The Technology scene in Pakistan or The List
I wanted to do this for a very long time but never got round to it. This morning got up, made a few phone calls and put this post together. Here is what I have done.Â
Using very raw numbers wrt to number of employees, average salary per employee, target profit potential, I have gone out and done an industry estimate for the top 59 companies within the technology sector in Pakistan. The focus is on software and local/desi ownership. So I have not included some of the larger names like Inbox, Intel, Unisys, NCR and IBM or the ISP’s or the larger Telco players.
The math is fairly simple, take the numbers of employees, multiply by average salary (30K), multiply by 12 (months in a year), multiply by profitability potential (3 times salaries), divide by 60 (US$ exchange rate)Â to get a rough, back of the envelope, number for total gross revenues in US$ for these companies for the current year. (Thanks to Faisal Khan for the inspiration and the formula)
Now before I get flamed, please note:Â
a) This is not a scientific exercise. It is industry gossip. I have no data, I only do phone conversations. The rankings have no meaning other than the fact that I like Ashraf and Arooj equally well and expect Yusuf to buy me out on of these days. If the rankings had any meaning, I would have used a criteria that would have put us in the top ten. The employee numbers, the profitability multiple are the key assumptions and they are going to be way off for almost all the companies in this list. For example Techlogix does a number north of 10 million US a year, but the assumption put it down at 5.85 million US. Â
b) These are the 59 companies I have heard about or hear about. Overall PASHA (the Industry Association) has 350 plus members and the membership is growing at 20% a year. PSEB (the State body) has a database of 800 plus companies. So there is a very good chance that I have missed out on some very important names. My apologies. Please feel free to rectify my mistakes.
c) The industry size is a very interesting animal. If I assume that these 59 companies represent 60% of the market share, the overall market size works out to be around 270 million US$ a year excluding the MNC players. If I also assume that there are upmarket companies higher in the chain that are responsible for shipping work to these players and add their gross number to this mix the size jumps up to 450 million US$ a year. But we won’t see them in our local numbers. If we assume 50% year on year growth, using the same assumptions, there is a good chance that we will break or touch the billion dollar mark sometime between the next two years on the software side.
d) Finally this is software – period. I have not differentiated between exports and/or domestic sales.
So without further, here are the estimates:Â
Company Name                                Rank          Empl      Gross (Est)
| Â Â Â
Systems Limited |
1 | 850 | Â Â Â 16,575,000 |
| Sidat Hyder Morshed Associates (Pvt.) Ltd. | 2 | 800 | Â Â Â 15,600,000 |
| Netsol Technologies Inc. | 3 | 400 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 7,800,000 |
| Techlogix Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd. | 4 | 300 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 5,850,000 |
| Ovex Technologies (Pvt.) Ltd. | 5 | 300 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 5,850,000 |
| Etilize Pakistan | 6 | 300 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 5,850,000 |
| Descon Information Systems | 7 | 300 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 5,850,000 |
| Touchstone Communications Pakistan | 8 | 300 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 5,850,000 |
| LMK Resources | 9 | 250 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 4,875,000 |
| Kalsoft (Pvt.) Limited | 10 | 200 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 3,900,000 |
| THK S Technology Group (Pvt.) Ltd. | 11 | 200 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 3,900,000 |
| Bearing Point | 12 | 150 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 2,925,000 |
| TPS Pakistan | 13 | 140 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 2,730,000 |
| ITIM Systems (Pvt.) Ltd. | 14 | 120 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 2,340,000 |
| System Innovations (Pvt.) Ltd. – Si3 | 15 | 100 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,950,000 |
| Xavor Pakistan Pvt. Ltd. | 16 | 100 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,950,000 |
| Arwen Tech (Private) Ltd. | 17 | 100 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,950,000 |
| Post Amazers | 18 | 100 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,950,000 |
| PixSense (Pvt.) Ltd. | 19 | 100 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,950,000 |
| Voxel Communications | 20 | 100 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,950,000 |
| Shahnawaz (Pvt.) Ltd. | 21 | 100 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,950,000 |
| AdamSoft International (Pvt) Limited | 22 | 100 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,950,000 |
| PixSense (Pvt.) Ltd. | 23 | 100 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,950,000 |
| Geopaq Technologies Pvt. Ltd. | 24 | 100 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,950,000 |
