Chief Technology Officer
Pakistan Television Corporation
Total years of experience :27 years, 11 Months
Significant Highlights:
Laid foundation of digital transformation of PTV to bring it at par with leading regional/international state broadcasters by defining a comprehensive technology roadmap. This entailed compiling a technology upgrade investment plan of about PRK 7b spanning a period of three years that will replace aging and sometimes outdated broadcast and IT infrastructure components with media industry’s state-of-the-art digital solutions at the back-end as well as front-end solutions that would enable PTV reach its audience through digital platforms.
As part of execution of above plan:
o Led the project to convert PTV flagship channel PTV News to HD format followed by PTV Sports.
o Deployed cutting-edge media solution of Virtua Studio for PTV News in order to further bring PTV flagship channel at par with its local and regional competition.
o Conceived and prepared the PC-I for long-awaited PTV Archives Digitization project including a state-of -the-art data centre for the state broadcaster that was later expanded to cover archives of all departments of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MoIB) and now being executed by the ministry as the mother project.
o Launched one of the most strategic projects of PTV of acquiring a suitable OTT platform for delivering & selling the digitized contents that adds an estimated minimum revenue stream of PKR 400m annually.
o Worked relentlessly with MoIB, Planning Commission, Economic Affairs Division (EAD) and Chinese government designated technology contractor to resolve long outstanding issues & get the PC-I approved for a landmark CPEC project worth PKR 3.8b of enabling PTV’s three key rebroadcast stations to give digital transmission (http://cpec.gov.pk/project-details/131).
Launched TeleSchool in record period of less than a month using no additional budget to help federal Ministry of Education leverage PTV’s outreach in impart maximum possible tuition lessons to students all across the country who were forced to stay at home during the Covid-19 pandemic period.
Streamlined procurement policies and procedures that in addition to internal process efficiencies resulted in annual savings of around PKR 100m.
Successfully built a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing among various functions notably between Engineering & IT divisions which have historically been working bureaucratically and in silos resulting in ill-planning, failed or seriously delayed projects and waste of valuable resources.
Deployed federal government’s flagship e-Government tool e-Office suite to streamline inter-office communication at PTV Headquarters and the various TV stations.
Responsibilities:
Responsible for managing all technology management aspects of the company that require me to:
Establish PTVC’s technical vision and lead all aspects of the company’s technological development.
Leading and acting as a mentor for Engineering and IT teams to attain the goals established in the company's strategic plan.
Work in a consultative fashion with other functional heads, such as marketing, production, admin and operations as an adviser of technologies that may improve their efficiency and effectiveness and the quality of content.
Staying on top of technology trends and developments while ensuring all relevant technology standards and best practices are met and that the technological resources meet the company's short- and long-term needs.
Prepare and manage technology budgets ensuring all technology practices adhere to regulatory standards.
Developing and implementing all internal/external communication systems.
Managing technology budgets and timeframes and overseeing IT/Engineering budgets to make sure there are no unnecessary expenditures.
Responsibilities:
Lead and develop consulting/advisory arm of the company in the local market through identification of opportunities and building strong relationships with potential and existing clients.
Develop business proposals and negotiate project terms and conditions with prospect clients.
Manage consulting projects portfolio using industry best practices and ensuring quality of results in the work being delivered by junior members of the team.
Design and deliver technical as well as professional development training programs covering topics in IT Management/Governance, Project Management, ERP & Big Data implementation.
Significant Highlights:
Defined vision and built the business case for NITB to work as an autonomous body so that it may play an effective and strategic role in digital transformation program of Government of Pakistan (GoP). As a result of these efforts, Federal Cabinet recently approved converting NITB into an autonomous body.
Played a key role in the MoIT team responsible for formulating and finalizing National IT Policy as approved by Federal Cabinet in May 2018.
