Pakistan’s information technology sector is facing a major challenge of a lack of skilled human resources and there is a need to upgrade the IT professionals, in the first place, at par with the international standards, said Wajid Ali Khan, general manager services at Jaffer Business Systems.

“We need to groom our IT professionals in a large number to capture maximum share in the foreign markets,” he added.

Pakistan’s professionals and workforce are largely based in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and our presence in the developed countries, including the US, Canada and EU should be increased.

Khan has been associated with the company for 25 years. He has an extensive experience in diversified operations of the company and is well-versed in the management of various local and international projects and various initiatives of exports in different countries with several successful projects to his credit.

Wajid possesses vast understanding and experience in the arena of leading and overlooking multifaceted business models along with the capabilities of team-building and managing projects. A result-driven individual, Khan has been responsible for handling crucial responsibilities such as customer services, technical support and managing complex projects.

Following are the excerpts from a talk with him:

How do you see the potential of Pakistan’s export in the information technology sector?

The potential of the information technology sector is unexplainably immense for the Pakistani exporters in numerous fields worldwide. The IT companies of various sizes need to explore their markets, niche and the quality of service to compete with the exporters of different countries.

The growth of IT exports is prominent in the last couple of years but it could surely enhance its value manifolds in the next few years, considering the prevailing market dynamics at an international level. The IT sector can beat the traditional textile sector in exports.

The US is a huge market to tap in. Of course, it is followed by the UK and the EU countries. There is a big room for exports in the GCC states and African countries also, and the sky’s the limit, he said.

The share of Pakistan’s exports in the global market is very minimal, which needs to be grown staggeringly to bring in the foreign exchange and to support our economy on a sustainable basis.

At present, various IT companies and software houses are working to provide services exports. The way of doing business is based on a unique model. The major operations are located in Pakistan and the crucial business units along with limited human resources are operating on-site in several foreign countries.

The IT exports achieved $2 billion-mark for the first time in the last financial year. This year, it is expected to touch $3 billion and $5 billion in the next financial year.

Describe your experience of exploring new export markets as a head of the IT exports division at JBS?

The IT industry is already quite competitive. However, having said that, JBS is a very credible brand and everyone knows we are good at what we do. Our business is essentially spread across Pakistan in diversified fields of IT and IT-enabled services. Despite the competition in the local market, the company maintains its margins well, this is because of our meticulous and well-thought out expansion plan to explore overseas markets for earning foreign exchange reserves for itself and the country.

In 2021, the company sets up an e-commerce company in North America, which caters to a niche market by providing hardware units of computers and its related systems from individual to corporate level.

JBS Inc, a subsidiary of Jaffer Business Systems, has successfully established its foothold in Texas, which will expand its operations in other states of the US. We are working in collaboration with various leading brands and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which is evident that our e-commerce platform could offer nearly new and refurbished 250,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) to the buyers.

The scope of business in this particular field is immense not only for the JBS Inc but also for the Pakistani companies wanted to explore the same market. Usually, Indians, Egyptians and several other countries are major competitors in the US market. However, JBS Inc has been progressing at an accelerated pace since its inception given the strategy of competitive pricing.

What are your plans regarding commencement of the e-commerce business in new foreign markets?

Our new target market is the UK, which may witness its launch within a year under the same name, JBS Inc. In the first phase, we have hired crucial staff for this particular market. And in the next phase, we will commence our full-fledged operations.

Moving on to this, the EU countries will be our target destinations. Our brand maintains credibility among the foreign and Pakistani businessmen, which will surely reflect on our business growth and bottom line.

Like the way we received an overwhelming response from the US customers, we expect the same encouraging response from the overseas Pakistanis in the UK who must recognise our credibility as a well-established name in the field of information technology.

What makes Jaffer Business Systems different from others in the US market?

After the successful establishment of our e-commerce business in the US, we are working to expand our business of export of services under the umbrella of Jaffer Business Systems. We offer services in the US market, which we are having expertise in Pakistan.

We have hired various consultants in specialised fields and core staff in the US. We win the project through bidding processes on various freelance online platforms such as Upwork, Freelancers, Fiverr, etc, and serve the clients’ requirements accordingly. The staff for bidding and marketing are based in Pakistan, whereas the technical staff is available on-site. This is a pilot stage of our business segment of services export.

This business strategy will be transformed gradually into a big opportunity for business. Going forward, we plan to set it up as a separate and full-fledged business unit and physical presence in the US with a different brand name by the next year.

Also, we have teams of expert professionals for the implementation of various modules of Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, etc, which frequently visit the GCC states to provide services to various corporations. This segment of services exports will grow further in the future.

The services exports, including software development, automation, implementation, etc, have huge scope in the foreign markets. Above all, these areas will provide handsome margins to the service providers and bring in foreign exchange to the country.

What is your strategy to capture foreign markets?

The business proportion should be realistic and flexible, as whatever you invest in digital media, you should generate more sales and business.

The pricing of services and products should be competitive to capture the export market as much as you can. The allocation of the staff is very important. The on-site delivery staff should be limited, whereas the supporting staff should be based in Pakistan to make most of the margins.

What is the strength of JBS in the networking business and cyber-security?

The networking business is one of the core strengths of JBS. We have maintained our good revenue streams for the last four years through this segment; hence, we continue to build our capacity to cater to the giant-sized companies. Cellular and IT are the two major areas of our major interest to serve our clients, at present.

The company as an authorised partner is serving a telecom giant through its experienced staff these days and it is set to serve the same client in the foreign market of Qatar as the execution partner.

We are also working to explore our market in the segment of cyber-security at the local and international levels because of its growing demand worldwide. This is a highly sensitive and specialised area. At the moment, we provide principal solutions for cyber-security to the customers, which are sufficient to cater to the local market. But we have plans to capture more markets and big clients in the future.

What measures do you take for capacity-building of the staff?

We continue to provide training to our staff to build their professional and soft skills. We have a specialised segment of this in which we continue to engage expert trainers from different niche fields. We dedicated a purpose-built in-house section at our office. Also, we engage industry tycoons with proven big achievements under their belts to motivate our staff members. This is an exercise, which should be adopted by every company for business growth and expansion.

Published at Bol News