Advertorial

Cathay fetes local travel agents

The two winners with Cathay Pacific Sri Lanka Country Manager, John Holden and other members of staff.

Cathay Pacific in Sri Lanka and the Singapore Tourist Board held a competition to motivate local travel agents to promote Cathay's holiday packages to Singapore.

Two winners were selected from entries from top sales performers. They were Manager, Travel and Tours of World Travel Centre Shehan Alles and Executive, Aitken Spence Overseas Travels, Thurka Shyamini.

Their prize was a free holiday in Singapore inclusive of air tickets, hotel accommodation, airport transfers and other tours.

"The familiarization tour where they received first hand information on upcoming attractions was designed to inspire the winners further to promote Singapore as a destination for Cathay passengers" said Sales and Marketing Manager for Cathay Pacific Airways Colombo, Ms. Ruhan Abbas.

Shehan and Thurka said, "This wonderful experience helps us to convince customers about the many attractions Singapore offers and we are truly thankful to Cathay and Singapore Tourism Board for adding more excitement to our day-to-day work by conducting these types of promotions."

Open Magnet MRI at Hemas Hospital

Hemas Hospitals has introduced Sri Lanka's first-ever Open Magnet MRI at its hospital in Wattala.

"This Open Magnet MRI solves one of the biggest challenges in medical imaging today. It combines the power of MRI technology in a comfortable and spacious design that accommodates the needs of all patients, including well-built patients and those suffering from claustrophobia and anxiety.

Given its wide and spacious opening, it is also ideal for imaging extremities of patients suffering from sports injuries and orthopaedic problems whereby even patients with bent limbs can be accommodated in the machine", Director, Medical Services at Hemas Hospitals Dr. Aruna Rabel said.

Doctors estimate that more than 10 percent of all examinations using traditional MRI systems are abandoned due to patient anxiety and claustrophobia. The conventional MRI with its narrow, tube-like opening cannot accommodate well-built patients and is very claustrophobic. Patients are thus left with the only option of getting the scan done under anaesthesia, sedation or just giving up. "Being neither scary, nor noisy and dark, the open MRI affords a patient-friendly experience where a relative or family member can even stay near the patient talking to him while the scan is being done. Furthermore the patient can even read a book while the scan is being done thus bringing in a whole new dimension to the experience", Dr. Rabel added.

Chairman of Hemas Hospitals Murtaza Esufally said that the introduction of the new Open Magnet MRI was in keeping with the hospital's patient-centric ethos. "Not only does this raise the bar of medical imaging in the country, but it also brings in a totally new, refreshing and patient-friendly experience to the whole MRI exercise. The feedback we've so far got from patients has been very positive and encouraging, and this certainly does augur well for the future of medical imaging in this country", he said.

NCCSL seminar

The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka held a half day seminar on "Current Int'l Commercial Transactions" recently at the Chamber auditorium. The seminar was organized by the National Chamber in association with the Department of Import/Export Control and the Department of Exchange Control with a view to enlightening the business community about the current laws and regulations applicable to imports and exports and exchange control regulations.

The seminar that was beneficial for those engaged in import and export of goods and services, consultants, shippers, freight forwarders and bankers, was well attended.

Speakers were Asst. Controller of Exchange, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Kapila G. Weerakoon and Asst. Controller of Imports and Exports of the Department of Import and Export Control W A M Malkanthi who gave presentations on the import/export control rules and regulations.

They explained the background of export control regulations, payments on current international transactions, approved payment for import of goods for commercial purposes on D/A, D/P, L/C, and Consignment Accounts basis, the regulations on importing goods as gift or trade samples without paying foreign exchange, requirements of shipping documents and the procedure of entrepot trade. The permitted transactions with specialized trade related foreign currency accounts such as Exporters Foreign Currency Accounts (EFCA), Indirect Exporters Foreign Currency Accounts (IEFCA), Foreign Currency Accounts for Suppliers of Inputs (FCASI), Foreign Currency Accounts for Providers of Professional Services (FCAPS) and Shipping and Airline Related Accounts were other subjects discussed.

Hemaka Amarasuriya tells LMD:

Branding crucial to corporate bottom lines

"As we look ahead to the rest of 2009 and beyond, the relevance of branding and how businesses leverage their brand equity - or create paradigm shifts in perceptions of brands - will be crucial to corporate bottom lines, and brand values," the latest issue of the pioneering business journal LMD said.

Pointing out that brand marketing and communications are now crucial components in driving business results, LMD asserts that in this process, communications holds the key.

However, as the highly respected business leader and Chairman of Singer Sri Lanka tells LMD's senior journalist Larry Enas, trends continue to favour a lull in communications in an economic downturn - much to the detriment of a brand's long-term equity.

In the course of the wide-ranging interview with LMD, Amarasuriya said, "The way I see it, in a downturn, consumers turn to trustworthy, established, reliable brands - because they tend to be risk-averse at a time like this. And it is important that brands continue to retain the trust that lies with consumers. Therefore, I feel a brand has to be supported and its equity must be maintained."

