IT value in a knowledge based economy

It was technology and Social Media that helped to connect with this talented young man living in Australia to understand how information technology has changed his life. It was in fact an interview on Skype - which I feel saves an amazing amount of time and resources when communicating with a friend, your family or business clients abroad.

An old boy of Sudarshana Primary College Matara, the present Rahula College Matara Primary section and Ananda College Colombo, Yasas can be described as a high flier purely through application on technology developments and hard work. Many say he is a real demonstration of ICT being a truly global career.

Having worked in the USA, UK, Sri Lanka and Australia, being trained in the USA and Malaysia and worked with truly global clients.

He explained his reasons in selecting IT as a career, "I was first introduced to IT when I was 16 at a private institute, IDM, after my OLs. My parents provided constant support for my education. I liked it and realized that the future is actually a digital economy. I saw that jobs are going to be abundant as the economy is heading that way.

And a few years later, today, what can we do without IT? I think I saw this to some extent. Not that I saw it all, but I realized some of it. So, when I did my A/Ls, I got marks that were good enough to go for Computer Science".

He described about his background, "I played some cricket, even though I wasn't a Sanath Jayasuriya". His father is a very senior pubic administrator; he used to head the Sri Lankan Plantation Ministry, which includes tea.

His first chance to explore the world was when his hard work was rewarded by an international award from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in London, by which time he was half way through the university.

After graduation he joined Virtusa, a global IT services company providing IT consulting, systems integration and application outsourcing.

He had the opportunity to travel to the USA and UK as a Business Analyst at Virtusa. He recalls his exposure at Virtusa, "I went onsite to gather requirements and work closely with the clients. The UK stint was with the British Telecom. In an offshore model, we basically talk about a round-the-clock working model which is a result of the time difference between the countries. This created a lot of challenges starting from long hours, getting up at midnight for meetings to communication obstacles such as explaining screen designs over teleconferences which I really enjoyed".

He later travelled to South Australia, working for RevenueSA (State Taxation Department) as a Business Analyst and then moving to Melbourne because his wife had to change her university and was offered a position by Accenture, a global leading consulting firm.

Currently he is into entrepreneurial activities and plays a keyrole as the Director, Young IT Professionals Board responsible for policy and strategy formation for young IT professional through the Australian Computer Society. In this role he chairs a Board that has many young active leaders from the industry, plus having the privilege of being a Member of the ACS Congress, the highest advisory body of the coveted and respected professional body, ACS. He explained, "The most touching moment in my career thus, was when I was awarded the Young Professional of the Year 2009 by Professions Australia for my achievements in the IT industry as well as for the services that I have rendered to the industry going well beyond the call of duty".

He along with his friends and family recently formed a foundation by the name of Yasasa Lanka Foundation (www.yasasafoundation.org) through which he hopes to promote IT education in Sri Lanka supporting the needy for education among many other things.

I asked him about the impact IT has made on him, "It's changed me as a person. I've never done anything else for a living. After studies, it is my work that shaped me up. IT has seriously influenced me. The way I think has been influenced, has impacted as a person and my career path.

IT is a global career and passport, which I experienced, IT gave me the opportunity to travel to sevencountries. My analyzing skills have improved drastically. IT is global. I had the opportunity to extend myself as an international professional. I first got the opportunity to go overseas because of my work in IT and then I got more projects and jobs overseas. Also, it has made me realize how efficient businesses, governments and people could be if they use IT. That's a fundamental change in the way I see things now because my exposure to IT projects that I had the privilege of working."

He went on, "The experiences and relationships I have built over the past several years will be used to bring value to my motherland in a big way in the very near future. While I've spent time overseas in the last few years, my main focus is to serve Sri Lanka and its people. I always respectfully remember that I studied in government schools and a government university in Sri Lanka enjoying the full benefits of free education in the country funded by our people. It is simply not right for me to not do a service to this lovely country and I will endeavour to do it to the best of my ability".

