A Futurist Entrepreneur with a mission to give you
'Vision of the Future' - Emran Ahmad Riyaz
An exclusive interview with Chairman VectraGroup of Companies
Emran Ahmad Riyaz is a Visionary Entrepreneur who started off his career after his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from one of the most prominent and accredited institutions of the country - NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi in 1988. Currently he is a Successful entrepreneur and is heading VectraGroup of Companies as its Chairman.
CWC: Tell us about your career start:
EAR: I graduated from NED in 1988 and very same year I joined Digital Communications as Design & Development Engineer for 1000 line digital PBX. That was a start and within a short span of time, by the Grace of Almighty Allah, my hard work paid off and I became a leading player in a team responsible for developing a full scale radio paging infrastructure for the first time in Pakistan.
Moving forward in 1994, I was selected as National Manager, Technical Operations for Digital Radio Paging and was responsible for nationwide technical setup. There I conducted technical analysis and was responsible for planning and deployment of FM radio stations and MMDS based wireless cable infrastructure, which were again first of there kind in the country.
In 1996, I joined CresSoft – a leading Software Solution provider of its time in the country, as Head of their Software Development Center at Karachi which served US based clients like MCI, Time Warner, Philips North America, and North West Airlines.
CWC: What motivated you to leave the job and have your own concern - VectraCom?
EAR: It is my aim to give the world Vision of the Future. This led me to have my own concern as I always felt there was a void in the IT industry. Being a technical person with engineering background, I wanted to do something different and wanted to capitalize on the niche that was never exploited earlier. I started off in 1997, and laid the foundation stone of VectraGroup of Companies and introduced my first company VectraCom Technologies - a Technology Management Company. After the successful launch of few products and solutions for the telecom and banking sector, we launched our second company – VectraCom Wireless (Pvt) Ltd in 1999 - a company dedicated to design and develop Wireless Messaging Solutions. This concept of Wireless Messaging solution was also very new and thus, Alhamdulillah was an immediate success.
CWC: What role was and is played by you on the operational level as I believe this messaging solution was your brain child
EAR: it is correct and since it was very solely my idea behind the conception of these companies, I have had and am still serving all my companies as Strategic Technology Consultant for several major projects. Few of my projects in the past were DRPL, FM100 and SPTV.
CWC: Tell us about VetraGroup of Companies:
EAR: the philosophy of behind VectraGroup is to leverage upon the new ICE-age -- Information, Communication & Entertainment. We want to capitalize on convergence of Technology and Media by incubation for ICE-T -- Technology Centric Business Ventures.
VectraGroup has 4 companies under its umbrella each looking after a specific and Specialized IT domain independently. The companies are as follows:
· VectraCom International FZ-LLC
International Marketing & Operations, Dubai Media City
· VectraCom Wireless (Pvt) Ltd
Offshore Wireless Operations, Karachi, Pakistan
· VectraCom Technologies
Technology Management Company
· Extensity - Leading Edge Solutions (Pvt) Ltd
Offshore Enterprise Software Solutions Development, Karachi, Pakistan
It is been MashAllah over 10 years since we are in operations of Developing & Deploying Information and Content based Services in the Asia, Middle Eastern and African region. Besides our Head office in Pakistan we also have a Regional Head office in Dubai Media City. We were the pioneers in Wireless Application Services in the Region.
We Specialize in Messaging; SMS & MMS based Value Added Services over GSM/CDMA, WAP/GPRS & Emerging 3G platforms. We have Multiple Development Centers in Pakistan and we provide 24/7/365 Customer Support to both national and international clients and partners.
Our biggest strength is that all the telecom companies of the country and several big telecom names in Middle East, Afghanistan, and Africa are present in our list of satisfied and ever growing client lists. Apart from that we are serving the financial, media & entertainment sectors and several FMCGs with our unique set of solutions and services.
CWC: Would you like to tell us about VectraCom Wireless:
EAR: VectraCom Wireless is operational since last 8 years and introduced Wireless Applications Services for the first time in Asia, Middle East, South Asia & Africa, providing innovative & interactive wireless application services to a broad range of Telecoms and Cellcos operators, Banks and Enterprises, allowing them to conquer the complex challenges of reach, speed, predictability and cost.
Established 1999 VectraCom wireless deals in the development and deployment of Value Added Services (VAS) over Paging, SMS, MMS and WAP/GPRS platforms. With this dedicated team of software designers and engineers, we have been constantly designing, developing and operating highly innovative commercial wireless applications for enterprises and Cellular Network Operators.
Our state-of-the-art SMS & MMS Delivery Platform - INITIA™ a fully in-house developed messaging platform offers a wide range of interactive communication, information and entertainment services.
The platform exploits VectraCom® developed Virtual SMS Browser and allows session based interactive applications to be launched. Multilingual interface with English, Arabic, Urdu and any other language support enables wider user acceptance levels.
CWC: What is Extensity?
EAR: Leading Edge Solutions (Pvt) Ltd is our software house with sole focus on enterprise Application development and possess a sound credibility both in the national and international forum. We are about to have a formal launch of Extensity which is the Brand of Leading Edge solutions and which we plan to market on the domestic and International Forum. With the experience and Domain expertise of developing applications for the wireless and web based platforms, Leading edge apart from serving the group's Software development needs, is also offering its services to variety of other industries.
The major strength of Extensity lies in the Time-to-Market Applications, System Integration and continuous R&D which enable them to remain abreast with the upcoming technology trends and places them in a position where by leading edge is offerings the best and hi end technology solutions to its clients and partners.
Leading Edge deals into variety of Software products and solutions such as ERPs, CRMs Mobility Solutions, Security Solutions & other Enterprise level solutions. To achieve the objective of providing customers and partners with end-to-end solutions, Leading Edge has established alliances with major international IT solutions and Products companies such PDmain, Asim technologies, Infotech, Singapore Technologies, etc.
At the moments Leading Edge is in a perfect position to handle huge projects from mere consultancy to full-fledged Solutions Development and Deployment. Our major strength from the client's perspective is our after sale support which ensures our clients that they are being well taken care off.
On the M-commerce, media, branding front VectraGroup is also offering services of Mobile Banking, Mobile Vending, Mobile Marketing, Mobile-Aid and Interactive TV solutions have been the very first in the region, creating awareness and setting trends in wireless transactions.
CWC: What are your major achievements and who are your major clients and what services are you providing to them:
EAR: VectraGroup today is considered as one of the primary Solutions and service provider specifically on the wireless technologies in the region; testimonial to this was witnessed by the following facts:
· We were the only Pakistani firm who were offering these services in the region
· Selection of VectraCom® by SIEMENS as their strategic alliance partner in the Middle East and North Africa.
· At the moment few of the prominent names to whom we are serving are: