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Dialog offers value-additions to inbound roamers

Dialog Mobile, is introducing a number of value-additions to inbound roamers. Dialog has enhanced the connectivity facilities for its international clientele with the introduction of a special personalized welcome SMS, a mobile-based travel guide and free Wi-Fi connectivity.

The special welcome SMS will appear on the user’s mobile screen upon arrival in the country, and will display information vital to them such as contact details of the customer’s Diplomatic Mission in Sri Lanka, the respective currency rates and the special Dialog hotline for them to call-in for connectivity related queries.

The free travel guide will enable tourists to explore Sri Lanka with ease at all times with the help of the mobile directory. The travel guide provides customers with a variety of information pertaining to various public services such as banking, aviation, transportation, healthcare as well as travel-related information including popular tourist sites, hotels, shopping malls, restaurants and entertainment services. The hotline also gives customers access to emergency services such as the police hotline, General Hospital, Red Cross, the fire department and the 24-hour Dialog Roaming call centre. Customers could avail of this service by dialing 778.

In an effort to enable travellers to stay in touch with loved ones while in Sri Lanka and to enhance customer convenience, Dialog provides inbound roamers with free Wi-Fi connectivity at Dialog hot spots across the island along with the added benefit of free internet usage. All in-bound roamers are eligible for this service and will receive the username and password of their Wi-Fi account upon arrival in Sri Lanka.


Girawa partners Tigo

Girawa (www.girawa.com), a global voice services provider recently partnered, Tigo.

“We are happy to have entered into this partnership, as we believe that Girawa’s global reach will enable us to extend our services to overseas Sri Lankan community and in turn introduce our services to more customers in Sri Lanka”, Tigo, CEO Dumindra Ratnayaka said.

“We are delighted and honoured to have joined hands with Tigo, who pioneered mobile telephone services in Sri Lanka. The partnership with Tigo will enable us to provide innovative communication solutions to Sri Lankan expatriates worldwide.

Our customers overseas and their friends and families in Sri Lanka can now call each other through Girawa/Tigo networks at very competitive rates. With Tigo’s wide network footprint and superior quality of service, our customers can enjoy world class communication services in the most cost-effective way”, said Girawa, CEO Sathya Weerasooriya. Girawa, a pioneer in IP based voice services, is fully owned and operated by Sri Lankan professionals and licenced in the United States by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as an International Telecommunication Services Provider.

It has been in operation since 2004 helping Sri Lankan expatriates to be in contact with their families and friends back in Sri Lanka in the most economical way. Girawa runs all its IP based applications on the cutting-edge Amazon Cloud Computing environment in the USA providing highly reliable and secure service to its customers.

Currently, Girawa has local sales and customer service offices in USA, Canada, UK and Australia and a 24x7 Help Desk in Sri Lanka providing friendly and personalized customer service.

Girawa and Tigo will initially offer various communication plans for Girawa customers in USA, Canada and Australia.

Those customers can order Tigo mobile phones for their friends and families in Sri Lanka, and call each other free or at very low rates, enabling them to save over 60 percent.

More importantly, the overseas Girawa customer can completely manage the account and pay all the charges giving their Sri Lanka contacts the absolute freedom in using this service.


‘Trust in your tomorrow, today’:

Union Assurance’s new image reaches the hearts of the people

From a platform of care to a platform of trust, Union Assurance has transformed its image in the insurance sector with a new look, a new brand promise and a new tagline.

The insurer also launched a new campaign recently to communicate its new brand promise straight to the hearts of the people. The advertisements in all three languages captures how the insurer understands the inner individual, his life cycle and the effort it took to achieve what he has. “Only you know what you have been through,” the advertisements point out, “And we understand and respect that efforts.”

By understanding his inner conscience, Union Assurance respects each individual, and that respect makes the insurer better able to serve and cater to the need of each customer with an unbreakable trust.

From the tireless efforts of a Kandyan dancer to the deep bonds between a father and daughter, the heart warming campaign is in line with the insurer’s new image of strength, stability, loyalty and joy. Union Assurance Chief Executive Officer Dirk Pereira explained that though the brand promise has changed, the core values of the insurer remains strong.

“We have a fresh brand promise that was created to deliver an unparalleled level of trust,” he said. “Trust is the most important factor in our business because at the end of the day, insurance is a long-term agreement and the consumer looks for a trusted partner to work with,” he said.

The new brand symbolizes this value proposition by combining a warm orange and a firm grey in an unbreakable link of energy and strength. “We are building on the trust that we have acquired in over two decades of business in the insurance sector,” Pereira said. “And we are now geared to build on that success,” he said.