He described his childhood dream, "When I was 16 or so, I started to like IT and my A/L results were good enough to land a spot at Computer Science in the Colombo University. But growing up as a child, you know it's the system that defines your destiny to some extent and not entirely you. But I have to say I was lucky enough to achieve what I wanted when I really started to understand things. But if you want me to talk about my dreams from the very young days, my answer still would be I don't know.

"He explained, "But I know one thing, I always liked to be different. Be innovative. And to think outside the box". I probed deeper "Again, systems mould people into standards, people expect everyone to do the same thing, same way and achieve the same results. I questioned that from very young and still do. I hope I can contribute to changing our systems as well as the mentality. People need to be different, do different things and that's how the human kind evolves." In an evolving industry it is important for all to be in par with the global market.

Yasas shared ideas on how he pursue to be competitive in the arena, "In the last couple of years, my close association with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) has helped me with this. We promote continuous lifelong learning and professional development and a part of my roles have been to organize that.

While I get to learn I've also embraced the idea. On the other hand, I have been a strong promoter of professional networking for young people. My extensive network nourishes me with knowledge and experiences and I want others to embrace the concept and benefit from it too. I have spoken to an uncountable number of audiences around the importance of professional networking and will continue to do the same. I will bring this value to Sri Lanka as I know young Sri Lankans need an introduction to professional networking and we need more opportunities for that too".

A knowledge economy is a must for the development of a country, he shared "This is crucial. As a country, we do understand the importance of education and knowledge. We don't have to do the hard work of promoting the same.

We have got the best opportunity in our life time to get this country back on track. We just came out of a war, people are positive, businesses are booming and what's more, it's the time to promote a more liberal knowledge economy. Our youth have to have access to knowledge that they like and the knowledge that get them jobs, knowledge that adds value to our economy and country.

Let's face it, are we strong in minerals and mines as Brazil is? Or as South Africa is? Or can we compete in the manufacturing industry with global giants? In my personal view, it is tourism, agriculture (including tea) and the knowledge based service industry that could lift us to the next level. We need to capitalize on this opportunity".

To this the contribution of the youth in the country is important. Yasas encourages them to look to the future. Look where the world is headed.

The BPO industry is something that would drive our economy in the future if we create the right knowledge and skills in our youth. Yasas encourages the youth to consider contributing to that as well as develop an interest in it.

Web 2.0 and the internet have meant that every single one in our society has easier ways of contributing to the knowledge. Promoting their own ideas and opinions through such media and will make a contribution. In addition to that, by our youth creating an interest in the knowledge economy, what happens is that we prepare the human resource needed for that economy to thrive. He discussed about the challenges faced by the BPO industry, "The biggest opportunity and threat for us in my opinion is India. It's an opportunity because when we present ourselves to western companies as a BPO destination, they see us as a smaller version of India, which is already successful as the world's best BPO destination. Secondly, being geographically so close, we can provide a great back up location for Indian BPOs. But there are challenges as well. When a small company in Sri Lanka tries to provide BPO services, many clients would be questioning the need to go to a new destination when there is an already proven and similar location in India.

I believe we need to show what's special in our offering? What can we do better? We need to soon up skill our youth with knowledge that caters to the BPO industry but could offer something different, special and better than the other competing BPO destinations".

Our focus to improve IT and capacity should be based on making IT part of everyone's school education to get the numbers required. However the output numbers should be market driven, if IT is in demand, the output should increase proportionately. In other words it shouldn't be based on a pre-defined allocation in the higher education system.

We also need to ensure we train good teachers and improve the vocational education sector for IT. All these would create more opportunities to learn IT for vocational and higher studies. Capacity building is priority to build a strong BPO presence. It is also important to improve English and soft skills of our youth that are studying IT. The use of IT effectively for government services is crucial, which is a concerned area with ICTA and the governments IT task force at present.

Providing access to IT infrastructure to citizens is another priority. For instance, our internet penetration is low but growing. According to the ITU 8.3 percent of the population in Sri Lanka use the internet.

The government is currently working with ICTA in forming Nenasala's across Sri Lanka ensuring the growth, additionally the mobile operators in Sri Lanka can be used to implement and engage the majority with the information available in the web sphere.

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