Revitalized MoIT’s flagship project and GoP’s key initiative to achieve good governance targets i.e. Implementation of e-Office Suite by applying proven project management strategies & practices. The new strategy brought the automation coverage from a mere 4 ministries to 23 ministries in a short span of two years. This was achieved in addition to automating about two dozen departments working under these ministries.
Proposed and got approved policy from the competent authority for proliferating the abovementioned e-government initiative to provincial and local governments level utilizing a public-private partnership (PPP) model for the implementation of software.
Employed Train-the-Trainer concept to handle the change management process within various organizations arising from introduction to different e-government initiatives - not only to speed up the process but to overcome the tendency to resist the change.
Set up NITB as a role model organization for other departments and organizations of federal government for adopting e-Governance initiatives. Also did concerted efforts to promote the department in the domestic market as a vibrant organization which resulted in attracting the some very good talent the department could ever fetch from private sector.
Worked very closely with PM Task Force on Institutional Reforms and Austerity, led by Dr. Ishrat Husain, in analysing the state of affairs vis-à-vis technology readiness of various constituents of federal government and chalking out roadmap for e-Governance for GoP organizations that consolidated various inter-related initiatives and set direction for future undertakings.
Managed PSDP portfolio of projects to the tune of PKR 800m+ using program management best practices that included funding key on-going projects, conceiving and initiating new ones, expediting slow-moving projects and closing those which were no longer yielding value. This was done while maintaining cordial and win-win relationship with key technology product/service providers.
Strategized building a highly efficient in-house team through 3P arrangements for delivering automation needs of numerous organizations of federal government including PM office.
Formulated an in-depth framework to deliver consulting/advisory services and subsequently delivered a number of IT solutions and consulting/advisory services to various ministries and departments.
Represented MoIT and delivered presentations & training sessions at various civil service training facilities such as National School of Public Policy (NSPP-Lahore) and National Institute of Management (NIM-Islamabad) etc.
Implemented a carefully crafted SLA for back-end Data Centre cloud services for provision of computing power & storage to host e-government applications portfolio on behalf of the entire federal government.
Responsibilities:
Lead the organization consisting of 100+ professionals for the overall cost-effective implementation of the E-Government programs in the Federal Ministries/Divisions
Work for the identification of the areas where IT interventions can be helpful and to suggest measures for the automation of these areas through Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) initiatives.
Identify and implement continual program enhancements based on industry standards and best practices and aligned with MoIT strategic directions.
Carry out Training Need Assessments (TNA) and to design and implement IT Capacity Programs of the Federal Ministries/Divisions.
Manage the key functions of NITB - Strategic Planning & Consultancy Services, e-Governance; Systems development & Program Management, User & Network Support across federal government.
Develop, promote and sustain positive and productive external working relationships and partnerships, including joint working with hardware and software services suppliers, to ensure that NITB obtains the best value in the resourcing of ICT requirements.
Establish relevant benchmarks and performance standards against which to monitor and evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the NITB in contributing to the overall achievement of its aim and objectives.
Significant Highlights:
• Outlined Vision and Mission Statement for the IT department to guide strategy building and implementation process for the department.
• Part of the top management team that transformed the bank in last ten years from a mono-product microcredit institution into a highly viable commercial entity offering a host of asset and liability products and one that has consistently posted a billion-rupee profit (before tax) in last two financial years. The relentless efforts by management team, in which IT has a major contribution, have helped set KBL as a distinctive leader of the country’s microfinance industry.
• This transformation process, in which IT played a critical role, has converted the bank from a purely microcredit extending organization into a full-service bank which is now serving very high-potential MSME (Micro-, Small- and Medium-Enterprises) segment in addition to its traditional market segment.
• Advised the BoD and management for acquiring an appropriate Core Banking System (CBS) and implemented the same in record time. The solution has played a pivotal role in allowing the bank to rapidly expand its product portfolio, establish alternate delivery channels and offer full suite of financial services.
• Led various technology initiatives that have brought fundamental change on how various banking operations and internal processes are performed. These initiatives have helped in lowering bank’s operating cost by nearly 10% on YoY basis and reducing turnaround time for some of the key business processes by up to 80%.
