Five-star airline signs with JKCS for e-reservations

TIE - UP: A Middle Eastern carrier, one of the four Five-Star airlines in the world, signed with aviation IT company John Keells Computer Services (JKCS) for a new e-reservations system.

This solution will enable its customers to make Internet bookings across the airline's network of 72 destinations. The newly launched Internet Booking Engine (IBE) is designed to power the airline's expansion plans and boost its Internet ticket sales a press release states.

As part of its service commitment, this luxury airline hopes to expand its current route network to new destinations in the near future and offer greater choice in sales channels to customers. The IBE engineered by JKCS fuels that vision.

JKCS, which is a member of the John Keells Group, has engineered a host of mission-critical applications for the aviation industry. Internet reservation systems are a mainstay in the company's project portfolio and these solutions have been customized for airlines with diverse business needs.

Some reservation solutions support the whole gamut of requirements of Star Alliance full-service carriers while others offer the resourceful features required by budget airlines. JKCS has even engineered solutions for carriers with complex hybrid operating models.

Web based booking engines have revolutionised the aviation industry by saving airlines and passengers billions of dollars annually in ticket distribution fees.

The new IBE will become a cornerstone of the airline's goal to both increase revenue and reduce costs. Incremental revenue will be generated through the direct online sales channel while the manpower requirement for flight reservations will be considerably reduced.

Online self-service purchasing is becoming a measure of an airline's level of customer-friendliness. Travellers are clearly comfortable booking directly with carriers who offer efficient and secure online reservation services.

JKCS will enable the full-service carrier to further leverage on this channel.

Millennium ESP produces first Oracle certified master

SKILL: MillenniumESP's Gayan Lokumanna became Sri Lanka's first Oracle Certified Master (OCM), thereby joining an elite membership of less than 50 OCM 10g members worldwide.

Lokumanna is attached to MillenniumESP's Oracle team and has been working as a Technical Analyst at MillenniumESP for the past four years.

Chief Executive of MillenniumESP Peter D'Almedia, said, "We're proud to have Gayan on our team. It has been a phenomenal effort. His dedication to Oracle and his ability to attain this top level certification confirms the world-class skills of the people at MillenniumESP.'

According to Oracle University, which conducts the OCM examination, achieving this certification puts an Oracle technologist in the most elite group of database professionals in the world.

The Oracle Certified Master is the highest credential an Oracle professional can earn, and recognises achievement in mastering advanced skills. Lokumanna's field of specialization includes High Availability and Disaster Recovery, Real Application Cluster, Dataguard, and Maximum Availability Architecture. His focus is on the Telecom and Financial Services Industries.

"This was a tough challenge but with the right knowledge, dedication and extensive practical experience, I was able to achieve this recognition," Lokumanna said.

Microsoft Imagine Cup winners announced

EVENT: Microsoft Imagine Cup 2007 Sri Lanka came to a spectacular close recently, with Team SARA from the University of Moratuwa and Team Tear from the University of Colombo School of Computing being crowned champions at the software design and short film competitions respectively at an event attended by over 600 participants, a press release states.

This year's competition held on the theme "Imagine a world where technology enables a better education for all" saw entries submitted by over 20 teams. Six teams in the software design category were short listed to present their projects at the final.

The Imagine Cup - the world's premier technology competition for students - invited students to use their creativity and knowledge to put forward their creative ideas on how education can be improved around the world.

The two winning teams SARA and Tear will now take wing to Seoul, Korea on an all expense paid trip to compete at the Imagine Cup World Championship - where they have the chance to give their ideas exposure, make critical contacts and bond with like minded colleagues from around the world.

The cash prizes in store at the World Final include $8,000 for winning any one of eight invitationals and $25,000 for winning the Software Design Invitational. This year's competition categories include software design, embedded development, web development, project Hoshimi Programming Battle, IT Challenge, Algorithm, photography, short film and interface design.

The winning entry was project ISECED submitted by Team SARA from the University of Moratuwa Faculty of Information Technology. Team Tear from the University Of Colombo School Of Computing emerged one of the six world finalists in the short film category out of 364 teams.

Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Microsoft Country Head commenting on the competition said, "The quality of entries at this year's Imagine Cup, as indeed those in previous years, is proof of the vast pool of IT talent available right here in Sri Lanka.

Dean, Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Moratuwa Prof. Dileeka Dias said "All of us at the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa are thrilled about our students winning two top awards at the Imagine Cup 2007 after competing with the best young talented in the IT field.

Leader of Team SARA Sanjaya Ratnayake, said " When we were informed of the competition 6 months ago we knew the door was opening for creativity and talent, so we got together and started thinking about a suitable project.

This was the most difficult phase as we spent around one month to select a project topic and now we realize the value of that initial time spent.

Project KAMZA presented by Team MaTHaKa of the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology were adjudged First Runner up while University of Moratuwa's Team Sanhitha's project Iddhipada was named Second runner up.

The other finalists were Geolink by Team Enterprise of Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, project iLearn from team iLearn of the University of Colombo School of Computing and VirtualDesk from team Ravana of the University of Moratuwa, Faculty of Computing.