(I’m posting this in General because it deals more like Pakistani manufacturing industry than simply the technology itself.)
Few questions in the regard:
1- Are there any Pakistani Business portals allowing Request For Quote/Price (RFQ/RFP) or Reverse Auction (RA) services to Pakistani manufacturing companies? Please place as many links as possible.
2- Any success, failure stories of such ventures – causes and reasons.
3- State of reliability of Pakistani manufacturing companies selling their products via such portals in the context of material quality, shipment/logistics planning on-time delivery, support of finanacial institutes (Banks etc) in providing credible transaction services (Letter of Credit (LC) procedures, easiness to establish, and associated costs etc).
4- Links, links, links where I can find any shred of bit of information even obsecurely related to above. Thank you.
What kind of industry are you referring to..? I don't think there are any such sites. You may find e.commerce sites dealing in consumer products. But, on manufacturing sector, I haven't found any..
Most of the exports are comprised of textiles, leather, commodoties such as grain, and rice. Be more specific..
Manufacturing companies like pharmaseuticals, chemical processing, raw material, and your examples of textiles, leathers, and other commodities also fall under "manufacturing industry".
It doesn't necessarily has to be specifically for manufacturing enterprises per se. It could even be distributor/brokers buying goods from manufacturers and selling off to wide range of customers (customers in this case are other companies who buy these finished/unfinished goods).
I'm not looking for household consumer oriented portals like Yahoo/MSN Shopping etc.
If you are in a mood to start some email enquiries, then you may want to send a boiler plate email to folks at FPCCI and other Chambers. Surprisngly LCCI website is lacking any serious information, but Sialkot Chamber’s website is pretty well organized, including a working section on “Trade Inquiries” (wake up, Lahore!).
This link will give you some useful links, including the three I talk about. If this is not what you wanted, you can search some more, or communicate with someone in these places. I think email addresses are given in all places.
Roman, I think if you stick to enabling the soft goods industry in Pak, you are better off. IT services and ITES outsourcing is a lost game as far as Pak is concerned.
Having a portal doesn't necessarily mean you will get the tie-ins. In both US and Asia, portalitis (an epidemiology of portals :) ) killed a lot of companies, as I am sure you know. And the IT infrastructure there was a lot more robust than in Pak.
I think what could be helpful is a product/process that you can sell to both customers here and in Pak within the textile industry that shortens the production and time to market cycle. Companies like Tommy, Polo, Nautica etc in the US have Production design systems that are still green screen based and do not tie in to real time market info from their buyers and suppliers. Any chance to shorten that cycle time, and you are looking at millions in ROA and ROI.
One can find a niche with the mid-tier market if your product is priced accirdingly and whether through an asp or a stand alone system with interfaces to their existing ERP system can be a great solution.
Focusing on an industry that has less technology enable but is a leading sector of the Paki economy might be the right thing. Textile and soft goods manufacturing might be there.
I think there is a lot of homework to be done on the long term viability of the Paki economy though.
Matsui, I'm interested in finding about the portals to get an overview of the business frameworks on all ends, not to build one. If, say, portals are successful then that's one great end always to keep in mind in terms of product publishing, rendering a great marketing pitch.
ROman, that is why I said that you need tie-in commitments with enough volumes of transactions or information sharing that can be productized for them to be viable. To give you an example... THe big three in detroit have a portal through which they get access to parts manufacturers form around the world. THey took the initiative because collective they can create a market and drive down the costs of goods.
In banking, there are portals as well where this collective bargaining model works. The key drivers are volume driven discounts and economies of scale. In both cases I know...they are demand driven entities.
Collective selling cannot work because cartelization fears and te resulting artificial inflation. So my point is the one needs to tie-in the front end here in the states or overseas where the goods are orgered from, first. Only then would the model work.
