Business Advertorial

Dialog TV in remarkable viewer growth

Shirajiv Sirimane

The recently introduced Dialog TV (DTV) has achieved a remarkable 300 percent growth GM Sales and Marketing of Dialog TV, Nushad Perera said.

“We have over half a million eye balls watching DTV so far,” he said.

That they would be investing more for DTV to make it more attractive.

DTV commenced operations last January after they took over CBN Sat. “We had less then 9,000 subscribers and today we have over 30,000 and growing fast,” he said.

He said that television is considered by some as a ‘waste of time past time’ but today it is fast moving to be a medium of education, learning and fun. The DTV infotainment channels include Discovery, History channels and animal planet.

“The so called idiot box is today considered an intelligent box and its fast turning out to be a house teacher,” he said.

He said that they have not only catered to entertainment, sports music and news but provides a Buddhist channel on zero rental.

In addition God TV can be added on request while most of the local TV channels are aired free.

He said that one of the other key features of DTV is that it can be installed anywhere in Sri Lanka, even in areas where there are no TV signals or Dialog mobile coverage. “If you can see the sky DTV can be installed there,” he said.

A basic car battery powered black and white TV is the minimum facility needed to get connected to a DTV.

“We have linked up with the satellite. The main transmitting station in Colombo guarantees customers an uninterrupted 24 hour deal,” he said.

“Today the total Dialog TV package includes 54 channels and if a one looks at it, the daily rental is as low as Rs. 3.50 per day for a basic package,” he said.

He said that a series of easy payment a schemes are introduced to cushion out the initial installation charges.

The DTV is in a position to beam even 200 channels at the same time. “However as a responsible organisation we do not want to give ‘junk’ to our viewers and have scanned only the best and ‘morally clean’ channels,” he said.

The DTV is also closely edited so that and no obscene material are aired.

There is also a lock function and has a unique feature only available in Sri Lanka where future programmes are indicated at the bottom of the screen.

JETRO, EDB organise Lanka’s participation at Food EX 2008

JETRO Colombo together with Sri Lanka Export Development Board (SLEDB) has commenced organising the Sri Lanka’s participation at Jetro Zone in Asia’s premier trade show of food and beverage industry, Foodex Japan 2008, will be held for the 33rd term from March 11 to 14 2008, at the Makuhari Messe (Nippon Convention Center) in Japan.

JETRO Zone at Foodex aims to offer developing countries an opportunity to introduce promising goods from those countries and develop trade links to enter the Japanese market and thereby stimulate the food industry of developing countries. Around 54 exhibitor booths will be available for participants from such countries.

The most attractive part of the JETRO Zone is the JETRO-Dining a cooking demonstration by a well-recognized and qualified Japanese chef. Japanese buyers are always looking for something new and they would very much like to know how to add it to Japanese daily diet and enjoy. The cooking demonstration is the best way to raise buyers’ interests.

At the last FOODEX exhibition held in March 2007, dehydrated jackfruit supplied by Team Four from Sri Lanka was used to make a Salad, which became very popular at JETRO-Dining. Nine Sri Lankan companies, selected by EDB, participated at Jetro Zone at this exhibition.

FOODEX 2007 was participated by 2,425 exhibitors and visited by 95,719 persons from all over the world.

Sri Lankan companies willing to participate at JETRO ZONE should submit their application to Sri Lanka Export Development Board on or before August 23, using prescribed forms. More details could be obtained from EDB or JETRO Colombo office.

Thrills and spills for Ceylinco Life policyholders

Ceylinco Life delivered on its promise of indelible happy memories of a day of fun and frolic to some 1600 policyholders last week in the first leg of the Ceylinco Life Family Savari 2007.

Families from every district of Sri Lanka forgot their cares and inhibitions for the day to dive wholeheartedly into the activities planned for them at the Leisure World theme park.

Young and old showed equal vigour as they clambered on to rides, slides and chutes or plunged into the inviting pools to cool off in an atmosphere of unbridled excitement made possible by the mega promotion launched by Ceylinco Life to generate greater awareness about the importance of life insurance.

Ceylinco Life’s Chief Executive Director R. Renganathan said the Family Savari programme was the first and only promotional campaign of its kind in the local market to increase the penetration of life insurance.

“This innovative campaign is part of our initiative to take the message of life insurance to the people of Sri Lanka while sharing our success with our policyholders,” he said.

Another important aspect to the campaign, Renganathan said, was its focus on the family and the importance of the family enjoying good times together. “Ceylinco Life has been able to organise an event of this magnitude because of its strength and stability,” he added.

Logistically the biggest undertaking involving policyholders to be conceived by a local insurer, the 2007 Family Savari programme is the third in a series that began in 2005. This year’s programme concludes next month with a four-day all-expenses paid holiday for 220 People in Singapore.

Participation in the Ceylinco Life Savari was open to policyholders of the company regardless of the value of their policies.

