Business ICT

Lanka targets becoming US$ 2b IT-BPO industry

Sri Lanka has set an ambitious target to become a US$ 2 billion IT-BPO industry by 2012. It is also expected to employ over 100,000 people.

Vice Chairman, Software Exporters Association, Madu Ratnayake said their long term aim is to become the largest foreign income earner for the country. “However, our growth is primarily limited due the lack of required number of trained IT/BPO professionals in the country,” he said.

Ratnayake who is also the General Manager, Virtusa Sri Lanka said that in India over two million people are employed in the IT-BPO industry and they generate over US$ 64 billion in annual revenue and grows over 30 per cent year on year.

“Many other countries, which have taken a focused approach to develop their IT-BPO Industry, has derived very similar employment and foreign income benefits,” he said.

“The industry, Government and academia are getting together and driving a number of initiatives to get more people in to the IT-BPO industry. With a good human resource capacity development plan, we can create a significant social impact by way of employment for educated masses and help Sri Lanka become a player in the new knowledge economy,” he added.

“However, one of the key issues is that not many of our youth are aware of the IT-BPO industry and how to get themselves qualified to get in to these high paying jobs. Neither our parents are informed enough to guide their children to this high growth field,” he said.

The sector witnessed considerable activity during 2004-05, including a ramping up of operations by major multinational corporation players and Indian organisations stepped up hiring. The domestic BPO market, catalyzed by demand from the telecommunications and BFSI segments, matched the growth of BPO exports.

The market experienced maturity and consolidation, a result of numerous mergers and acquisitions taking place within the sector. There were over 400 companies operating within the Indian BPO space, including captive units (of both MNCs and Indian companies) and third-party services providers.

The key enabler for this has been cheaper bandwidth leading to low telecom costs for leased lines and availability of educated English speaking workforce in India.

The Indian BPO industry remains on a growth path, emerging as one of the key investment markets in the country.

 Greenwich Lanka sets up mission critical IT infrastructure for eCollege Lanka

Greenwich Lanka (Pvt.) Limited, was selected by the US based eCollege to deploy its IT infrastructure for their state of the art development centre in Sri Lanka.

Greenwich Lanka was selected to deploy the entire integrated project based on the comprehensive solution which was offered, including enhancements to the local area network, comprehensive IT security, IP telephony, Storage Area Network as well as monitoring and management of the whole infrastructure.

Director of Greenwich Lanka (Pvt) Ltd Thariq Sanoon, said “We have heavily invested in technology focusing on different segments like Telco, Banking and Finance.

The project with eCollege was an opportunity to exemplify our true set of values. With our extensive range of IT solutions, we provide maximum return on investment with dedication, commitment and flexibility through team work.”

Director and GM of eCollege Lanka Nalina Wijesundara, said, “Greenwich Lanka’s solution was a comprehensive one which they implemented and integrated within a month. We found the Greenwich Lanka team knowledgeable, dedicated and committed to delivering the solution to meet our requirements. The solution implemented by Greenwich Lanka is helping us maintain a highly productive software development environment”.

Based in Colorado, USA, eCollege.com is the leading Software as a Service company in hosted online education. eCollege provides a comprehensive eLearning technology platform to colleges, universities and online schools.

HP announces Server and Storage Consolidation Offerings

HP announced its server and storage consolidation offerings in Sri Lanka recently.

Country Business Manager Sri Lanka and Maldives Technology Solutions Group HP Chrishan Fernando said this would enable businesses to have or transit to a modular IT infrastructure design and implementation that would drastically reduce their cost of operations and provide more efficient management of the ever-growing storage requirements of everyone.

Consolidation of Windows File Servers - enterprise file servers deployed for user’s home network drives, shared data repositories, workgroup drives and file and print servers - enables IT departments to pool disparate storage “puddles” and associated file servers into a cost-effective, scalable and easy-to-manage file server cluster.

HP PolyServe’s file serving software runs on Windows Server System enables administrators to maintain their current IT practices, rather than forcing them to switch to a proprietary architecture. Based on industry-standard building blocks - servers, storage, FC SAN or iSCSA - it is the only consolidation solution with the high availability, instant mobility and management automation required for mission critical databases.