• Worked with international organizations/agencies e.g. World Bank/IFC/CGAP, ADB, SBBN and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which were directly or indirectly involved in various initiatives related to promoting microfinance at a global scale.
Projects Undertaken:
• Headed the cross-functional project team that implemented core banking system at all 100+ branches in a record time of 12 months (KBL was the first bank in local microfinance industry to have a full-blown off-the-shelf retail banking system implemented across the bank).
• Led various projects to migrate from all legacy banking systems to the integrated core banking platform thus connecting seamlessly all banking operations workflows in real-time.
• Planned strategies and ensured all KBL branches across Pakistan are connected over a network infrastructure that guarantees an overall network availability KPI of above 99% at an extremely low cost. Made bank’s infrastructure resilient with the provision of a Tier III primary data centre backed up by a robust DR site.
• Planned strategy for launching various Alternate Delivery Channels (ADC) that is based on fostering partnerships with existing players in the market to leverage investments already made by these players for a head start.
• Implemented ERP modules in HR and Finance functions and automated a number of back-office processes.
• Launched various successful initiatives for promoting industry best-practices in general IT management and IT Governance through implementing IT Project Management Framework and an ITIL-compliant Helpdesk system, conducting bank-wide IT Customer Satisfaction surveys and establishing internal and external SLAs.
Responsibilities:
• Heading a team of 50+ personnel and reporting to the CEO of the bank, develop and implement IT strategy for the bank while ensuring its alignment and integration with the overall mission and strategy of the business.
• Working closely with rest of the top management team to create a sound IT Governance environment by formulating and implementing IT policies and procedures as applicable to the bank operating environment and as mandated by the regulatory bodies.
• Planning, preparing and managing annual budget for the bank’s IT systems and operations consistent with business plans and financial guidelines.
• Making sure IT services and infrastructure meet the requirements of the business by orchestrating activities of various IT sub-functions as well as providing a high quality advisory service on IT matters to senior management.
• Maintaining effective relationships with key IT vendors/service providers for ensuring agreed service level deliveries.
• Designing and monitoring, with the help of HR function, staffing programs to attract, retain and develop quality IT resources to cater to growing IT support needs of the bank.
• Administering implementation of application and infrastructure systems and ensuring provision of quality service to concerned stakeholders during solution acquisition, implementation, training, and post-implementation phases.
• Working as a member of HR and Operations Committees of the bank and playing an active role in formulating key policies and procedures in these domains.
Succession Path:
Systems Manager - Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain & BI (Oct 2000 to Feb 2006)
Assistant Manager - Systems Analyst (Aug 1997 to Sep 2000)
Significant Highlights:
• Gained in-depth experience in developing and implementing ERP and Business Intelligence (read decision-making) systems.
• Headed the team at UPL for selecting and implementing leading BI solution from Business Objects (now part of SAP). The same BI platform was later adopted by a number of companies in Unilever.
• Accredited as the only manager in IT department to ever win the prestigious award of “TQ Person of the Year” - a recognition given to those contributing significantly to TQM drive in their respective functions.
• Made contributory visits and delivered consulting services to sister companies in implementing UPL Fixed Assets Accounting module at Unilever Levant and Unilever Ceylon and Oracle Financial Analyser aka Abacus at Unilever Kenya.
• Holds distinction of introducing IEEE/ACM Software Engineering Code of Ethics in the IT department.
• Successfully introduced CASEwise™ Modeller as a best practice CASE tool for system analysis, design and documentation needs of in-house developments and process re-engineering activities.
Project Undertaken:
• Establishing a Shared Services Centre - A major initiative to support business restructuring, Highlight: Allowed the Controller department to centralize a number of accounting processes at the Head Office thus saving almost 50% of existing human resources assigned to these activities outside HO.
