KARACHI: Constellation Software Inc., Canada’s largest software company and a conglomerate with a truly global presence, has done such a good job of keeping a low profile for a long time, that even The Globe and Mail’s April 2014 profile on CSI’s Chairman was partly a comment on how the Founder of such an Investor’s darling company had managed to maintain a level of anonymity unheard of amongst the tech industry.

So, it is no surprise that their Pakistan subsidiary, Contour Software, which started from Karachi in 2010, and has expanded to Lahore and Islamabad, also remained relatively under the radar till recently, when they started 2019 as a 500-employee company, rising steadily up the ranks of the top IT exporters of the country. Contour grew by 125 employees in 2018 and started 2019 with a backlog of 100 openings to fill and has only recently started to serve some of the bigger divisions of the parent company. With Constellation’s pre-existing large portfolio of product divisions, and a steady pipeline of vertical market enterprise software companies getting acquired into the fold, Contour is set to continue to grow steadily over the coming years.

To enable this continuous growth, Contour is expanding its footprint by increasing its investment in facilities and premises to be able to house a much larger group of employees. On 11th March 2019, the High Commissioner of Canada Hon Wendy Gilmour joined Dexter Salna, the President of the Perseus Operating Group of CSI, and Bonnie Wilhelm, the CFO, who were on a visit to Pakistan to meet some of their Contour staff, to cut the ribbon at a pre-inauguration ceremony of Contour’s new premises in Karachi. Also accompanying the High Commissioner was Margaux McDonald, Senior Trade Commissioner and AtharMoeen Khan, Trade Commissioner at the Canada High Commission. Contour’s MD, Bilal Mahmood, Director Finance & Operations, Waseem Ahmed, and Manager HR, Javeria Syed provided the visitors with a tour of the existing premises, followed by a visit and ribbon cutting ceremony of the future office space, which will double the Karachi office’s capacity, to allow for housing up to 650+ staff. Stéphane Buguet de Chargère, Regional Sales Manager for Constellation’s Trapeze division, was also in attendance. The visiting dignitaries also participated in the Leaders in Islamabad Conference as part of the Canada Pakistan Business Council delegation, and met with some stakeholder Federal Ministries, to communicate their intent to invest further.

In a similar vein, on 21st March 2019, another group of visiting managers from Constellation’s Canada and US offices joined the Contour team to inaugurate the start of office setup in new space that would allow for the Contour Lahore office to double in size to house up to 300+ staff. Sean Raynor, GM Constellation Dealership Systems, and Eric Tchokonte, VP R&D,joined Timothy Dyck, Product Manager, to cut the ribbon. Contour’s Manager Administration Anwar Ahmed, and Senior HR Administrator, Saba Omer, joined Bilal Mahmood, MD, in welcoming the guests. Combining with the recently started facility in Islamabad, this expansion allows for Contour to house as many as 1,000 staff in Pakistan.—PR