Systems Limited, Huawei announce strategic partnership for global digital banking

 

ISLAMABAD, MAR 20: With the increase in online transactions, customer demands are changing, and to keep up with them banks must embrace human-centric and customer-first digital transformation. 

The patron of building a fully connected, intelligent world, Huawei, and enabler of a digital tomorrow, Systems Limited, formed a strategic alliance to navigate the way forward regarding the advancement of digital banking.

The signing ceremony took place on March 11, 2022, in the presence of Asif Peer, CEO & MD, Systems Limited, and Shahzad Rasheed, CEO, Huawei Cloud. 

Systems Limited has always been at the forefront of digital advancement and has taken multiple initiatives in the past to reshape the delivery and structure of financial services around technology to meet customer demands, anytime and anywhere.

Key personnel from the IT and banking were also present at the ceremony. The group discussed how technology has a huge impact on customer behavior, service and product innovation, business operation, and the vast potential it holds for the banking sector.

Asif Peer, CEO & Managing Director at Systems Limited, expressed, “We are visualizing a disruption and growth in the digital banking landscape of Pakistan to support business innovation in this new era. 

Banks are rapidly moving towards digital transformation, and we will be working closely to ensure refined customer management, channel optimization, and diverse ecosystem-wide collaboration. With partnerships such as this, we are on the right path of establishing a comprehensive global digital transformation strategy.”

Considering the newly announced cloud-first policy by the government of Pakistan, this partnership between Huawei and Systems Limited will help stabilize the digital banking ecosystem in Pakistan. 

The goal behind this partnership is to equip organizations with an end-to-end cloud-based architecture, assist them in meeting ever-evolving customer needs, and help them thrive in the digital world. Leveraging Huawei cloud infrastructure and System Limited’s enterprise-class cloud, information security, and digital banking services, both partners will be able to provide a ready-made, quick to onboard digital ecosystem in Pakistan.

Mr. Shahzad Rasheed, CEO Huawei Cloud reiterated that Huawei Pakistan is committed to expediting the journey of digitalization in the country and how that would be an impossible dream to achieve without Cloud. 

With the entry of digital banks in the financial industry we can expect monumental growth. China is a global leader in the world of banking and we will work towards connecting the Pakistani and Chinese Banks so we can learn from their experience and expertise. 

We are, and always will remain committed to the growth of the ICT Industry in Pakistan and look forward to working with Systems Limited as our strategic partner in this journey.

The emerging banks will have an in-country platform to set up their digital banking services robustly and seamlessly without a need for huge capital expenditure. 

Moving forward with Systems Limited’s global vision, the partners also aim to take these services outside Pakistan as well. This will also lead to multiple job opportunities in Pakistan.

Through the cloud, big data, and next-gen IT architecture, Systems Limited, and Huawei can help financial firms navigate the challenges of the customer-first and digital-first era.

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Reimagining education in a post-COVID world

Islamabad, MAR 15: Today Microsoft hosted an insightful discussion on the opportunity educators have to reimagine education for the post-COVID world. During the discussion, Microsoft Education Industry Lead Angela Nganga explored the various ways Microsoft is supporting educators to harness the value of education technology in hybrid learning. Nganga was joined by Khadija Amer, a representative from Microsoft customer Punjab Group of Colleges (PGC), Kaan Cetinturk, CIO & Director, Information Management & Technology Department, and Moritz Bilagher, Acting Director of Education, both from UNRWA Jordan, who shared their experiences of working with Microsoft technologies. 

Digital tools support immersive education 

Education fast became another casualty of COVID-19. A year into the pandemic, UNICEF reported that over 168 million children across the globe were still unable to attend school due to lockdown closures. Of those children, 9 million were in the Middle East and North Africa.  

This level of disruption shone a spotlight on the lack of resilience in our global education system. We must be able to teach our children despite future disruptions and in a way that arms them for success in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and beyond. To do that, policy makers and educators will need to reimagine education. 

UNICEF, ISTE, UNESCO, and the World Bank have recognized the importance of digital tools in this effort, as the tools can provide a flexible, personalized approach for students. “At Microsoft, we too believe in this power of digital tools, which can transform educational systems and support schools, teachers, and students,” says Nganga. 

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine education in a post-COVID world. We can take the hard-won lessons of the pandemic and use this knowledge to create a future-proof education system that serves our children and protects their future,” she adds.

Using educational analytics to inform educational strategies

Modern teaching and learning make the most of new and immersive ways to explore curricula. This reimagined education system nurtures a ‘growth mindset’ in students, emphasising future-ready skills to help them thrive in jobs not yet invented. Such a system is unafraid to use new technologies and new forms of assessment to gauge student progress. It’s a reimagining that Microsoft has brought to life through its K-12 Education Transformation Framework. 

