Getting IT right – George Savvides gives an award to
Mr. Zafar Shaikh
(CEO ApplicationXS)
for software development category

VTAMS, The winner of 5th NCR IT EXCELLENCE AWARD
VTAMS, the trading powerhouse software has won the 5th National NCR IT Excellence Awards 2003 for software development. Teradata, a division of NCR (NYSE: NCR), hosted the fifth national awards ceremony in Islamabad to recognize outstanding IT professionals in nine different categories. These heroes of Pakistan's IT industry were presented with IT Excellence Awards, gold medals and certificates for their excellence and achievements for the year 2002/2003.

The Judges
A panel of judges selected for their expertise, experience and acumen assessed the nominees for different categories of IT Awards. The panel of judges included a mix of educators, industry experts, journalists, private sector and government officials. The judges were Dr. Arshad Ali, Director General, NUST Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) Rawalpindi, Nadeem Ikram, Director Information Technology for Pakistan International Airlines, Zain Syed, Chairman of 'Open Source Canada', Dr. Abdul Sattar, Consultant for Multimedia Systems, AIOU (Alama Iqbal Open University), Mr. Anwar Rodney Rahman, CEO and Managing Director, KPMG Peat Marwick, Shabbir Baxamosa, Senior Vice President and Head of Remote Banking Services at Union Bank Limited, Sarmad Hussain, Associate Professor and Head, CRULP (Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing), FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Science and Zunaira Durrani, Editor, SPIDER Magazine. The NCR IT Excellence Awards 2003 process was verified by Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder & Co, Chartered Accountants.

The Nomination Process
The nominations were judged on predefined criteria for each category according to the requirements of the industry. The categories cover the entire spectrum of the IT sector, thus enabling the specialized effort in each category to stand out and be recognized. Emphasis was placed on recognizing people in IT industry at national level who have been instrumental in introducing, promoting and implementing IT in Pakistan."

The Event
The event was attended by leading dignitaries and prominent personalities from the government as well as banking, insurance, airlines and other leading industries. Shaukat Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance and Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecom, had to leave the city in emergency and were represented by Mr. Omar Ayub, MNA and Parliamentary Secretary, Finance Division and Mr. Aamir Mateen, Managing Director, Pakistan Software Export Board respectively. They read the messages on behalf of their respective ministers to the auspicious gathering at the Islamabad Convention Center.

The IT industry event included live performances by Hadiqa Kiani and Fariha Pervaiz. The grand finale of the evening was a performance by Zia Mohyuddin. The evening was hosted by Rahat Kazmi and Atiqa Odho.