| CureMD Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd. | 25 | 100 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,950,000 |
| Avanza Solutions (Pvt.) Ltd. | 26 | 75 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,462,500 |
| AutoSoft Dynamics Pvt. Ltd. | 27 | 75 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,462,500 |
| Abacus Consulting | 28 | 75 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,462,500 |
| Askari Information Systems Limited | 29 | 70 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,365,000 |
| Trivor Software | 30 | 70 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,365,000 |
| Prosol Technologies (Pvt.) Ltd. | 31 | 65 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,267,500 |
| Clarus (Pvt.) Ltd. | 32 | 60 | Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,170,000 |
| Folio3 (Pvt.) Limited | 33 | 50 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 975,000 |
| Progressive Systems (Pvt.) Limited | 34 | 50 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 975,000 |
| Millennium Systems & Consultants (Pvt.) Ltd. | 35 | 50 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 975,000 |
| Jin Technologies | 36 | 50 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 975,000 |
| Elixir Technologies Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd. | 37 | 50 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 975,000 |
| Comcept Private Limited | 38 | 45 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 877,500 |
| Plexus (Pvt.) Ltd. | 39 | 40 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 780,000 |
| Mix IT Technologies | 40 | 40 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 780,000 |
| Alchemy Technologies (Pvt.) Ltd. | 41 | 30 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 585,000 |
| Softech Systems (Pvt) Ltd. | 42 | 30 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 585,000 |
| Ora-Tech Systems (Pvt.) Ltd. | 43 | 30 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 585,000 |
| Millennium Software (Pvt.) Ltd. | 44 | 30 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 585,000 |
| Ultimus Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd. | 45 | 30 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 585,000 |
| Naseeb Networks | 46 | 25 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 487,500 |
| Techaccess Pakistan Pvt. Ltd. | 47 | 25 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 487,500 |
| Creative Chaos (Pvt) Limited | 48 | 25 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 487,500 |
| Cambridge Docs Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd. | 49 | 25 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 487,500 |
| Xorlogics, Inc. | 50 | 25 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 487,500 |
| Emmaculate Solutions | 51 | 20 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 390,000 |
| Maison Consulting & Solutions | 52 | 20 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 390,000 |
| Five Rivers Technologies (Pvt.) Ltd. | 53 | 20 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 390,000 |
| Cogilent Solutions | 54 | 15 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 292,500 |
| ZRG International Pvt. Ltd. | 55 | 15 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 292,500 |
| Buraq Integrated Solutions | 56 | 15 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 292,500 |
| PrisLogix | 57 | 15 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 292,500 |
| Lumensoft Technologies | 58 | 15 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 292,500 |
| PIBAS Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd. | 59 | 12 | Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 234,000 |
Lets see how much trouble this gets me into…
June 26, 2007
Posted in: Desi Back to Desh, Desi Startup, Pakistan, Startup
26 Responses
If there is one thing you do today… « Mohtashim’s IT tazee - IT news fresh daily! - June 27, 2007
[...] http://alchemya.com/wordpress2/2007/06/26/the-technology-scene-in-pakistan-or-the-list/Jawwad estimates software company revenues and industry size using some basic assumptions and numbers. This is a must read if you ever wondered how those software houses are actually doing. Quite controversial too. weee! [...]
There’s an outfit out of Lahore, Softech, and i think its an Orascom Group company. They supply end-to-end solutions for most of the Asset Management Companies in Pakistan, and make a pretty nickel out of doing that too. Not sure how many people they are, but it must be approx. 150 or so. Not even sure that I like their work so much but they still sell most of the tech platforms for my business…wud really love it if some serious competition presented itself to these lazy buggers *hint*hint*
Hope you’re doing good, sir jee…Jamshed
Its like how PixSense gets it goin at 19 and 23. Interesting read though
I like how PixSense gets it goin at 19 and 23. Interesting read though
Sir,
I appreciate you posting an entire article to answer my query. That should get me started with th search for what these companies do and where they are.
Great article, keep em coming!
Please note that LMKR has over 500 employees in Pakistan only and has a revenue of $10 million +, I would have assumed that LMKR ranks above Techlogix, but you placing it below Descon Information Systems and Touchstone? Really odd. If you get some time, do revise the figures and ranking.
