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NASSCOM Foundation

Octaware’s association with NASSCOM Foundation

NASSCOM Foundation is the social development arm of NASSCOM, the internationally recognized trade body of the Indian Information Technology- Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry, which was established to transform the lives of the underserved through the application of Information and Communication Technology. NASSCOM Foundation aims to channelize the potential of the IT-BPO industry towards inclusive development of India by actively facilitating through Advocacy, Advisory, Research, and Programs.

Octaware has been an active participant in various NASSCOM Foundation initiatives over some time. Be it working on a CRM software for NGOs Or Microsoft SharePoint based Event management solution on a very nominal rate to facilitating various events in association with NASSCOM Foundation, Octaware has always shown keen interest in social service initiatives.

Project Management Workshop for NGO Bring the Change Keeping with the Octaware spirit of contributing towards the social cause for the benefit of the society Octaware had conducted a workshop for the NGOs. This was a workshop initiated by the NASSCOM Foundation with whom we have been partnering since a long time over various project initiatives and knowing the breadth and depth of talent at Octaware, they had huge expectations from us and as usual we did not fail to impress them or for that matter all the participants had been swayed away by the best in class presentation of our Executive Vice President Mr. Sajid Hameed with the participants clamoring around him in the end to get an opportunity to have a greater share of his wisdom from his vast repository of knowledge.

“Give a man a fish; you feed him for a day, Teach him how to fish; you feed him for a lifetime”

As the famous Chinese proverb goes, so does NASSCOM Foundation go by this maxim and imbibes whatever activities it undertakes with this spirit and essence.

Program Management for NGO’s which was organized on the 30th of November, 2011.

This was a two-hour interactive session organized by Octaware exclusively for NGOs to learn from Project Managers to manage their program and to increase their productivity and enhance their impact.

Program Flow:
Mr. Prashant Pandit welcomed the participants and gave a quick introduction of the presenters and the purpose of this workshop thanking the corporate representatives for their valuable time.

Having created the setting and after setting the expectations of the audience, finally Mr. Sajid Hameed, Executive VP, Octaware was invited to share his profound knowledge of around 18 years and a substantial part of which had been spent managing mammoth projects in different capacities across various geographies across the globe and within India as well. From there on it was Mr. Sajid Hameed all the way.

Mr. Sajid Hameed, explained the finer aspects and nuances of Project Management, about how the technique has been around since ages (since the time of the Egyptian pyramids or even beyond) and how it finally came to be identified as a method in the modern era in the 1950’s and how this concept has evolved as a practice. He prescribed as to how to identify and distinguish a successful project from an unsuccessful one in terms of “completion On Budget – On Time”.

Mr. Hameed further elaborated as to what can be termed as a Program or Project and what cannot. He took the participants through a virtual joy-ride taking them from the very basic of Program or Project Management to the actual elaborate process (the Five Process Groups) and the Role of an effective Project or Program Manager and finally the Project charter which was provided as an exercise for the participants to gauge their understanding and introduce them to the essence of Program Management.

The positive receptivity of the interaction could be gauged for the way the participants were crowding around Mr. Sajid Hameed to get some of their understanding cleared and some of their views ratified as well.

Participant Testimonial:
“The project Charter which was discussed, I feel was an important aspect which applies before implementing any new program/project. In fact, I have shared the Project Charter points which we discussed towards the end with all in my NGO and I am sure it would benefit. I really feel that I missed out on the earlier part where I am sure everyone introduced themselves and not only that, the session started almost an hour before I reached and hence I would like to know the points covered before! Apologies for the inconvenience!

It was totally worth the time! Have a great day ahead!”

“Thank you so much for accommodating me for the event! It was indeed resourceful and I got a lot to learn from the session. A heartfelt thank you for accommodating me for the session and in fact organizing such a session! “

Gauri Damle
Catalysts for Social Action (CSA)

Sponsoring “Bring The Change” Week There is more to life than planting saplings and giving donations, undoubtedly these are noble causes for the good of mankind, but if the same activities are done in a planned manner and an effective way it would create the maximum impact. Non-profit organizations are a spread of various organizations that work for the benefit of the community and the society in various fields, they undertake various such programs to benefit humanity and the world at large or we can even say the Universe. Depending on their capacity some may undertake a singular program while the activities of a few others may be spread over various programs. The NGOs have quite a good number of Samaritans working for them who intend good and do good as well but then there sure is a lacuna identified of specialized staff for Project or Program Management. As such to try and fill this void and give the NGOs an insight into what Program Management is all about and how to execute successful projects, NASSCOM Foundation had organized a workshop on Program Management as one of the events under Bring The Change celebration week.

The “Bring the Change” week from 28th Nov – 3rd Dec. 2011 had kick-started the NASSCOM Foundation’s decennial celebrations. With this week, the Foundation was showcasing the IT-BPO industry’s Business Responsibility (BR) initiative through volunteering – in one mega event spanning the country. This time of year is extremely special especially for NASSCOM Foundation since it completed a decade of its formation. This time of the year also has several international days lined up and is also associated with generosity, highlighted by days such as World Disability Day, World AIDS Day, and International Volunteers Day.

Octaware contributed to the cause by providing volunteer engagement as well as being one of the esteemed companies sponsoring the event for the NASSCOM Foundation to conduct the Bring the Change celebration week.