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Aviva NDB Awards Night:

Best wealth planners shine

Aviva NDB rewarded the company’s most outstanding performers at a glittering Awards Night that brought together 800 Wealth Planners.

Their achievements were a proven testimony to the trust and confidence the award winners have gained through dedication and commitment to customer care.

They have succeeded in attaining impressive sales records outstripping their colleagues.

Managing Director of Aviva NDB, Shah Rouf said: “Our sales people are the spear point of our business and their proud achievements should be applauded and acknowledged, not only to reward excellent performance but more importantly, to demonstrate to all our customers how appreciative we are of our front liners.

They are after all the closest and most vital link between policyholders and the Company. They have done a tremendous job during a difficult year, and I sincerely congratulate all those who have proved their mettle and achieved brilliantly.”

D.G.A. Swarna, the only lady Wealth Planner among the top six, was the best with, winning the coveted honour of Best Financial Services Advisor Life.

Her performance entitled her planner, to the position of ‘Top of the Table’ at the Million Dollar Round Table conference attended only by the world’s highest ranking sales professionals.

In addition, she has secured another accolade, the highly prestigious International Quality Award (IQA) presented by the world’s premier Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association.

These are the world’s highest achievements an insurance sales person can accomplish.

Chaminda Dissanayake won the award for the Best Team for Life and Piyal Ratnayake won the trophy for Best Distribution Manager Life. Among the General insurance achievers, Lankanatha Meegahapola became the Best Sales Person, with Mahesh Jayawarna receiving the Best Team award.

Malanga Galappaththi was presented with the Best Business Development Manager award.

Apart from the top winners, there were 18 Gold award recipients and two who received the Platinum award.

There were altogether 16 MDRT and nine IQA winners. Distribution Direct Sales Force Director Upali Wijesinghe said: “I congratulate our award winning Wealth Planners for surpassing target expectations and truly proving themselves to be ‘The Team you can Trust.’ Their performance is an inspiration for all Wealth Planners.

This year we have an apt theme of the convention: Insurance powered by Technology.

Our Aviva NDB Wealth Planners are being equipped with laptops to meet today’s challenging IT-savvy environment and our customers can look forward to a faster, more efficient service even from remote locations.”

A highlight of the evening was the presentation of an Award for Excellence to the internationally renowned artist Senaka Senanayake.

The company has customarily presented the award to distinguished persons whose achievements were a source of encouragement and inspiration to Wealth Planners with ambitious goals.

Locally manufactured computers receive US certification:

EZY computers receive US Energy Star certification

EZY Computers have received the prestigious United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star qualification: EZY Holdings, CEO Shafraz Hamzadeen said that this qualification underlined their commitment to their customers.

The EPA Energy Star Computers program is a partnership effort with the computer industry to promote the introduction of energy efficient personal computers, monitors and printers.

‘Energy Stars’ are energy efficient computers and related systems that save energy by powering down and going to ‘sleep’ when not being used, thus saving consumers a tremendous amount of energy.

Energy Star computers have all the performance features of a regular computer, it simply has the additional ability to power down.

“Reducing energy consumption can help to combat smog, acid rain and global warming by reducing emissions from electricity generation.

By using more energy efficient equipment in our homes, offices and factories, we can both improve the environment and save money”, said Hamzadeen.

The EPA has signed partnership agreements with industry leading manufacturers who sell more than 75 percent of all desktop computers and 90 percent of all laser printers sold in the US.

“Computer equipment is the fastest growing electric load in the business world and the saving that Energy Star certified computers can make will have a tremendous impact on any company’s bottom line”, Hamzadeen said.

Enumerating the advantages of Energy Star certified computers, Hamzadeen said they were quieter, emit fewer electro magnetic fields, increase file security and produce significantly less heat, whilst being a far less intrusive desk top item.

“We care about our customers, and in today’s tough times the least we could do to help them would be to make available equipment that consumes less power when compared to that of a traditional computer”, he said.

EZY introduced themselves to the Sri Lankan market with the launch of the revolutionary slim in size, slim in price EZY Slimtop, which saved more than 60 percent of power consumed by an ordinary PC. EZY, who recently introduced the Intel dual core powered EZY Optimax will introduce a wider range of computers and laptops with the Energy Star certification by October this year.

The Company’s factory which is located in Ratmalana has an investment of over US $ 3 million, with over 100 staffers on the factory floor alone involved in pre engineering, manufacturing, quality testing and shipping.

“We have an automated manufacturing line, continuous static discharge, burn testing, as well as performance testing” said Hamzadeen.

EZY’s current manufacturing capacity stands at 210,000 computers per annum, running on three shifts a day.

“We have plans to increase our production capacity to 400,000 within the next three years, not just for local consumption but export as well.

We want to take the ‘Made in Sri Lanka’ tag globally and the Energy Star qualification will definitely be an added advantage”, Hamzadeen said.

Rainbow pages ties up with Ceylinco-CISCO

SLT Publications (Pvt) Ltd popularly known as Rainbow Pages, which is a subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom tied up with Ceylinco-CISCO to promote their products and services islandwide.