With tools such as Education Insights for Teams, educators have one place to get real-time analytics of participant progress and activity within a class team. At a glance, they can proactively track student progress, get the data they need to shape the student experience, and ensure they are meeting social and emotional as well as academic needs. The goal is never to replace the expertise of skilled teachers. AI and analytics scale and augment that expertise, freeing teachers to apply their skills in the most effective ways.

“By using data and analytics in the hybrid classroom, educators can gain unique insights into their students’ successes and struggles, and then tailor individual interventions to maximise the children’s learning opportunities,” says Khadija Amer, Director, Punjab Group of Colleges.

“Making educational opportunities more widely available using technology and a reimagined education system offers the chance for children and young people across the region to access quality education and empowers them to pursue future success,” says Moritz Bilagher, Acting Director of Education, UNRWA Jordan. 

Microsoft supports education equality

Microsoft understands that a holistic digital transformation strategy is a crucial to ensuring successful outcomes for both students and educators. That’s why through its Project Constellation, the company is working with its partner-systems to develop a set of technical resources that will empower them to build capacity and pursue education analytics at a much faster pace. 

Project Constellation is a collaboration between education systems dedicated to advancing the use of education analytics and AI in order to maximize learning outcomes. The goal is to build an international community with common approaches to education analytics and AI. These resources are made available publicly through an open-source community called Open Education Analytics on Github. Together, members of Project Constellation are setting the foundation for the future of broad capacity-building in education analytics across the education sector.

Helping educators implement systemic transformation

Modern teaching and learning makes the most of new and immersive ways to explore the curriculum. It nurtures a growth mindset in students, emphasizing future-ready skills to help them thrive in jobs not yet invented. It’s unafraid to use new technologies and new forms of assessment to gauge student progress. The Microsoft Education Transformation Framework is an effective, flexible platform for education transformation, with the framework offering communities of practice, software and professional development.

“Through our strategic partnership with Microsoft, we have had great success implementing hybrid and blended learning for students via Teams, ensuring a secure and seamless access to all our platforms through Microsoft’s identity solutions and security policies, upskilling our IT teams and educators on the latest technologies, and benefitting from the power of Azure to host, manage, and secure our apps,” says Kaan Cetinturk, CIO & Director, Information Management & Technology Department at UNRWA Jordan. 

“The key to a transformed learning system is understanding students’ strengths and weaknesses – whether academic, emotional or social, to offer learning opportunities that resonate with them. Microsoft aims to empower education systems around the world to provide students with the best learning opportunities and improve student learning outcomes, through shared knowledge and technical resources,” says Nganga.

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Zong Leads PTA QoS Rankings for Q4 2021

 

ISLAMABAD, MAR 3: Pakistan’s cellular and digital services frontrunner, Zong 4G, has been recognized as the most superior network of the country by Pakistan Telecom Authority’s (PTA) latest Quality of Service (QoS) survey (Q4), 2021.

In the recent Quality of Service (QoS) survey carried out by PTA in 18 cities and nine motorways, highways, intercity roads across all four provinces to measure the performance of the services of Pakistani Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs).

The survey gauged the CMO performances against the issued KPIs of voice, network coverage, SMS, and mobile broadband/data using a state-of-the-art automated QoS Monitoring and Benchmarking tool.

In the survey, Zong took the lead in major performance metrics including mobile network coverage, mobile broadband service, voice call quality, and overall telecom ranking. 

“We’re delighted to have topped the PTA QoS charts for Q4, 2021, and are always in pursuit of service excellence on every single front,” shared Zong’s official spokesperson on the achievement. 

“We will continue to find new ways of serving our customers better and drive the digital change that Pakistan needs at the moment. 

Moreover, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to our customers for their trust in Zong as their preferred digital connectivity partner,” the spokesperson added. 

Zong is Pakistan’s top connectivity and digital services provider that’s also leading the ICT-led digital transformation in the country. 

The company delivers best-in-class mobile telephony and digital services while striving to help Pakistan match its digital pace with the world and enter the 5G era.

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Huawei, Middle East carriers discuss digital wave and techniques to accelerate operations transformation

Forum highlights the right path for operations transformation working with carriers and industry leaders in the Middle East region

ISLAMABAD, MAR 2: Huawei hosted a high-profile Operations Transformation Forum for leading Middle East carriers on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

The Forum aimed to create a platform for close communication with carriers and industry partners to share knowledge, experiences, and best practices to continuously create value for service providers and help carriers accelerate digital transformation.

With the advent of the digital economy, 5G, new digital services, and digital operations transformation are becoming important factors for carriers' business success. In addition, there are challenges in service monetization, user experience management and O&M. 

In attendance were senior Huawei executives, including Steven Yi, President of Huawei Middle East and Bill Tang, President of Huawei Global Technical Service Department. 