All active policyholders as at June 30 were considered for the draw, at which 450 families were selected, 400 for the day-long visit to Leisure World, and 50 for the trip to Singapore.

Kingslake helps MAS Active implement fastreact planning solution

MAS Active, part of the Sri Lankan based MAS Holdings, has chosen Fastreact to provide its production planning and control functions, including both capacity and critical path management, working with and interfaced to its SAP business system.

MAS Holdings specialises in design-to-delivery solutions in intimates and sports apparel for the world’s leading brands.

The largest in the region, MAS operates 28 world class manufacturing facilities, two design studios and a sourcing and innovation arm across seven countries. Backed by a strong raw material supply base the group employs over 41,000.

MAS Active is the fastest growing sports and active fashionwear manufacturer in the region servicing top brands Nike, GAP, Adidas, Victoria’s Secret and numerous other global market brands. With a manufacturing base of some 12 facilities, 10 in Sri Lanka, and 2 in India.

The MAS Active division employs over 14,000 and manufactures around 25 Million garments per annum within its Sri Lankan facilities alone.

Managing Director Shirendra Lawrence, explains “As demand for much greater product complexity and dramatically shorter lead-times increases, we realised that our existing methods, excessively manual methods would simply not cope with these new conditions.

“Given the complex nature of our products, we had to find a ‘World Best’ solution, which would work with and integrate to SAP and which could cope with multi-level planning, also multi-stage and multi-component processing, including our extensive printing and embellishment requirements.”

CEO of Fast React Systems, Andrew Brown, added, “We are delighted to be working with MAS Active, on this exciting project. In the modern Apparel environment, effective and responsive planning is an essential requirement for survival. Yet this remains an area of tremendous opportunity for many businesses, which offers enormous business benefits.”

Kingslake started providing IT solutions in 1994 with a focus on the manufacturing and distribution industries and have contributed to the implementation of Enterprise class IT solutions both locally and abroad.

Fastreact Systems Ltd of the UK who provides software Only for the Apparel and related industries have offices in the UK, Thailand and South Africa.

Their products are used worldwide with distributors in UK, USA, Benelux, Portugal, Spain, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and India.

Jinasena introduces modern water sprinkling system

Jinasena Group has introduced an innovative range of water sprinkling systems that has evolutionised the nation’s farming sector.

Though technology and industrial production has gained much ground, agriculture remains the key sector for over 60 per cent of the Sri Lankan populace. It would remain so for generations to come, and it is common belief that Sri Lanka’s economic prosperity lies in agriculture.

The Jinasena Group has always played its part to uplift the local agricultural sector, with a steady infusion of state-of-the-art machinery to suit every requirement.

Water is the life source of effective agriculture, and we often read of extensive crop damage due to changes in weather patterns. Noteworthy in its commitment to effective water-management and agricultural development.

The advantages of the Jinasena sprinkler water pumps are many. They include up to 70 per cent savings on water consumption as this system has a capacity to cover large areas and is able to methodically supply water to plants and roots avoiding the wastage of water.

These pumps can be activated with a minimum amount of manpower saving on labour costs. The company recently tied-up with global irrigating giants Jain Irrigation Systems (India), Super Products (Thailand), T-Systems (US) and Agridor (Israel) to further improve its local product portfolio.

These product lines are available in over 40 countries across the globe, and have proven to be top of their range.

These pumps are used at Kumbukkana rubber research Institution, Ambakale Coconut Research Institute in an area of 100 acres and at Janahashakthi Institute at Thanthirimale in an area of about 30 acres for banana plantation where it has been proven to increase yield.

Jinasena is well-equipped to cater to any irrigation requirement in the country, and all solutions are tailor-made to suit the country’s climatic conditions and terrain.

JKCS secures IATA strategic partnership

IATA, the International Air Transport Association, recognised JKCS as a Strategic Partner following demonstration of the company’s achievements in the area of aviation software.

John Keells Computer Services (JKCS) has excelled in aviation software for over a decade and serves many airlines in Europe, Middle East and Asia.

The partnership will create value additions for the current customers such as Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways, SAS Norge, Air Arabia and SriLankan while attracting many new prospects. It also raises the profile of the company in the competitive global aviation industry.

JKCS aviation systems are developed at software centres in Sri Lanka, UAE and Norway. In addition, JKCS engineers are stationed at customer sites around the globe, helping airlines achieve their strategic business objectives through cutting-edge IT systems.

JKCS has developed solutions to support flight operations, air traffic control, reservations, cargo, in-flight services, crew management and many more airline needs. Millions of passengers use these solutions to book flights, earn air miles, watch in-flight movies and enjoy their favorite meals.

As a Strategic Partner, JKCS hopes to make further contributions to airlines in mission-critical areas through IATA standard products.

IATA, is the internationally recognised trade association representing 95 per cent of scheduled airline traffic.

John Keells Computer Services (JKCS) is one of Sri Lanka’s premier IT companies, is the software solutions arm of John Keells Group.