“Both HP and Microsoft will continue to promote the new server and storage consolidation offerings, as well as associated training and services,” said Microsoft Enterprise Account Manager, Sri Lanka Imran Vilcassim.

“HP’s strategy of integrating leading NAS solutions with [storage-area networks] to provide a single, managed storage pool has advanced our market position considerably,” said General Manager, HP TSG, Asia Emerging Countries, Steven Kim. “It’s a part of our strategy to deliver solutions that would help our customers achieve their business objectives through IT,” added Kim.

‘Unlimited Potential Partnership’ unveiled by Microsoft, USAID and Infoshare

A new multi-stakeholder approach to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills training, ‘The Unlimited Potential Partnership’, was unveiled by Microsoft, USAID and local non-profit technology company Infoshare, at a gala dinner hosted by them to felicitate their industry partners on September 9 at the Galle Face Hotel.

The Unlimited Potential Partnership (UPP) is a Global Development Alliance (GDA) partnership between Microsoft, USAID and Infoshare. UPP is a workforce development initiative that deploys ICT skills development curricula that are essential for the workforce in the Agriculture, Apparel, Media and Journalism and Hotel Management industries.

These curricula are not only be targeted at individuals who are expecting to be employed in these industries, but also at those who are already in the workforce and need skills enhancement.

UPP will create important linkages between public and private sector industry members and industry training institutes. This unique public-private alliance will not only create awareness and promote the use of ICTs, but also make a significant impact on increasing the opportunities available to youth and young adults throughout Sri Lanka.

Despite possessing a valuable talent pool of human resources, Sri Lanka is faced with a dearth of qualified professionals proficient in ICT. While primary and secondary education has remained a key agenda for successive governments in the country, areas such as ICT have not gained their due prominence.

This is precisely why UPP aims at giving individuals the ability to improve their economic opportunities through education and skills in the arena of ICT. By working closely with the Government, students, educators and research institutions, UPP stakeholders are confident that the training will be able to bridge at least some of the shortage of skilled professionals in the field of ICT, equip individuals with the right skills and enable easier accessibility to technology.

Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka, Sriyan de Silva Wijeyaratne, said: “While Sri Lanka has a high literacy rate globally, its ICT literacy and adoption rates compare very poorly even within the region. In my opinion, besides uplifting the general IT literacy levels and thereby employability, reaching the key strata and segments of the workforce is also necessary.

Education and educators in Sri Lanka have long been insulated from global changes and trends, thus creating a digital divide between Sri Lanka and other developing and developed economies.

Tool to accomplish business resource requirements:

Technology influencing Business Continuity

Anjana Samarasinghe

Today companies are becoming more aware of Business Continuity plans and Disaster Recovery said Global Head of Business Enablement Virtusa Prasatha Nanayakkara at the third LBR-LBO Chief Information Officer Forum held recently.

The panel discussion was on “Leverage Technology for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity”.

“Company CEOs have a vital role in designing Business Continuity plans. Business Continuity is not just running servers in a remote area. Companies have to test their business continuity plans regularly without testing them at a real disaster. When business continuity plans were outdated, during real disaster you will feel it not working”, he said.

CEO Raffles Solutions Sujatha Nadesan said “When our systems go down we need to identify how it will impact our stakeholders. Companies need to have mirror systems to see how soon that they could recover and how could they safeguard these systems. Apart from this there are non technical aspects that companies need to focus on”.

“Human factor is the biggest risk that organisationas have. Sometimes we have to train people on using critical software and such people have a huge demand globally and locally.

The biggest challenge is creating a culture with which we could retain these for the business continuity. Companies also need to focus on their media policy. In a disaster, companies should educate all the stakeholders on what has happened”, she said.

CEO of JayKay Marketing Services Charitha Subasinghe said that IT is the backbone of the retail operations and IT involves in warehousing, HR and inventory management in retail business. Software issues, Hardware issues and environmental issues will be huge risks for the retail businesses.

“Technology can influence business continuity and IT gives accurate timely information. Information is key to the Business Continuity. Today customers lifestyles change rapidly and different demands will be created among them. We need technology to satisfy these needs and demands”, he said.

Today companies need to be aware of corporate prospects and expectations of the stakeholders said General Manager IT Union Assurance PLC Chandana Jayasuriya.