Additionally, more than 15 telecom carriers and industry partners in the Middle East were present at the Forum to discuss new digital services and digital operations transformation. 

Bill Tang, President of Huawei Global Technical Service Department, shared Huawei Service and Software strategies. 

He said, "Based on carrier's transformation trend, Huawei provides carriers with three transformation journeys in 2022: Convergent & Intelligent Digital Service, Data-driven Ultimate Experience, and Intelligent Predictive O&M."

JazzCash, Omantel and STC shared their digital operations transformation strategies and best practices. 

Ahmed Shahab Nasir, CTO, JazzCash Pakistan, said, "We will continue to focus on building a robust payment ecosystem, and products drive continuous development." 

Dr. Ali Al Hashmi, General Manager of Networks at Omantel, added, "Customer experience-driven 5G precision marketing and closed-loop network issues are the most critical to 5G commercial success." 

Khalid Attia, consultant of STC CCEx Program, Saudi Arabia, believes, "STC has entered the deep-water area of experience transformation. It is evolving to convergent data-driven smart operations through enterprise-level metrics throughout the CCEX lifecycle."

Industry partners such as TM Forum, Ernst & Young, Roland Beger, and Analysys Mason were also at hand to share their expert opinion on industry trends and transformation.

Aaron Boasman, Vice President, AI & Customer Experience, TM Forum, said, "The operator's priority should be to enhance the customer experience and prove its commercial value." 

Jose-Luis Garcia, Lead of Global Telco Solution and EMEIA Tech Sector, EY, said, “The rollout of 5G technology has pushed the telecom CXOs to rethink their investment strategies and focus more toward upgrading network and technology platforms. 

Given MENA is at the helm of 5G revolution and is expected to account for 10% of total mobile subscriptions by 2025, the operators are impelled to commence OSS/BSS overhaul to monetize 5G effectively.” 

Kushal Shah, Senior Partner Middle East, Roland Berger, added, “COVID-19 impact on customer demand, technology advancements, and improved regulatory conditions have led to a substantial increase in the number of fintech startups in MENA.”

Jacky Zhou, Vice President, Marketing & Solution, Huawei, closed the Forum. He said, "Operational transformation is an important foundation for business success.

At the same time, aligning with the planning, construction, maintenance and optimization process, using digital platform tools to strengthen market and network side capabilities, developing digital business, and improving revenue, efficiency and user experience are the common perceptions of the direction of digital transformation. 

Huawei hopes to become a trusted partner of operators in digital operations transformation and continue to contribute to the commercial success of operators."

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Navigating the ‘messy middle’ in hybrid workspaces

 

KARACHI, MAR 2: The remote-work world that we embraced at the height of the pandemic has evolved with blended, hybrid environments now taking centre stage.

This will define the post-pandemic business landscape, according to Microsoft’s latest Work Trend Index (WTI).“The best of both worlds” is what employees surveyed in the WTI are after: 73 percent want flexible remote-work options to continue, while, at the same time, 67 percent are craving more in-person time with their teams.

WTI figures show that 46 percent of the globally surveyed employees were considering leaving their current employer because they can work from home. In the EMEA region, this figure, although lower at 36 percent, is still significant.

As such, a company’s approach to hybrid working will define “who stays and who goes,” the index notes.

What’s the sentiment in Pakistan? Last year, news outlet Nikkei Asia reported that emerging nations such as Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh have a strong presence in the global remote-work market.

In fact, the article notes that, in 2020, workers from these countries made up over 80 percent of the remote workforce.

With economies reopening after pandemic-induced lockdowns, companies will be able to implement an effective hybrid workspace, having had equal success operating exclusively in-person and exclusively online.

The importance of balancing the two comes down to employee wellbeing – offering the flexibility of remote work alongside the collaborative, social aspect of seeing colleagues in person.

Just like the rest of the business world, we’re learning as we roll out these hybrid-enabling changes. On what we’ve learnt, Nicole Herskowitz, Microsoft Teams General Manager, highlights that hybrid meetings have been a game-changer for shaping a successful work environment.

For Microsoft, Herskowitz shares that following the “ABC” practice on Teams-based meetings has been key. The ‘A’ is for Audio, because having the right tech to give everyone an equal opportunity to be heard clearly is a cornerstone of inclusive collaboration.

The ‘B’ is for Bring Your Own Device (turning on your camera but muting your mic).  ‘C’ is about Collaboration; specifically, about assigning a facilitator to streamline interactions between virtual and in-office meeting attendees.

As the WTI highlighted, enabling successful hybrid working will mean reimagining office space and investing in supporting technology.

Microsoft has innovated on the technology front with new Teams Rooms features to better manage the messy middle. 

There’s a Front Row layout where the video gallery is at the bottom of the screen, spread out horizontally.. The Surface Hub capabilities in Teams Rooms have also been enhanced to offer more ways to collaborate seamlessly.

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