The process of rebranding the Union Assurance image however, came after extensive research. Marketing and Distribution General Manager Rukman Weeraratne said, “We at Union Assurance kept our ear to the ground and felt the heartbeat of the consumer clearly. We know what they are looking for and we have equipped ourselves to service their needs.”

“In Union Assurance, we have two lines of business. Our extensive internal and external research showed that in general insurance, the people primarily look for convenience, while in the life insurance sector, they look for transparency. We combine the values of transparency and convenience with respectfulness from the corporate level,” he said.

For life insurance, transparency was key with customers needing the assurance that what they saw is what they got. Clarity is vital in life insurance, he explained as it was a long-term agreement with the firm so the customer needed to know what he would end up with clearly, in the end.

The new brand look combines sunshine orange which represents energy, joy and happiness with gray, which denotes a concrete colour of strength and stability. “The logo is also easy and flexible to the eye with no rough edges,” he said. “It reflects us as a company. We are easy to deal with and flexible,” he said. The new brand also comes with a new and timely tagline, “Trust in your tomorrow, today.”


Tech. ed 2010 in February:

Preparing organizations for tomorrow’s challenges

Tech.Ed 2010 is Microsoft’s premier technical education and networking event for any technology professional interested in leading, connecting and exploring a broad set of current and soon to be released Microsoft technologies, tools, platforms and services.

Set to take place from February 8 to 10 at Waters Edge, Battaramulla, the event offers all those interested an opportunity to meet, interact and connect with international and local product group experts, industry speakers and community influencers to get expert advice and have their questions answered.

Tech.Ed events are famed for their contribution to technology in every field, as well as for being a platform for the most innovative thinkers of our time to share experiences and ideas.

Technology professionals and young enthusiasts will find the opportunity to take their knowledge to the next level, building a community network for the future. Participants will be exposed to the best of what is available in the field of IT, helping them realize the full scope of the technology itself, as well as reach their own true potential.

Microsoft Sri Lanka Country Manager, Sriyan de Silva Wijeyarathne emphasized the impact Tech.Ed would have on the IT community “Tech.Ed is hailed as one of the most informative and cutting edge seminars ever to be introduced.

This year’s event will feature speakers from all over the world; bringing a massive pool of talent and skills to one place for the purpose of taking technology in Sri Lanka to the next level.

The networking and contacts that are established at the seminar - both between the participants and Microsoft, as well as among themselves - will be a stepping stone for the future”, he said.

Featuring speakers such as Microsoft Sri Lanka, Senior Technical Product Manager Jason Buffington, Microsoft Corporation, Asia Timezone, unified Communications Strategist Raj Natarajan, and Microsoft Technologies, Technology Architect Brian Phul, the event will also include technical exhibitions, a student PC lab, gaming centres and an extensive collection of stalls for both local and international tech companies to exhibit and market their products.

Tech.Ed will explore aspects of current and soon-to-be-released Microsoft technologies, tools, platforms and services, providing participants with the chance to immerse themselves in over 200 IT learning opportunities and share knowledge and ideas, as well as influence the creation of technology resources to help build state-of-the-art software solutions as well as to boost local IT infrastructure.

Tech.Ed also promises a high degree of value for corporate participation including seminars on efficiency through automation and Green Computing.

Other seminars will cover Virtualization, Security, Identity and Access, Unified Communications and Business Intelligence and Database platforms.


Trade Finance workshop for SME’s


At the workshop

Standard Chartered Bank’s SME unit recently organized a special workshop on Trade Finance for its SME clientele, sharing best practices linked to CSR efforts, bringing the global knowledge to the local market and creating a value proposition. This was the first such program organized by Standard Chartered Bank for this segment to educate and support its SME clients.

The workshop was conducted by Standard Chartered Bank Head of Trade Services Janaka Serasinghe and was well received by the clients, most of whom represented Shipping, Finance and Import and Export specializations. The bank will continue to conduct these advisory sessions throughout the year in a bid to support their business growth and share groups knowledge and expertise.

Head of Consumer Banking Anirvan Ghosh Dastidar said, “SME businesses are an important and growing business segment in Sri Lanka. This program is a testimony to the importance Standard Chartered Bank places on the SME sector. We are glad to be leading the way in being “the Right Partner” for SMEs in Sri Lanka.”

Standard Chartered Bank currently provides a select array of specialized services to Small and Medium size businesses.

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