BPO, IT ventures to benefit with premium access

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

The growing IT-BPO industry in Colombo offers a unique advantage for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) to enjoy premium access to Sri Lanka’s tier one talent pool, Virtusa Vice President and General Manager Madu Ratnayake told Daily News Business.

Virtusa GM Madu Ratnayake

He said Sri Lanka has a number of joint ventures with smaller companies in UK, Europe and North America with the typical company size of 50 to 150 employees. Seventy-five percent of the ITO, BPO companies in Sri Lanka are SMEs and 65 percent of them are foreign direct investments.

Several European SMEs have started Research and Development (R and D) centres in Sri Lanka.

Ratnayake said the value survey undertaken in 2007 identified 178 IT and ITES export companies in Sri Lanka. One hundred and thirty-seven engaging in IT, 34 in ITES, 7 in both IT and ITES. Also there are 90 small companies 36 medium companies and 11 large companies in the IT industry. ICT sector is the fifth largest export earning sector for Sri Lanka.

The most predominant service offering in the IT industry is software development with 62 percent of companies providing these services.

Fifty-two percent of IT companies promote their own products.

Meanwhile, IT services and IT consulting are offered by 35 percent and 29 percent of companies respectively.

In the ITES industry 72 percent of companies offer non-voice services. Sri Lankan IT services are mainly exported to Europe, and North America, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand and for ITES North America, Europe, Asia and Middle East are considered as main export markets.

Africa and South America are becoming emerging markets for IT service where as Africa, Australia, and New Zealand are becoming emerging markets for ITES, Ratnayake said.