Wakeel Ahmad Alvi & Fatima Talat: Delivering Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) Using Starlims Application Suite In Apac, Mena & Emea Region
Fatima Talat
Chief Financial Officer
Fatima, on the other hand, has a diverse background in finance and information technology. She has successfully led the finance, administration, and marketing departments while also serving as an executive member of the board of directors, owing to her ability to develop corporate strategies. Wakeel and Fatima's leadership has enabled the company to implement numerous
STARLIMS projects in textiles, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, oil & gas, forensics, water & environment, and food & beverages. The following is an excerpt from their exclusive interview with CEOInsights.
Wakeel, talk about your experiences with STARLIMS and the leadership roles that you have been playing over the journey
I started my professional career with STARLIMS in 1995 at SGS India, where I was given the opportunity and responsibility to establish STARLIMS in SGS Labs, starting with the Textile Lab in New Delhi. STARLIMS has been established successfully in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Tirupur. Following the successful implementation of STARLIMS in the textile division, SGS management decided to implement it in other SGS divisions, including ONGC, Consumer Testing,
Mineral Lab and General Lab, which includes Food, Water and Pharma.
A decade later, I was hired as a Senior Technical Consultant at STARLIMS APAC in Hong Kong, with the responsibility of implementing STARLIMS in the Asia Pacific region with APAC team, where I implemented STARLIMS in Singapore Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan etc. I also trained the Japanese sales team on how to give a demo of the application.
After four years working in APAC Hong Kong, I decided to relocate to the STARLIMS in Middle East and was appointed Area Manager of the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC), where the local distributor company was having difficulty gaining business. I was in charge of the Middle East STARLIM Soperation includes sales, implementation, training, and post implementation support. I assembled a team in the Middle East. I won and completed approximately 35 projects in the region over the course of five years.
STARLIMS was acquired by Abbott, and a division called Abbott Informatics, and I was given responsibility to implement STARLIMS on behalf of Abbott Informatics in the APAC region, which is when I founded NASA Informatics. We won many projects with the Abbott Informatics sales team in India and Dhaka, and those projects were completed by NASA Informatics. Abbott Informatics also gave NASA Informatics the opportunity to become an implementation partner for EMEA projects, as well as a distributor for STARLIMS in the MENA region, and here we are.
The past 25 years with STARLIMS have been a wonderful journey with the experience of building businesses across UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and now looking forward to moving the operations of NASA Informatics to North America & Canada.
A decade later, I was hired as a Senior Technical Consultant at STARLIMS APAC in Hong Kong, with the responsibility of implementing STARLIMS in the Asia Pacific region with APAC team, where I implemented STARLIMS in Singapore Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan etc. I also trained the Japanese sales team on how to give a demo of the application.
Over The Last 25 Years With Starlims, I Have Successfully Created Starlims Resources And Set Up Starlims Operations From The Ground Up In Multiple Domain & Multiple Regions Across Geographies
After four years working in APAC Hong Kong, I decided to relocate to the STARLIMS in Middle East and was appointed Area Manager of the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC), where the local distributor company was having difficulty gaining business. I was in charge of the Middle East STARLIM Soperation includes sales, implementation, training, and post implementation support. I assembled a team in the Middle East. I won and completed approximately 35 projects in the region over the course of five years.
STARLIMS was acquired by Abbott, and a division called Abbott Informatics, and I was given responsibility to implement STARLIMS on behalf of Abbott Informatics in the APAC region, which is when I founded NASA Informatics. We won many projects with the Abbott Informatics sales team in India and Dhaka, and those projects were completed by NASA Informatics. Abbott Informatics also gave NASA Informatics the opportunity to become an implementation partner for EMEA projects, as well as a distributor for STARLIMS in the MENA region, and here we are.
The past 25 years with STARLIMS have been a wonderful journey with the experience of building businesses across UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and now looking forward to moving the operations of NASA Informatics to North America & Canada.
Wakeel, tell us about the leadership approach that you follow to lead your team.
Over the last 25 years with STARLIMS, I have successfully created STARLIMS resources and set up STARLIMS operations from the ground up in multiple domains & multiple regions across geographies. Throughout the process, I was instrumental in developing teams of fresh graduates and post-graduates, as well as training them to produce better results. My coaching and attention to each individual created a strong bond between us, this helped me to keep my retention rate very high. Majority of experienced team members who was working with me in past 20 years joined me when I founded NASA Informatics.
Fatima, what are the financial challenges that you anticipate and what are the strategies that you are planning to deploy?
After flourishing in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region, our next destination is North America & Canada. Though we are uncertain about its financial requirements yet we are confident we will be able to foster operationally & financially there as well. We are preparing our team to be our back-end support while we establish ourselves in the regions of the US. We have already witnessed a smoothness in our cash flow; we are constantly signing & executing new projects and already developed have a huge pipeline that assures financial stability of NASA Informatics.
Fatima, how do you perceive the changing role of a CFO within the organization as a more powerful growth contributor?
A finance leader's role, in my opinion, is not only to develop a finance function that works effectively on a global scale and embraces diversity, but also to cover a wide range of areas such as organizational evaluation, strategy implementation, and business continuity management. As the company's CFO, I am responsible for all of the above. And also managing teams from project planning and financing to project execution.
Wakeel Ahmad Alvi, Md, And Fatima Talat, CFO Of Nasa Informatics Group
Wakeel has pursued an MBA from Lincoln University and a Ph.D in Bioinformatics Management from Charisma University.Fatima also has a Masters from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Both of them are leveraging their exceptional industry experience in taking NASA Informatic Group to greater heights.
Over the last 25 years with STARLIMS, I have successfully created STARLIMS resources and set up STARLIMS operations from the ground up in multiple domains & multiple regions across geographies. Throughout the process, I was instrumental in developing teams of fresh graduates and post-graduates, as well as training them to produce better results. My coaching and attention to each individual created a strong bond between us, this helped me to keep my retention rate very high. Majority of experienced team members who was working with me in past 20 years joined me when I founded NASA Informatics.
Fatima, what are the financial challenges that you anticipate and what are the strategies that you are planning to deploy?
After flourishing in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region, our next destination is North America & Canada. Though we are uncertain about its financial requirements yet we are confident we will be able to foster operationally & financially there as well. We are preparing our team to be our back-end support while we establish ourselves in the regions of the US. We have already witnessed a smoothness in our cash flow; we are constantly signing & executing new projects and already developed have a huge pipeline that assures financial stability of NASA Informatics.
Fatima, how do you perceive the changing role of a CFO within the organization as a more powerful growth contributor?
A finance leader's role, in my opinion, is not only to develop a finance function that works effectively on a global scale and embraces diversity, but also to cover a wide range of areas such as organizational evaluation, strategy implementation, and business continuity management. As the company's CFO, I am responsible for all of the above. And also managing teams from project planning and financing to project execution.
Wakeel Ahmad Alvi, Md, And Fatima Talat, CFO Of Nasa Informatics Group
Wakeel has pursued an MBA from Lincoln University and a Ph.D in Bioinformatics Management from Charisma University.Fatima also has a Masters from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Both of them are leveraging their exceptional industry experience in taking NASA Informatic Group to greater heights.