“Technology is a tool to accomplish business resource requirements. Leveraging technology has advantages and enables centralised management”, he said.

Oracle enables Oracle OpenWorld attendees to customise conference experience

As Oracle OpenWorld expects to attract 43,000 attendees and deliver 1,800 conference sessions during its September 21 - 25 conference, the company is leveraging mobile and enterprise 2.0 technologies to help attendees customise their experiences for maximum relevance.

Using Oracle Mix, Oracle’s business networking technology for bringing Oracle customers, partners, developers and employees together, more than 300 users in the community voted on the sessions they would like to see Oracle offer at this year’s Oracle OpenWorld conference. Oracle Mix is also helping attendees connect and create communities around common interests.

“As Oracle OpenWorld attendance has grown significantly over recent years, so has the number of sessions and options for our attendees.

“We see great value in leveraging state-of-the-art technologies to help build communities and navigate the overall conference experience so that each attendee sees return on his or her investment in attending OpenWorld,” said vice president of events marketing, Oracle Tania Weidick.

New this year, the Oracle OpenWorld Blog has started a dialogue about the conference and enables content-area experts and attendees to share insights about all aspects of the conference — from where to stay and things to do in San Francisco to session content.

For up-to-the-minute schedule information, Oracle OpenWorld attendees will be able to voluntarily subscribe to a mobile messaging service to receive reminders of their schedule, as well as information on any changed sessions.

Oracle OpenWorld attendees will also have the opportunity to present their own session or workshop through the Oracle OpenWorld Unconference.

Interested attendees simply register on the corresponding Wiki page to deliver and attend presentations onsite and discuss potential topics online before the show.

Based on the success of one day of Unconference sessions last year, the Unconference has been expanded to cover the entire duration of OpenWorld.

These sessions uniquely offer any attendee a first-hand perspective of top-of-mind topics for the broader Oracle user community.

 Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel ties up with Arpico

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel, exchanged an agreement with Richard Pieris Distributors Limited recently, to have its presence at Arpico Supercentres. This is a key milestone for Mobitel as it helps to further spread the distribution network across the country.

With this tie up, Mobitel offers its customers Online Bill Payments and Reload SMART connections at all Arpico Supercentres island-wide, along with the M3 Experience Center, located at the Arpico Supercentre at Hyde Park Corner.

CEO, Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel Suren J. Amarasekera, said, “We take great pride in announcing the further strengthening of the distribution network of Mobitel with our partnership with Richard Pieris Distributors Limited. “We are pleased to partner Mobitel by offering Arpico Supercentres as payment acceptance points for Mobitel bills.

This provides greater value and convenience to our customers under one roof,” said Director/COO, Richard Pieris Group Pravir Samarasinghe.

With this partnership customers now have the opportunity to also visit the Mobitel kiosk to experience M3 Broadband services as well as purchase Mobitel connections, whenever they visit an Arpico Supercentre.

To this end, services offered by Mobitel are in the process of being rolled out in 10 Arpico Supercentres, which will be available in the near future, with one already being in place.

 Satyam eyes 10 pc market share in engineering services segment

India’s fourth largest software exporter Satyam Computer aims to be among the top two engineering services providers and corner a market share of 10 per cent by 2012, a senior official of the company said.

Satyam has a vision to be among the top two engineering services providers globally and reach a 10 per cent marketshare by 2012, Satyam Computer head, Integrated Engineering Services, T S K Murthy told PTI.

In 2007, out of the total global service revenue of 2 billion dollars, the revenue of R&D and product engineering services was 175 million dollars, representing 9 per cent of the total revenue.

The share of the R&D and product engineering services in the total revenue is expected to grow significantly, according to infotech analyst firm IDC India.

The analyst firm sees the division having great potential for Satyam to bolster its revenue. It, however, says this vision translates into overhauling the IT major’s current growth rate of over 40 per cent for the next five years.

IDC India said Satyam has put in place strategy to carry out this vision that include strong focus on select verticals like aerospace, automotive, consumer electronics, semiconductors and farm equipment.

As part of that move, the company is focusing on geographies like the US, Germany, France, Japan and the UK. The other key strategy is positioning the company as a leading engineering service provider. PTI

 Holographic Labels introduce SMS verification to detect fakes with Dialog Telekom