An e-commerce infrastructure is required to be introduced in Pakistan on an urgent basis to enjoy its benefits and to become an online global partner. The question for Pakistan today is first of survival and then for creating a niche in the emerging digital economy.
According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Misaq Consulting, a Canadian information technology (IT) concern, Qasim Mahmood e-commerce is still in its infancy and faces many barriers to grow.
Some of them are unavailability of proper infrastructure, limited internet users, the issue of security of transactions on the internet, high bandwidth rates etc.
Talking to the Business Recorder here on Saturday, Qasim Mahmood, currently visiting Pakistan, said that e-commerce was not a futuristic dream; it was essentially global in both concept and realisation. With the tremendous growth of the internet, businesses were beginning to find new ways to expand their opportunities, he said.
Approximately, 300 million people world-wide had now access to the internet, he said, adding: "No matter what your business is, it is not possible to ignore 300 million potential customers.
The impact of e-commerce would be pervasive, both on companies and on society as a whole, he said.
"Companies that choose to regard it only as an 'add-on' to their existing ways of doing business will gain only limited benefit. For those companies that are willing to change their organisations and business processes to fully exploit its potential, e-commerce offers the possibility of breakpoint changes," he said.
Back in Canada, he said, Misaq Computer Consulting Inc, took part in many government and private sector projects to help customers in identifying security threats in their networks.
This was done using GAP analysis of their network and process management, he said, and added customised solutions were developed based on industry and type of business to address specific security needs and processes.
He said Misaq had made its name in IT security management, ITIL/ITSM best practices managed security services, managed solutions for network management.
With experienced IT market skill level, understanding of global markets, certified ITIL services and model solutions for IT security management, Misaq Inc had proved its expertise in the North American market and was now planning to enter the Pakistan market to make a difference, he said. Mahmood is currently visiting Pakistan to explore the local market and to determine the possibilities and potential available here.
Explaining the concept of e-commerce, Mahmood said those e-commerce ran through four basic steps. The very first step was to build a website to let the world know about your existence. The website contains information about the company, product/services and other related information, which could help visitors to learn more about the hosts, he said.
The second step involved luring or rather motivating customers buy on line, he said, adding this step required adopting advance level of software capable of handling orders. In the third stage came inventory, management and lastly, providing provisions of payments through online banking partnership between buyers and sellers, the most difficult and complex part of e-commerce, he said.
Mahmood said the most common and popular forms of e-commerce were business-to-customers (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B). Business-to-government (B2G) and government-to-citizens (G2C) were other forms, running on the internet but with low steam. However, the use of former two still dominated the net, he said.
"Unfortunately, Pakistan is far behind the developed countries in this regard," he said, and added: "Pakistani businessmen think that e-commerce means being able to make and receive payments through internet and any other activity through internet is not considered as e-commerce.
"This low level of understanding has led many Pakistani firms to give low priority to e-commerce due to unavailability of proper framework for the internet in the country," he said.
Mahmood said they should implement ITIL based process management, invest and research in business security against all internal and external threats. They must follow industry standards in best business practices for IT business and should engage expert professional services to design, maintain and improve IT business security models to increase ROI in their investments, he added.
"Think globally as in today's world they have to integrate with global markets and global businesses will work only with secured and trusted partners," he said.
Mahmood said the present government, for the first time realised the potential of IT at the government level. It gave due importance to this vital sector by declaring it one of the four pillars on which the national economy was to be revitalised.
A national IT policy was approved in August 2000, e-commerce plan was also part of the policy approved by the Federal cabinet. The government of Pakistan has committed itself to play the role of the main facilitator, enabler and promoter of the IT in the country.
The government has embarked upon an ambitious IT action plan for the adoption of IT in the public and private sectors.
But when it come to e-commerce, the word security comes flashing into the minds. Cyber security involves protecting information by preventing, detecting, and responding to attacks. With the increase in the use of information technology in the country, the need for IT solution providers has grown manifolds.
Now computers are being used in almost all types of businesses, irrespective of their varied sizes. Many small-business owners assume that large corporations are far more vulnerable to internet security threats than they are. In reality, however, its often the other way round, Mahmood said.
He said that because they had a false sense of security and assumed they were not at risk, many small-business owners did not adequately protect their computers and networks from spy-wares, viruses, worms, hacker attacks, customer data theft and other security threats.
"In addition, with so many balls to juggle already, entrepreneurs often put computer security far down on their to-do lists, if it makes the list at all.
"In the given scenario, there is no need to mention the importance of firms coming up with IT solutions, dealing form networking to IT business security models. A number of such local firms have come to the surface and are doing a splendid job in this regard. "Thanks to the government's investor friendly-policies, a number of foreign firms are showing keen interest to enter the local arena. One such firm is a Canada-based company Misaq Computer Consulting Inc," he said.
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