He said, "There is a temptation to try and cut corners with products and services. But I think that is a very tricky and treacherous path to follow - because you have built a brand, you have built trust and reliability, and people expect you to retain that, come what may."

Businesses can't afford to lose sight of their brand's importance to customers even during a downturn, asserts LMD. They must, therefore, maintain brand equity and loyalty. "In that context, switching all your advertising or communications to tactical promotions could be highly risky," Amarasuriya said.
 

For Blackberry Smartphones:

Dialog launches Lite Service Package

Nushad Perera

Dialog Telekom PLC, and Research In Motion (RIM) launched a Lite service package designed to attract a wider range of customers to the BlackBerry platform together with a promotional offer of 10 percent discount on all BlackBerry devices, allowing more users to enjoy its productivity advantage and other benefits.

"The new Lite service package offers unlimited email at just Rs. 500 per month. It is a result of our continuous efforts to innovate and yet offer cost-effective solutions for customers," said Group Chief Marketing Officer of Dialog Telekom Nushad Perera. "This new package will be attractive to a wide range of customers who rely on emails as a vital communication tool to stay in touch with friends, family and business associates. Dialog is now extending the BlackBerry service to small businesses and even entrepreneurs affording the full benefits of mobility and seamless connectivity to a much broader market segment," Perera said.

"We are very pleased to be working with Dialog Telekom to introduce this important new service package for Dialog's customers," said Vice President, India at Research In Motion Frenny Bawa. "BlackBerry smartphones are popular all over the world for their ability to help people stay connected and be productive while on the move, and this new service plan will allow Dialog to offer those benefits to a broader market in Sri Lanka," she said. The Lite service plan works in conjunction with BlackBerry Service and would offer unlimited access to up to 10 email accounts (POP3/IMAP supported including popular email services such as Yahoo! Mail and Google). Coupled with Dialog's islandwide coverage and international roaming agreements, BlackBerry smartphone users can access and respond to their emails at a time and place of their convenience. In keeping with the needs of the discerning BlackBerry service clientele in Sri Lanka, Dialog provides a 24x7 helpdesk, a team of certified engineers and a dedicated after-sales support team including technical support representatives at select customer outlets.

E-WIS celebrates 23rd anniversary

Celebrating the 23rd anniversary today, E-WIS mark the beginning of another successful year ahead.

The Chairman/CEO Sanjeewa Wickramanayake said "This journey was not so easy. It was a success because of two very important parties. Firstly, our committed customers who have made us what we are today through their suggestions for improvement and constructive criticism. Customers for life has been our philosophy through out this long journey. We serve our most valued customers through best quality products, exceptional services and supreme customer care. Other party is the committed E-WIS family who achieved supreme customer care in every direction. On this special day, I thank all the customers who had faith in us and give you the assurance of continuous quality and supreme customer care."

Since 1986, E-WIS has made a major contribution towards the development of the national ICT sector by undertaking many nationally significant projects.

This includes the automation of the Employees Provident Fund, e-pensions project, Automation of the complete process of Attorney Generals Office and automating the examination process for the Department of Examinations among others.

E-WIS is a one-stop solution provider for any type of ICT related requirement. With its subsidiaries, E-WIS is serving almost all the segments related to ICT such as Hardware/ Software retailing, ICT infrastructure solutions, Software solutions, data printing, web development, career training and secured data printing.

During the past 23 years, E-WIS has been an international landmark in the Sri Lankan information technology arena.

Acquiring the best knowledge and expertise from their international principal partners, E-WIS provides the best quality products and services to their customers. As the sole business partner of Lexmark in Sri Lanka and the top performing partner of HP, E-WIS also has partnerships for Microsoft, CISCO and many more recognized ICT products.

A high level of quality is maintained within the organizational processes and is an important factor at E-WIS. With an ISO 9002 certification and the only ICT Company in Sri Lanka to be affiliated with the United Nations Global Compact are international levels of testimony of quality acquired by E-WIS. Island wide branches and Engineering services network covering the whole island ensures uniform and high quality services to E-WIS customers in any part of the country.

Wickramanayake said "The economic downturn that the world is undergoing after the 1930s has created a very challenging market for every business segment including ICT. Our vision for the year is to get the best utilization of our resources in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness in our business processes. Use of advancements in ICT is the key to achieve this and we will be sharing our knowledge with our customers to make their lives easier too".

Prof. Gihan V. Dias delivering his presentation on ‘Disaster Recovery Management - Knowledge and Experience Sharing’ organized by Suntel with KEPZ IT professionals associations at the Airport Garden Hotel recently.

Seminar on Disaster Recovery Management

A seminar on 'Disaster Recovery Management - Knowledge and Experience Sharing' was organized by Suntel with the collaboration of Information Technology Professional Association in Katunayake Export Processing Zone (ITPA-KEPZ) and conducted by Prof. Gihan V. Dias, an industry reputed professional.

The main objective of this event was to raise the awareness levels on Disaster Recovery Services.

The other topics discussed were Theory of Disaster Recovery Management; Data Duplication; Importance of Disaster Recovery Hot Site; Important points when selecting a service provider for Disaster Recovery.