Introduction:.doc

REPORT ON

LINSOL, ISLAMABAD

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Group Members

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Dedicated

To

Our Loving

Parents

&

Teachers!

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Table of ContentsIntroduction:...............................................................................................................................................6

Needs, Wants & Demands of Pakistan’s Market:........................................................................................6

Market Offering:..........................................................................................................................................7

Systems and Network Support................................................................................................................7

Advantages to you include:.....................................................................................................................7

Linsol core areas of expertise are:...........................................................................................................8

Managing Customer Relationship:..............................................................................................................9

Market Environment.................................................................................................................................10

PEST Analysis:........................................................................................................................................10

Business Markets & Business Buying Behavior:.........................................................................................12

Characteristics affecting Consumer Behaviors.......................................................................................12

Customer Driven Marketing Strategy:.......................................................................................................13

Geographic Segmentation:....................................................................................................................13

Demographic Segmentation..................................................................................................................14

Target Markets:.........................................................................................................................................15

Product:.....................................................................................................................................................16

Development:........................................................................................................................................16

Training:.................................................................................................................................................17

Pricing:.......................................................................................................................................................18

Training Pricing:.....................................................................................................................................18

Training Pricing: (Cont)..............................................................................................................................19

Advertising:...............................................................................................................................................20

Placing:......................................................................................................................................................21

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Introduction:

LinSol is The Open Source Resource Center (OSRC), based in Islamabad, the federal capital of Pakistan. The project began in 2005 with an objective to promote and support open source initiatives in the country. They started as Open Source Consultants and Training providers that made Linux and Open Source gadgets easily available to the common customer, but focus quickly shifted to services as Linux and Open Source's popularity increased in business environments. LinSol is a passionate service company. Customer satisfaction is their primary goal; getting Open Source used by customers is second. They are not fanatic; they're realistic and make sure their customers' environments run the way they want it to run, with as much Linux and Open Source components as possible.

Needs, Wants & Demands of Pakistan’s Market:

Pakistan now has about 100 per cent optic fibre backbone and we are in the process of spreading fibre from this backbone to various cities. Fibre rings are being laid around the major towns and cities of Pakistan so that high-speed Internet access can be made available quickly to key business and education localities. The last mile high-speed Internet problem is being addressed through using DSL and ADSL technologies which allow some 200 fold increase in transmission of information on existing copper lines.

It has left no niche of human life untouched today be it industry, trade, publishing, accounting, graphics, advertisement, movies-making, or otherwise routine office works. The increasing demand for IT related exposure and experience for jobs of all descriptions as visible from the least discerning job seekers to realize that upgrading their computer skills is a must to get even a half decent job. Not for nothing the world IT has become an unending refrain to ensure a job placement today, a situation which will become a must in the near future.

With this increasing demand of IT Professionals, Pakistan is also in need of cheap and quality software. But unfortunately the price of software is more than the hardware. Most of the Software Development

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companies sell their software at much higher prices. It becomes nearly impossible for the businesses in Pakistan to afford such costly software because of the bad economical condition of Pakistan.

On the other hand, LinSol provides open source solutions without charging for the software being used. From a software point of view LinSol Systems single handedly introduced Oracle, Maximo (now IBM Maximo) and Red Hat Linux to the Pakistani market over the last 19 years. LinSol also offers a host of I.T Training courses and facilities through our partners.

Market Offering:Our team is available to help build, configure and maintain your IT platforms and networks. We provide pro-active, on-site and remote systems management, system administration and tuning, and support most variants of Unix and Linux and their integration with Windows technologies.

Systems and Network SupportLinSol offers your organization a dedicated team of experienced network and system administrators Internet and desktop support personnel committed to meeting delivery deadlines, budget allocations and other business IT objectives.

Advantages to customers include:i. Find immediate, local expertise for any of the major open source applications your firm

presently uses.ii. Fill short-term needs you have for Linux/Unix skills.

iii. Deploy low cost alternatives to your existing proprietary software infrastructure

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Linsol core areas of expertise are:I. Linux/Unix system administration and tuning.

II. Commercial support for open source software.III. Linux and Microsoft-Windows platform integration.IV. Network planning, topology and system security design.V. Developing and deploying Standard Operating Environments based on Windows and Linux.

VI. Internet and web technologies.VII. Firewalls, system security, and security audits.

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Managing Customer Relationship:

One of the ongoing challenges successful businesses face is in optimizing customer satisfaction and developing Customer Relationship Management. LinSol has successfully accomplished this task. LinSol keeps track of each and every customer by innovative computer software “Cite CRM”.

Cite CRM is an Open Source PHP/MySQL Customer Relations Management System written for the Computer Repair Industry. Cite CRM is a complete CRM with everything a mobile computer repair company would need.

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Market Environment

PEST Analysis:

In PEST P stands for Political, E stands for economical, S stands for social and T stands for technological analysis of industry with respect to their environment.

Political Factors:

Political environment of Pakistan is unstable in the current situation and country is not doing excellent work on economic front.

Environment in investor friendly telecommunication sector is under de-regulation.

Monopoly of P@SHA will be going to end at the end of 2010.

Economic Factors:

Cost of Computer Hardware is increasing day by day.

Unemployment rate is going up and up with the increase of level of poverty.

Socio-Cultural Factors:

Most Businesses men in Pakistan feel uncomfortable with the open source free applications.

As Pakistan is an Islamic country and people are very strict in case of Islam. Anything against the philosophy of Islam on either print or electronic media are treated as against Pakistan

Social and cultural differences between the developed and developing nations are the barriers to IT diffusion and growth of eBusiness in the developing countries.