Outsourcing IT services is the way to go actually, if you are able to find projects here and have a good team in Pakistan for development and implementation. Even on personal level, I work with close coordination with a chap from gupshup in Pakistan, and we are talking mid-sized web applications.
The IT industry may not be as vibrant as India, but the improvement in the overall infrastructure has been swift. India's IT sector is more mature than Pakistan, and over-rated. Although, Pakistan is not far behind as far as the infrastructure and talent pool is concerned. We need to focus on the marketing aspect, and things will blossom within five years. Take my word :)
Although, matsui brother, your advice related to hooking up textile buyers in the Western markets with manafucturers in Pakistan worth in gold ;) I totally agree that you don't need to "invent" something which may not fit-in the business criterion. Provide solutions that can be used effectively by companies and are capable of delivering on bottom-lines. The crux of the matter is that how the company will be able to save money. It's as simple as it can get.
Roman, follow on matsui's advice and put your webservices experience to use by hooking up the manufacturing cycle with design and sales and so-forth..
There are alot of companies that are using Pakistan for outsourcing IT needs... There has yet been another software development park being commissioned in Islamabad, after the success of its predecessors, which proves its growing. Similar business technology parks were also set up in other primate cities. The work done in these parks ranges from merely converting medical transcripts into electronic versions, to extensive software project development.
The biggest problem with offshore outsourcing in Pakistan is the geopolitical situation. Law enforcement concerns come next. Pakistan stands in the red zone in that regard right now. Specially after 9/11. The very first questions companies ask is, how stable is the geopolitical situation in the country under consideration? Second question is the expertise of the offshore provider specifically for companies doing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).
A lot of companies are now in fact considering near-shore solutions (Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada). Canadian market offers well established expertise in that regard, and the cost cutting factor is 30 percent less costs than US.
As far as .com software product startup in Pakistan is concerned (ERP specific) a viably stable product can be up and running in couple of years, providing the core and fundamental business processes like Inventory management, procurement, Sales and order management, and Logistics planning. But I agree, that depends a lot on the local talent pool and facilities available.
Roman, it depends a lot on individual efforts, if you are planning to do any kind out-sourcing in Pakistan. On the marketing front, it will have to be the efforts from the expats like us, to promote the IT industry back-home. There's some misconception at the moment in the minds of people here regarding Pakistan, when it comes to investment. But, the talent pool and resources are present in Pakistan to implemet projects. No question. It's just a matter of tapping them.
Guys, while I think it is a noble cause that ex-paks (I kind of like that term) want to develop or see development of an ITO or BPO industries. It is simply too late. More so in the ITO aspect. ITO is a relatively mature market and there is no distinct value proposition that Pakistan currently offers to western clients.
As far as BPO is concerned, in the last 8 months I have set up an BPO company for the bank I work for in INdia. Through 2 acquisitions and organic growth, the company currently employs 4000 people. It is incredibly difficult for smaller countries like Philippines and malaysia, who actually once led in the call center type activities to compete with the likes of India. Simple reason is the economics of the work. BPO only makes sense if there is enough scale. having a 10 seat operation in Manila makes no sense for a company that is looking at BPO from a strategic and shareholder value perspective. Philippines might be a better destination because of english language profeciency and accent naturalization ease through training. But at the end of the day..a lot of processes have both voice and data components. And it is hard for these countries to get as an example, 100 people, who have 5 yrs of capital markets experience and want to work US hrs. This is the value proposition at the end of the day.
I think there can be trickle down effects of ITO and BPO synergies between India and Pak. Indian companies have become setting up centers to do some work in china because of cost arbitrage and some niche play like embedded systems. I do not think an INtel or IBM or GOldman Sachs is going to set up a center in Pakistan either in IT or in BPO anytime soon for the reasons below.
Stability in Pak is always a big issue as well. AS much as one would like to commend the general sahib's modus and performance, the fact is that the PERC rating for Pak is not very high. The economy has improved y/y but you have to look at where it was before and whether it had hit bottom.