Respected IT industry leader Sajjad Kirmani’s early experience in the corporate sector and as part of Netsol Technologies core team helped him gain market knowledge. Post-retirement, Sajjad set up Cloud Clinik, a SAS-based electronic management record system, to transform the Middle Eastern mid-size healthcare market. Cloud Clinik has captured close to a 50 percent market share in Qatar.
Azhar Rizvi’s Commentary
Sajjad Kirmani established a new firm Infogistic after an illustrious career in IT. He was one of the leading architects behind Netsol Technologies. However, just when Sajjad hit early retirement, he decided to embrace yet another challenge. He established a venture in 2012 and selected Qatar as the test market, developing a SAAS-based cloud solution for the healthcare industry.
I have seen many risk takers and several risks being taken, however, Sajjad’s venture impressed me because he and his team scored a hat trick. All their key decisions were correct and it became an instant success. This was only possible because of his knowledge and the professional equity that he had built for himself over the years. Sajjad and his team worked incredibly hard with the Qatar-based clinic hospital, to develop a solution customized to their specifications and implemented it successfully. As a result, in a short span of four years, he was offering one of the most successful cloud-based health care solutions, with a leading share of Qatar’s healthcare sector. Now Infogistic is expanding to other Middle Eastern countries, and has already started its pilot launch in Lahore.
Sajjad and his young team have clearly demonstrated that there is absolutely no dearth of talent in Pakistan. Marry talent with the experience that a professional Silverpreneur brings, and the chances of establishing an excellent product are much brighter with fewer chances of failure.
Multinational Executive to Startup Success
Sajjad Kirmani’s story tells of a typical IT career path, until his early retirement. He had started out aspiring to be a banker, but a chance internship at an IT company changed the trajectory of his career and his aspirations. After completing his education, he continued to be associated with the IT industry in key positions in Systems (Pvt.) Limited, Oman International Bank and the Coca Cola Company-South West Asia Region. In 1998, when NetSol Technologies was just a startup, he chose to join as Director Operations, giving up stable and lucrative options in the corporate sector. The risk paid off as NetSol became one of the largest software companies in Pakistan, and a global business services and enterprise application solutions provider to the asset finance and leasing industry.
In 2011, Sajjad Kirmani-then in his early 50s retired early after almost 25 years of service. However, a few months later, he decided to put his hat on once again and set up his own firm Infogistic. In a short span of three years, Infogistic has evolved as a major player in IT solutions and services, specializing in Information Security, Governance Risk and Compliance and Information Management in Pakistan and the Middle East.
The fascinating thing was that Sajjad chose to take a measured risk in a new product area he had identified, after being exposed to startups as a mentor. In 2014, he spun out CloudClinik, an e-health solution for medium-sized health practitioners and healthcare facilities, based on the SaaS Model. His experience was valuable in helping him strike big and Infogistic CloudClinik is the fastest growing EMR (Electronic Medical Records) System in Qatar with close to 150,000 patients and 200 leading doctors
Read Sajjad Kirmani’s story of how he continually reinvented his career and now runs the fast growing company, Infogistic dealing with EMR.