Most of the people dislike anything extra-ordinary or something which sabotage their culture or subculture.

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Technological Factors:

Companies have technology with which they can compete in the Pakistan and now companies are investing in their infrastructure to not only expand but also to upgrade their existing structure.

Currently, Ora-Tech is the only company which offers IBM Maximo® services in Pakistan.

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Business Markets & Business Buying Behavior:

The business market of LinSol includes any business already using Open Source Technologies or searching an alternative to proprietary software.

Characteristics affecting Consumer Behaviors

Cultural Factors:

The computers came to Pakistan in mid 60’s when second-generation computer was installed at Karachi. Presently, there are over 1800 mainframe and minicomputers, about half of which are in the government sector. The growth in the number of computers during the last ten years was over 35%. This has been possible due the governments liberal import policy and reduction/removal of duties. It is estimated that there are roughly 450,000 new computers every year in Pakistan. While this seems a pitifully the small numbers, it represents a three-fold increase compared to 1996-1997. Analyst predicts that this number will increase 4-5 times in the next three years. So this rapidly increasing Information Technology culture greatly affects on the buying behavior of the business markets.

Environmental Factors:

Business buyers are influenced heavily by factors in the current and expected economic environment. The environmental factors include technological factors and political factors. The technology of today and rapidly changing technology of tomorrow is leading the way to a truly global marketplace.

Organizational Factors:

Organizational factors also affect the buying behavior. For instance it depends on the organization that whether it needs an IT infrastructure or not.

Interpersonal Factors:

Finally the buying center greatly affects the buying behavior because it is the buying center of the organization which directly interacts with LinSol. The buying center should understand the importance of Computer and related technologies in business.

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Customer Driven Marketing Strategy:

Market Segments:

Geographic Segmentation:

LinSol has identified its customers through geographic segmentation.

Virtually any area of Pakistan can be considered as a market segment for LinSol.

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Demographic Segmentation:LinSol has segmented its customers on the basis of industry size and number of Computers being used.

Global Strategic

& Major

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Corporate

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Upper Midmarket

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Core Midmarket

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Lower Midmarket

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Small Business

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Consumer

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>2,500 PCs

500-2,500 PCs

250-500 PCs

50-250 PCs

25-50 PCs

1-25 PCs

1 PC

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Target Markets:

After evaluating different segments, LinSol had decided which and how many segments it will target. A target market consists of a set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve. LinSol tries to develop specific applications for specific markets. We can say that LinSol uses Differentiated Marketing.

Here small business are treated same as individual consumers because of low level of employees and computers.

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Product:LinSol have two types of intangible categories:

a. Development

b. Training

Development:LinSol has a dedicated application development group specializing in web-based and client/server applications. They have several teams of analysts, programmers and application designers, some with over 10 years of software development experience.

Advantages:

i. Gain access to development teams with over many successful projects implemented in public and private sector.

ii. High-levels of experience with Linux/Unix software development.

iii. We can help reduce your software development costs through the judicious use of open source software frameworks

LinSol Core Areas of Expertise:

i. Web/Online Application Development

ii. Customized Content Management Systems with open source tools

iii. Enterprise Application Integration with open source tools

iv. Development of Appliance Systems

v. Technologies:

vi. Perl, Python, PHP, Java

vii. C/C++ (Linux/Unix and Windows)

viii. Embedded Linux Development

ix. Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL

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Our Services:

i. Quoting for bespoke application development

ii. Customization of open source technologies to your requirements

iii. Contractors for short and medium-term roles

iv. Customization of our products for your needs

Training:LinSol conducts regular Linux, Web Programming, Sun, CISCO training courses, as well as customized courses in PHP, Perl and other Open Source and Unix related technologies on request.

RedHat Training:

i. RHCE (RedHat Certified Engineer)

ii. RHCSS (RedHat Certified Security Specialist)

iii. RHCA (RedHat Certified Architecture)

iv. RH142 (Linux Trouble shooting Techniques and Tools)

Sun Solaris Training:

i. System Administration I

ii. System Administration II

CISCO Training:

i. CCNA

ii. CCNP

Oracle Training on Linux Platform:

i. Oracle 9i DBA Track

ii. Oracle 10g DBA Track

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Pricing:

Training Pricing:

VOIP Course Details:

Schedule:

Total Course Duration: 16 hours (only Saturday and Sunday)

Timing: 9:00 to 5:00

Fee: 8000

Web Programming (Open Source / .NET 3.5) Details

Schedule:

Course Duration: 45 hours

3 days a week [3hrs a day]

Fee: 15000 [20% concession for Students]

Diploma in System Administration and Security (SAS)

(UNIX Family Based)

Schedule:

Course Duration: 45 hours

3 days a week [3hrs a day]

Fee: 20000 [20% concession for Students]

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Training Pricing: (Cont)

RedHat Training (Each)

Schedule:

Course Duration: 45 hours

3 days a week [3hrs a day]

Fee: 30000 [20% concession for Students]

Sun Solaris Training (Each)

Schedule:

Course Duration: 45 hours

3 days a week [3hrs a day]

Fee: 30000 [20% concession for Students]

CISCO Training

Schedule:

Course Duration: 45 hours

3 days a week [3hrs a day]

Fee: 30000 [20% concession for Students]

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Advertising:

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Placing:

The training services of LinSol are offered at LinSol head office, Islamabad and virtually anywhere in Pakistan (If the client offers the required environment for training).

LinSol Office

#. 4, 3rd Floor, Ali Plaza Block No. 27-E, Fazl-e-Haq Road,

Blue Area Islamabad, Pakistan

Phone: +92 51 2801099

Cell: +92 333 5475675

Email: [email protected]