Biz Tech

Virtusa launches Green Initiative

Working towards becoming an eco friendly company :

Virtusa Corporation (NASDAQ: VRTU), launched the company’s environmental initiative in Sri Lanka with a day long program to build environmental awareness among their staff. Virtusa’s ‘Green’ Initiative is aimed at making a positive contribution to environmental sustainability through mass awareness and driving its own business operation to become neutral on environmental impact.

The initiative exemplifies Virtusa’s responsibility as a corporate citizen who contributes to society. Virtusa commenced number of projects to reduce the carbon footprint and make a sizable impact with the support of its employees. An innovative technology based system was launched at the event to enable car pooling among the employees along with Virtusa’s sustainability web site www.virtusa.com.

“Our team recognises the value of a greener business practice which is of significance for our clients, prospects and all our stakeholders. We have created awareness among our employees and made Virtusans responsible for their actions within this environment. The next step for us is to get our major clients involved in this drive towards a greener and safer environment through Virtusa’s very own Green Initiative” said Virtusa Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kris Canekeratne.

The project supports Virtusans with promotional material to take the message of being eco-friendly, providing the employees with an opportunity to do their part by lessening environmental pollution.

The initiative focused on providing knowledge on reducing e-waste and Virtusa Carbon Foot print., which is measured by the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Environment Ambassador for the launch, wildlife celebrity CEO Jetwing Eco Holidays, Gehan de Silva Wijeyaratne said, ‘Virtusa is a highly respected and a leading edge company with a global presence.

Many Sri Lankans take pride in the company’s Sri Lankan roots. Environmental initiatives by Virtusa will inspire other businesses to follow suit because environmental responsibility is now something that has to be a part of the corporate DNA to compete for business internationally.

Leading companies in the private sector have to take the lead and implement innovative solutions without waiting for legislation to keep pace’. He also spoke of how some of Virtusa’s existing ‘Digital Reach’ CSR initiatives could be expanded to create habitats for wildlife and for example to help bring butterflies back to the countryside.

A keynote on ‘Protecting the Environment’ was delivered Principal Facilitator Corporate Druids (Pvt) Ltd Mihirini de Zoysa where she highlighted the importance of environmental impact and the swift increase of more organizations identifying the importance of a much eco-friendly working ambience in this context.

Finnish paint firm Teknos chooses IFS Applications

To modernize its business processes:

Teknos, one of leading paint manufacturers in the Nordic region, has chosen IFS Applications to increase visibility, integration and collaboration between companies and countries within the group. The solution will be implemented in Teknos’ operations in Finland, Scandinavia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Slovenia and Russia.

IFS Applications will replace several ERP systems, reducing IT cost as a result of economies of scale by supporting all of Teknos’ operations and processes in a single modern ERP solution. Operations will also benefit from the standardization of data structures and processes throughout the group.

Teknos will use IFS Applications components for financials, supply chain, manufacturing, sales and marketing, service and maintenance, document management, quality management, e-invoice and business analytics, as well as an interface to Atrion Intelligent Authoring, to handle regulatory requirements and product compliance specific to the chemical industries.

IFS was chosen based on its strong functionality, references, and knowledge of the paint manufacturing industry: “We evaluated several solutions and vendors in our industry, but no one came close to the experience and successful implementations that IFS could demonstrate,” said CFO of Teknos, Raimo Anjala.

“IFS Applications offers deep functionality for the specific processes of the paint industry. By using a standard application with a large customer base in the industry, we will get the benefit of ongoing development of new industry-specific functionality and technologies in the future,” he said.

IFS Applications one of the top six ERP’s in the world has its largest R and D centre in Colombo with over 600 staff and another with more than 50 software professionals in Kandy. The solution that was offered to Teknos in Finland had many number of development hours in Sri Lanka and is available for similar companies in South Asia.

“With many world leading references in paint and ink industry, IFS constantly keeps upgrading its solution with more new features that are industry unique.

This ever evolving product is offered to companies in the region and world best practices are encouraged along with it.

The advantage in here is that the implementation and support which are the ‘making or breaking’ factors of ERP projects, would be handled by the very people who develop, own and maintain the product globally.

Thus 100 percent expertise on product and implementation methodology followed by a much needed support right throughout, would be handled by the source of the product for customers,” said Sales and Marketing Manager for IFS South Asia, Shiraz Lye.

Dialog pilots HSPA+ at 21 Mbps

Dialog Telekom, launched HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access also known as HSPA Evolution), technology in Sri Lanka, becoming the first mobile operator in the South Asian region to employ this next-generation technology.

With HSPA+ customers can experience download speeds of up to 21Mbps, and uplink speeds of up to 5.76Mbps. HSPA + technology is currently available on a pilot basis at the Dialog Future World in Colombo 02 and Dialog plans to extend the pilot network across key locations in its 3.5G network over the next few months.

CEO Dialog Mobile, Supun Weerasinghe said: “This pilot service is a clear indication of Dialog’s commitment to offer the best in technology to our customers, resulting in a user experience that is unparalleled.

Wireless data applications that are smarter and offer greater flexibility will shape the future of broadband, which in turn has become a vital element of the mobile product. Dialog will continue to be at the helm of this broadband innovation in Asia as we deliver upon our promise of The Future Today.”

HSPA+ offers mobile users faster response and less latency for media-rich applications, including high-definition video streaming, web surfing and other next-generation wireless applications with high bandwidth requirements.

Changing the economics of technology

HP delivers solutions:

HP announced new products, solutions and services that enable organizations to address the short-term cost reductions required by today’s challenging economy, while laying the groundwork to exit the downturn stronger and more competitive.

Economic downturns can more than double the likelihood that a business significantly changes its industry ranking, and those that make it into the top quartile during a downturn typically sustain their market premium for an average of three years.

In a 2007 survey, 99 percent of chief executive officers said technology is integral to the success of their companies. Additionally, in a new study conducted across Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe and Middle East, 48 percent of respondents from Asia Pacific indicated they see the current economic climate as an opportunity to restructure their technology environments for the future.

“Winning CIOs are focused on both strategic cost reductions and supporting long-term business growth,” said Vice President and General Manager, StorageWorks Division, HP Asia Pacific and Japan, Jim Wagstaff.

“It’s not about spending more: best-in-class IT organizations spend about half as much as the average company on technology as a percentage of revenue. Instead, they strategically spend and prioritize technology investments. HP offers a range of solutions to help organizations emerge stronger when the economy recovers,” he said.

HP’s new hardware, software and services allow organizations to change how they produce, distribute and consume technology resources.

BizTech Quiz

Last week’s BizTech Quiz was ‘What is the difference between USB 1.1 and USB2.0?’ and the answer is “Difference Between USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 The speed. USB 1.1 allowed a maximum transfer rate of 12 Mbits/second.

USB mice and keyboards need only 1.5 Mbits/s to function. USB 2.0 has a raw data rate at 480 Mbps, and it is rated 40 times faster than its predecessor interface.” The winner of this quiz is R. D. J. Amath of 40/41, Katuwawela Road, Boralesgamuwa. Amath will be the winner of the world’s smallest mouse courtesy of Sala Enterprises, the sole distributor for several world renowned brands in Sri Lanka. Sala Enterprises will contact R. D. J. Amath during the week.