the risk and compliance spaces. With the central bank of Pakistan asking Pakistan banks to speed up their adoption of Basel 2, there is a rush to upgrade banking technology. Organisations involved in education and manufacturing and government agencies are also keen to leverage technology expertise from India

Most Indian IT vendors work in Pakistan through their overseas subsidiaries, the CEO of a mid-sized IT company, said. The subsidiary would forge relationships with Pakistan-based IT companies for marketing their offerings to domestic companies. One of i-flex`s subsidiaries in Europe has partnered with Teklogics (Pakistan) and Islamabad-based Telconet, said Mr Moonim.

Nucleus Software has engaged Karachi-based Emmaculate Solutions as its channel partner, according to the Indian company’s Web site.

Even though Pakistan is a safe destination to live and work in, there is a notion in some quarters that employees travelling to Pakistan could come under government surveillance if relations between the two countries sour, said Mr Hanuman Tripathi, Managing Director of Infrasoft Technologies, a city-based IT firm which does not have operations in Pakistan.

This has also prevented some IT industry biggies from tapping the Pakistan market.

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