IT and BPO sector:

‘Economic recession has positive influences’

Harshini Perera

The economic recession has positive influences on the IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector so that people can position them better according to the demand, Virtusa Corporation Senior Vice President Outsourcing Tim Montgomery, who visited Sri Lanka recently told Daily News Business.

Sri Lanka is at the early stage of its IT and BPO industry that it has a great potential to develop from its introduction to the sector since 1995. The post war situation has encouraged many investors to turn towards Sri Lanka for businesses. There are many resources in Sri Lanka to develop the IT and BPO sector in many ways. Some of them are that the graduates produced by various universities in Sri Lanka are more literate and the country maintains a good university system, he said.

He said that the workforce in Sri Lanka and the education delivered to them is important whereas the local businesses can spread it out further.

People need to be aware of the opportunities in the IT and BPO sector and find more marketing prospects in it. “Managed Services is a practice of transferring mundane management responsibilities as a strategic method to improve the effectiveness and the efficiency of the operations. The Managed Service Provider is typically an information technology (IT) services provider.

The transactions are based on a fixed price and paid for the services provided by the service provider. It is not about managing people or resources but services at the end of the day. There are opportunities for customers to widen their focus on sales rather than services,” he said.

In the concept of Managed Services, the risk is less and employees get opportunities to cross-train in one working environment.

Sri Lanka needs to think of the curricula at schools and universities so that students can have a clear path on the IT and BPO sector. Attention should be drawn on enhancing the awareness towards the rural areas, he said.

Career fairs are being conducted at rural level to enhance the awareness of people on IT and BPO industry.

A career program called Back to Office is operated in rural areas educating and training people. Virtusa has selected 15 schools in the Uva-Wellassa district for the purpose, Virtusa, Vice President and General Manager Madu Ratnayake said.