Saqib
Thank you very much for your note. I have now started working on an actual list, rather than one based on just wild guesses. If more of my friends in the technology industry can point out mistakes, it would get done sooner.
Between the two of us (and every one else on this post) though, Techlogix does between 12 and 15 million US in gross.
Jamshaid
I am working on it… On how to make a pretty penny y selling solutions to the asset management industry. Will update you soon enough.
How are things on the dark side (your most recent defection is duly noted…
)
Brilliant work Jawwad! I got a few calls asking me about the formula. I was totally confused – what formula! Then I remembered and came here to see what all the hub-bub was all about!
Jawwad’s “The List” - a Rose with Thorns : Green & White - June 28, 2007
[...] This is been an interesting piece of news floating around the RSS waves. Jawwad Farid of Alchemy Tech ran some rough number of number employees and profitability analysis to come up with a grand index of IT companies and their revenue. [...]
So you are positioning the companies according to number of employees. Not fair. Do some research and get the rankings on real profitability.
Hey Kashif
Who said anything about fairness
. This was just idle gossip to stir up some bonnets. But your point is duly noted.
Profitability is going to be difficult because as a rule, I would try my level best and not share my net numbers with anyone. Just a rule of thumb. And if I won’t (and I am a fairly open guy), who would.
Gross numbers are easier because we track and brag about them all the time and they are a good starting point when it comes to back of the envelop valuations.
Gross (numbers) would do. And I won’t mine sharing my profit numbers
Ground breaking work Jawwad. It took a while but finally “the list” is here!
Avanza Solutions’ Karachi office has approximately a strength of 120.
Actually, FiveRivers has 55 employees. FYI.
where did u get these stats ?
tell me the source please
I seriously believe that most of these Estimated figures are wrong. I am pretty sure about my assumption for the major organization of Rawalpindi/Islamabad area. A friend just mentioned the case with LMKR. Your figures are serioulsy mistaken about Ultimus as well. Ultimus has more than 100 employees and its revenue was more than $20 Million a year back. We havent got this year’s figures yet. Please re-look and re-search about these figures. Another example is Sidat Hyder & Morshed Associates whose figures are reported erroneously. This organization is primarily a Chartered Accountant and Audit Company who have software as a side business and a pretty small one. I won’t even expect them to make the list of 100. There are other such examples too but the point I want to make is that your figures lack some serious research and are portraying a very wrong scene.
Well, it is really a nice work Jawwad. Shooting a list with a lot of assumptions and then getting back the figures from the people involved (starting to speak for their companies).
Nice idea and the end result of this effort will be great.
Dear Amir, Kaiser and Nabeel
Yes, absolutely Yes. The list is nothing more than a short in the dark to see if we can get some numbers in this way. And so far it has been working out. The next list should come out in the six months (given the pace of comments on this blog).
Two things. The numbers will be horrenously wrong for product companies like Ultimus since their revenues per employee are in the stratosphere compared to non product companies.
On Sidat Hyder. The practice you are referring to is now Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder. Sidat Hyder Morshed used to be the consulting arm that broke off (just like Accenture) and separated recently.
For the record the last time I checked they had more than 800 employees. For them software is not a side business, but one of the key product lines. They do core banking applications, core insurance applications, fund management solutions, actuarial crap and traditional run of the mill consulting. To be fair yes it is not a pure tech shop. In1997 they were at approx 6 crores (60 million) in revenue. At a growth rate of 50% a year, year on year for the last 10 years, you can guess their current size yourself.
Kaiser
I can tell you the source, but then I will have to kill you
well then go ahead kill me….
[:p] but before that like every good killer ask for my last wish
and my list would be tell me the sourceeeeeeeeeeee [:p]
Really nice work Jawwad,
There used to be company CresSoft? What happened to that? What about Clickmarks?
GOOD WORK!
Here are a couple of updates:
Avanza Solutions has size of 130+ employees now (in middle east + Pk)
ProSys: 80+ employees
Check the sizes of some other companies like mobilecomplete, andorlogics, AMZ Technologies etc. too
Lastly .. here is an idea of the size of Pakistan software industry: http://www.pseb.org.pk/page.php?pid=2
Any update about list?
Jawwad! What is the magic behind 19500?
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