Farhan Mirza, CEO of Catalyic Consulting represents Pakistan globally even as his organization provides quality services related to IT Management Information. He was amongst one of the 10 people who were selected by the government for the Capability Maturity Model Integration. He has recently finished his 100th appraisal and here he talks about what it takes to represent Pakistan in a global market.
Catalyic Consulting is an IT consulting company specializing in standards related, and pertaining to, the IT industry, such as Management Information (M.I), Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Information Security.
At its inception six years back, the company catered to the need for specialized IT consulting in Pakistan. According to Farhan Mirza, at the time “there were other companies as well – some of them were good in standards while the others only in IT. In our case, we focused on needs and trends which are important for the local IT industry.”
The special edge that Catalyic Consulting has over others in its category is due to their first product, CMMI, which was introduced in Pakistan while it was still very new. The entire CMMI journey was started by the Pakistan Software Export Board five years back as a piloting program where some companies were selected by the government for CMMI support. This was already in great demand for the IT export to the US market. Since there were no professional consultants, auditors or trainers available for CMMI in the market back then, it was a smart move by the government to initiate and incentivize the program. For their part, it helped them lower the costs as well for the entire industry.
Farhan Mirza was one of the 10 people selected by the government to be part of the CMMI program. Exams were conducted in Europe and US which required applicants to qualify for all the exams and further processing. Farhan Mirza was the first and only Pakistani leader president to become CMMI. This gave the Pakistani IT industry an obvious advantage since there were only a few companies back then that planned to follow this route.Now there are over 30 companies going for CMMI on various levels.
Talking about that time, Farhan Mirza stated that ‘the identification of this particular need worked out well for us’. He went on to say, “We are still working in a niche that has its own prose and cones. The market size was very limited in Pakistan so we were actually in a business that involved very high risks – there is always a risk factor when you are working in a niche market. But it has its positive sides and paves a smooth path when you are working again in a niche and start capitalizing to make your own mark.”
Catalyic Consulting has now reached that pinnacle of success where they are looking for CMMI. In fact, they have approached Catalyic, and their pool of consultants with over 15 years experience, seeking advice on mastering a niche market. And Catalyic, since they know the pin-points for a company going for standardization, especially in the IT industry of Pakistan, are well equipped to provide relevant information.This is also because there is no local research material available… just a lot of numbers and averages not even tailored to fit the Pakistani market scenario; although Catalyic has acquired that crucial knowledge during its operations.
According to Farhan Mirza, “we are very actively working in China and have also done many projects in USA. Recently, in 2013, we added two more countries to our client profile;Malaysia and Vietnam. Moreover, we are trying to open offices in the Gulf region as well. Even though we began with a niche market in Pakistan, with time, we were able to export which added value to our company also, especially from a financial revenue perspective. And this is what has played a key role in boosting CMMI. We tried to reverse the role of these services from advisors settled abroad. We offer training, appraisal and auditing services for particular standards; and this role reversal has played very well for us. I feel grateful that we represent Pakistan when we travel abroad for delivering an appraisal or to offer our consultant services since people do look up to us as advisors.”
Having worked with numerous countries across the globe, Catalyic Consulting has the reputation of being the organization with the maximum number of appraisals conducted in the world. Talking about it, Farhan Mirza described how the feeling gives him a sense of achievement, not only as an individual but also as a true Pakistani representing Pakistan in the world.“I feel honored for achieving this stage and working out in all these countries. It’s an achievement for our company that we have done 100 appraisals, which I actually wanted to achieve only in Pakistan,” he says.
Catalyic Consulting has no real competition locally although there are some other consultancies in the region. The Indian IT market and even the Chinese IT market have been there even before Catalyic started operations and are consequently more advanced.This is why they also give Catalyic the biggest competition in the international arena. From Farhan’s point of view, “the region is full of competitors and initially there was a time when we were competing against Indian companies. The image this region portrayed in the global market reflected services of low cost and low quality. We also had to fix that perception and now even in the international market we are not the cheapest company. In fact, we are coming across as a high premium quality company because over the years we have now built a profile that includes investing in our human resource toget the top trained consultants. We are also focused on improving the image of the company and grow up as a brand that is known for its quality. This approach gives us an edge over our competitors in the region as well as on international platforms.”
The other competitive edge that they have gained over their competition is that they specialize in IT. They are, in fact amongst those very few company consultants who focus solely on Information Technology. “We are able to deliver comprehensive solutions for security problems, quality management systems as well as for issues related to the development side. We understand the needs of the market and provide integrated management systems which also include some features from CMMI. Such comprehensive one window solutions provided by us are rarely offered by other companies in the market. On the other hand, competition in Pakistan is very scattered. There are some companies doing information security and others that are doing training in IT. The way we really outsmart them is by giving a complete one window solution, explains Mr. Mirza.
While happy with the way things are going at present, Farhan still feels that for the future there is a need to create awareness in most sectors of the local market, primarily in the IT infrastructure library. This is why he plans on further expansion and will do this by conducting seminars where foreign delegates will also be invited. They will focus on group discussions and will be held in March-April 2014.
Internationally, Catalyic is planning on starting an office in the Middle East region considering how well Saudi Arabia is doing, and how Qatar is also building its repute. The region is also ripe with opportunities for consulting companies. And in 2014,they expect to have their own presence there in more effective manner and create greater impact in the Mid East.
Talking about the local ICT industry, Farhan feels that it is a little slow, but “going in the right direction.”“Government and established organizations should play their role in revitalizing the IT scene in Pakistan. They can do this by paying attention to international standards and focusing on what is really important for our growth in the global market. There are new products coming from young startups, entrepreneurs and even typical service-oriented companies as well as from the telecom sector. There are a growing number of companies that are focusing on development and in-house solutions. But still we need to push it further,” he opined.
He praised CIO’s efforts in promoting the IT culture in Pakistan adding that we need more organizations that can add value to local market and showcase us globally; and CIO is providing the local IT sector with a global platform… a key factor in changing Pakistan’s global image.
