Pak IT companies win recognition at international forums

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani companies have repeatedly won recognition at international forums and count world’s largest and most reputable entities among its regular clients, said managing director Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) Iftikhar Shah.

He said, at yearly APICTA Awards, Pakistani IT companies have consistently won top awards and several Pakistani IT companies are ranked among the fastest growing companies in Pakistan. The presence of international IT companies in Pakistan, such as IBM, Intel, Huawei is a vote of confidence in Pakistan’s potential as an IT destination.

He said,PSEB has launched several programs to bolster the local IT Industry these include IT company capability development through international certifications such as CMMi (28 companies), 9001 (110 companies), ISO27001 and ISO20000 (24 companies).

These coveted certifications make it easier for IT companies to solicit business from overseas entities, he added.

Pakistan is ranked as the 4th most popular country for freelancing in the Online Labor Index published in 2017 by Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and is consistently ranked among the top destinations for ICT outsourcing as a result of strong government efforts and stellar commitment to the growth of the IT sector in Pakistan.

There are already plenty of Pakistani IT companies working in international arena mainly named as ‘Mindstorm Studios’, ‘GameView Studios’, ‘Pepper PK’ and ‘TkXeL’ etc.

From these companies, ‘TkXel’ has created mobile applications and gaming companies from a university lab in Lahore while Pepper PK made history by developing paid BlackBerry applications which reached top rankings on BlackBerry’s App World store.

Tintashhas designed many innovative casual games for iPhone, iPad, and Android platforms. Games are not the only avenue on the mobile platform that Pakistani companies are focusing on, bit a number of companies have looked at broader educational and infotainment markets.

Folio3 judged as one of the Harvard Business School’s All-World Fast Growth 500 companies in 2010 has interesting products in its portfolio.

Folio3 has been instrumental in creating an online educational platform for Secret Builders a company that boasts a virtual world for children 5 to 14 years old powered by a Web 2.0 community of children, parents, educators, writers, artists and game developers.

Pakistan has produced some great gaming studios. The title animation sequence of Game of Thrones, the world’s most-watched TV series these days, has been produced by Hameed Shaukat, a US-born Pakistani.

Cricket Companion application which received worldwide recognition was also developed by Tricast Media, a Pakistani startup.

Pakistani Visual Effects Artist, Mir Zafar Ali has received three Oscar awards for his work in The Golden Compass, Life of Pi and Frozen.

Novaira Masood, a Pakistani animator, effects in some of the most popular Hollywood movies including Maleficient, A Christmas Carol, Thor, Transformers 3 and Jack the Giant Slayer.

Like Novaira Masood, Laraib Atta is another emerging visual artist from Pakistan who has worked on visual effects for popular Hollywood flicks such as X-men, Godzilla, and Gravity to name a few.