• Implementation of BusinessObjects™ reporting software, Highlight: The software assists and speeds up the process of reporting and decision-making by allowing business users to design and develop most of their reports by themselves.
• Implementation of BusinessObjects™ Performance Management Suite, Highlight: The software drew heavily on the existing BI infrastructure layer in the company that consisted of Business Objects Enterprise Reporting, Abacus (Oracle Financial Analyser) and Kalido™ data warehouse products and supports Balanced Scorecard philosophy.
• Workflow automation of Marketing Support Services and POS promotional items procurement, Highlight: New system, based on Ultimus™ workflow suite running on top of ERP, replaced the old system which due to lack of integration with ERP was causing duplication of work and loose accounting controls.
• Replacement of multiple disparate legacy systems with a single end-to-end integrated solution for raw material imports operations, Highlight: The new web-based software, which was by far the largest in-house development in UPL, neatly connected the workflow of several different functions including Buying, Treasury, Logistics and Finance departments and to stakeholders outside the company e.g. suppliers, clearing agents. Its carefully designed data model has helped its users generate powerful MIS in as diverse areas as FOREX exposure management, imports-related lead time analysis and compliance reporting for IFRS requirements.
• Implementation of Supplier Schedule module of ERP software, Highlight: The software facilitates supply chain planners and buyers in streamlining their planning and communication process among themselves and with inventory suppliers having long-term purchasing relationship with the company.
• Facilitated as the lead IT resource in rolling out Oracle Financial Analyser across the company for financial analysis and modelling done by management accountants.
• Redrafted and standardized UPL’s Fixed Assets Accounting software to meet Unilever specific accounting treatment and reporting requirements.
Responsibilities:
• Participated in formulating company’s IT Strategy in line with business’s global strategic thrusts.
• Monitored development and maintenance support for operational systems in various functions that included Finance, Marketing, Procurement and Business Intelligence systems across the company.
• Evaluated IT solutions, managed vendors, led implementation projects for off-the-shelf software and formulated on-going revision of company’s IT strategy.
• Identified and introduced suitable technologies that give the business a competitive advantage, enhance business operational efficiency or answer informational needs of management for their decision-making process.
• Monitored project implementation of global and regional applications and developed in-house software and customized ERP.
• Controlled and managed departmental training budget for managers working in the IT department. Supervised training provided to end-users regarding standard and bespoke software applications.
• Supported key systems including Financial modules of Mfg/Pro™ (ERP used by Unilever Pakistan), Procurement-related modules of Mfg/Pro, Various in-house systems built around standard ERP modules, Workflow automation for several key business processes, ABACUS (Unilever customized version of Oracle Financial Analyser), Kalido™ Data warehouse and BusinessObjects™ suite of products.
(ITIM Associates PK is the offshore software development arm of UK-based BPR firm ITIM UK plc)
Succession Path:
Project Manager (Aug’95 to Dec’96)
Senior Software Engineer (Nov’94 to Jul’95)
Worked extensively on offshore software development projects at Pakistan’s leading and pioneering software house which operated as software arm of UK-based BPR firm focusing on Retail and Travel industries.
Led a team of around 20 analysts & developers that delivered a sophisticated online analytical processing (OLAP) system for Lillywhites, a famous UK sportswear retail chain. The system was designed to (a) support customer’s mobile buying workforce to efficiently capture huge amounts of product/pricing data from approved suppliers; (b) support consolidation of this data to the central database at company’s headquarters, where it helps buyers make the best purchasing deal by building several different decision-making models to do what-if analysis across dimensions e.g. product / price / discount / time / geography etc.
(The firm then represented leading management consultant organization Arthur Andersen Worldwide in Pakistan)
Working with Pakistan’s leading management consulting firm, I was responsible for analyzing, developing and implementing different financial software products on customers’ sites leading a team of up to three programmers and analysts.
Also served as principle system analyst during system reverse-engineering exercise of Loan Accounting application of country’s largest DFI.
(then affiliated with Karachi University)
(then affiliated with Karachi University)
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