Ceylinco-CISCO CEO Vipul Hettige said, as a result of this collaboration with one of the best directory publishing and marketing companies in Sri Lanka, we will get maximum visibility and people will become more aware of their products and services.’ The SLT Rainbow Pages CEO Malraj Balapitiya said that, it was a privilege to work with one of the most popular security companies in Sri Lanka and Rainbow Pages would do their utmost, using their extensive and high tech and state-of-the-art marketing solutions to enable Ceylinco-CISCO to broad base their products and services islandwide.

SLT Rainbow Pages, Sales and Marketing General Manager R. N. Wijetunga, Account Executive E. R. G. Ranawaka and Ceylinco-CISCO Director Operations Brig. Udena Kendaragama, General Manager/Administration, Eshantha De Silva and Finance and Administration General Manager Helakumara Wijeratne participated on this occasion.

Asian Paints trains local painters

Asian Paints Lanka has launched a series of training programs to upgrade and certify the skills of local painters, in an initiative to promote professionalism among these artisans.

Besides covering the general principles of painting, the training programs are also designed to train painters to work with Asian Paints Royale Play products, the company said.

The training sessions are conducted at the Asian Paints factory in Moratuwa, and are free of charge.

Participants in the two-day training course are provided with food and those who travel from distant areas are provided with free accommodation as well.

At the end of each program, a certificate and an ID card that serves as accreditation to work with Asian Paints Royale Play paint are issued to each painter who successfully completes the training course.

“We have recognized the importance of enhancing the skills of the painters on painting techniques because there are many Royale Play customers on the waiting list for qualified painters,” said Asian Paints Lanka Director and General Manager Joseph L. Pulikottil.

“The fact that Asian Paints is the only paint company in Sri Lanka to launch an initiative of this nature, demonstrates our commitment to promoting best practice in our industry,” he said.

The company has trained 110 painters this year to date. Pulikottil said the company incurs around Rs,18,000 per painter on this program and expects to produce 200 qualified painters per year.

Painters who complete the training session successfully and bring in business are also provided with the respective Royale Play tools needed for the job free of charge by the company.

This enables painters to collect the complete Royale Play tool kit which comprises of a Natural Sea Sponge tool, Special Effects Brush tool, Ragging Roller, Special Effects Comb, Spatula tool and a Colourwash sponge.

Asian Paints has already completed training sessions for painters from Colombo, Galle, Kurunegala, Kandy, Ampara and Batticaloa districts. Painters are selected for this program through the company’s ColourWorld dealer network.

SLT blood donation campaign

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), held its bi-annual blood donation campaign at the company head office premises last week. This blood donation campaign was held to commemorate the Wesak and Poson season.

SLT Chief Executive Officer Greg Young, said, “In the past, due to the war climate, there was a great need for blood for the wounded soldiers. Even though this is not a pressing need at the moment due to the cessation of the war, there is still an urgent need for blood in the country. The donation of blood will either help to improve, or in many cases even save the life of someone. So I personally believe that this is a very important service that everyone who is able to, should fulfil to the community.

I sincerely appreciate the enthusiasm and co-operation demonstrated by our staff towards this cause. I am proud of the continued success of these campaigns and I thank all our staff who generously made donations.”

SLT has been organizing these blood donation campaigns for the past 15 years, with the help of the Blood Bank. This is an ongoing corporate social responsibility of SLT, conducted twice every year.

Singha Cement for disabled soldiers

Singha Cement donated a significant quantity of cement for the construction of the homes of 150 families in the Varikuttu Uru village in Vavuniya, last month. “When the Seva Vanitha Army Branch requested us for cement in order to help build homes for our disabled soldiers, we had no hesitation in agreeing to their request,” said Singha Cement’s Managing Director Colin Nelson.

AMF selects OpenArc Small Finance Company Software Solution

Associated Motor Finance Company (AMF) selected the totally integrated Finance software solution offered by OpenArc for the automation of their business operations covering leasing, hire purchase, loans, deposits management and online integrated General Ledger.

With the signing of this contract OpenArc further consolidated its leadership position in the Leasing and Finance software market in Sri Lanka enjoying over 75 percent market share. AMF selected OpenArc Systems Management as their long term IT partner to supply and implement leasing, hire purchase, loans, deposits, savings, real estate, pawning and General Ledger systems after careful evaluation of proposals made by many software companies. The evaluation was based on system functionality, technology used, past experience, software development standards and methodologies, and the strength of professional staff.

Having been in business over nineteen years in the past, primarily as a successful product based company, OpenArc has captured the market leadership in Sri Lanka for their products in many sectors and earned a reputation as a long term quality IT service provider. OpenArc specializes in business software for Merchant Banking and Finance, Stock markets, Manufacturing and Trading sectors and develops totally integrated Sri Lankan software solutions on current technology platforms such as Java, .Net, Progress, and PHP.

OpenArc is an ISO 9001:2000 quality certified and CMMI Assessed software company with a professional team qualified in multi-disciplinary industrial sectors such as Engineering, IT, Accountancy and Management.

The company has come a long way in the local software industry with proven track record and has the distinction of computerizing 33 leasing and finance companies.