KPO in a bid to promote industry players

Outsourcing: Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) is fast becoming a buzzword in the global services market. Along with the traditional Business Process Outsourcing, Knowledge Process Outsourcing places a focus on the knowledge of professionals in a third party location in areas of research, development and innovation.

For Sri Lanka, like investing efforts in the BPO industry, KPO is an ideal means of participating in the global knowledge economy. KPO offers high revenue sources for operators even though it does not require a large number of people that regular BPO operations require.

Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) is keen in promoting such ventures and is actively looking to promote industry players to partake in this nascent business opportunity. According to ICTA, companies who have linkages and expertise in a particular industry such as pharmaceuticals and garments can venture into KPO businesses as a natural extension to their existing business processors.

At a recent presentation delivered to ICTA by Director - Clinical Trials Unit of the University of Kelaniya Dr. Asita De Silva said the Agency was given exposure to the high quality expertise and value that is held within Sri Lanka's medical profession in terms conducting clinical research. The CTU is a success story in this regard, and is currently one of the few industry players championing KPO in Sri Lanka.

As an outcome to the presentation, ICTA is now in the process of identifying ways of facilitating such initiatives which has many unique propositions to offer when compared to its Indian counterparts.

The Clinical Trials Unit (CTU), University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, was established in 2005 in collaboration with the Clinical Trials Service Unit (CTSU), University of Oxford, with the aim of participating in clinical trials requiring an organised support structure.

The University of Kelaniya signed a MOU with Hemas Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Ltd, to provide a grant to set up and facilitate operations of the CTU, an excellent, example of public-private sector cooperation.

The pharmaceutical industry involved in drug development expects clinical research centres to have the capacity to conduct clinical trials to the internationally-accepted standards of Good Clinical Practice (GCP).