TechLahore

Intel is celebrating 10 years of success in Pakistan. That is a major landmark, but one that tells only part of the story. Intel came to Pakistan way back in 1990, through a partnership with Lahore based “Global Systems”. Many of you who were active in the IT community at the time will remember the tall building alongside the Cavalry business boulevard, adorned with a big blue Intel logo. Global Systems was run by a former Intel business development executive, Haider Raza, who moved to Pakistan and started the distributorship.

The story of Global Systems, which few will remember now, tells the tale of the old Pakistan – the pre-Musharraf Pakistan – where business deals were seldom as easy or as transparent, especially when they involved a government department. Initially Global Systems was met with a lot of consumer success, and in fact introduced not just the mainstream Intel processor products, but also innovative products like the Intel Inboard 386 upgrade XT card. It was only once they got involved with large transactions with organizations such as Pakistan Railway, that they ran into trouble. The Railways awarded Global Systems with a contract for a large number of Intel based desktop PCs. At the time, it was close to a Rs. 1 crore transaction – about half a million in 1990 dollars, the equivalent of at least a $3-4 million transaction today. Once Global Systems had delivered the equipment to the Railways, the latter refused to pay. The whole issue ended up in court and guess who had an edge because of their size? (hint: it wasn’t Global Systems) Ultimately, this sounded the death knell for the company. One of the first entrepreneurial sagas of the post-PC era.

The celebration today marks Intel’s own corporate presence in Pakistan now for 10 running years. A period marked with a lot of success for the company. Pakistan promises to become a major user of Intel chips over the next few years, with a high growth rate in PC usage. So here’s to another 10 years of success in Pakistan, and with that, here’s a salute to Global Systems and other entrepreneurial efforts of its ilk that blazed a trail for IT companies that came later. They did so despite the much less friendly market conditions and at times, antagonistic policies… all that has changed since, but life is never easy for the entrepreneur. High risk, high reward!

Cheers to all the high rollers out there.

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