Shahzad Shahid talks about the TPS success story on ITLoW

Interviewing a P@SHA ICT Awards winner and an APICTA Awards winner is a pleasure in itself but talking with Shahzad Shahid was also illuminating. There are a lot of things that TPS Pakistan Limited is doing that are exciting and that I was unaware of. So, although I would have liked to have had my friend Mohammad Sohail (co-Founder of TPS) in the studio as well, a conversation with his Global Head of Business Development was the next best thing.

In this episode of “In the Line of Wire”, Shahzad talks about how it felt to win both the local and the regional Award, the complete experience of taking part in the APICTA event and working with the P@SHA Chairman, some CEC members and the participants, to put on the best show on record for Pakistan at APICTA.

Shahzad also gives us the history of  TPS which was originally called Transaction Processing Systems, a modest start, its growth and its current strategy. This is one of those companies that has grown steadily through the years. They now have 110 customers in 29 countries and the list continues to grow.

The latest implementations are in places like Cameroon and Congo which not many local (or international companies) have explored. As Shahzad points out, new markets take a lot more effort, and a great deal of patience is required for your efforts to bear fruit. But it is worth it in the end. The long term strategy of not putting all your eggs in one basket, and developing less fertile markets, while you continue to benefit from those where you already have a large market share, pays off – as it has for TPS. Shahzad says he is willing to work with other companies – share the experience they have had in Africa, so that others can bypass the learning curve and get straight into the building of relationships and the sales cycle. I suggest some of you take him up on it.

He also talks about the reality of the recession and how TPS is dealing with it, how some of their long-term strategies are helping them through the worldwide downturn. I think sharing these stories and learning how everyone is coping is helpful for the entire industry. Some have been impacted harder than others, but together we will find it easier to recognize opportunities that are created during these lean times, and take advantage of them.

Watch Shahzad Shahid Global Head of Business Development at TPS on this latest  episode of In the Line of Wire. BTW this company also employs a number of bloggers whom many of us know well