Local Industry News

25-Jun-2008

Dr Hamish Main, Director - South Asian Partnerships of Staffordshire University visited Sri Lanka for presentations on the higher education system in the UK and to conduct interviews and offer spot admissions to Staffordshire University.

The interview sessions were conducted on June 11. The students were provided free of charge career guidance advice, and assistance in selecting study programmes.

A large number of students interested in studying in the UK and their parents took part in the presentations and consultation sessions. The prospective students and their parents were able to obtain detailed information on the university study programmes, accommodation facilities, job placement opportunities, and career progression in the UK.

25-Jun-2008
By Hiran H. Senewiratne

Sri Lanka’s university education system should be opened to the private sector to take the pressure out in State universities like in other developed countries, Managing Director Ceylon Trading Company W.T. Ellawala said.

He said the university education system has changed dramatically when compared to late 1950s and early 1960 with the free educational system. Therefore, due to the high demand for education, the Government should take some interest to allow private sector to set up universities to create more opportunities for youth in the country.

24-Jun-2008
By Ruzaik Farook

A new Sri Lankan computer company, Lunar Technologies Pvt Ltd, has won an international award for innovative hospital software. Judged by the editors of the magazine Computer World, the award was sponsored by the US company Intersystems who produce the Cache database in which the software was written. Intersystems were celebrating, in Orlando, Florida, 30 years of their own innovation in computer database development.

The software was recently installed in the Eastern Province where it now stores information on all patients admitted to the government hospitals in Batticaloa district. The software was developed for the Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.

24-Jun-2008

The National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) the only National competition of its type in Sri Lanka for recognising exceptional local ICT achievements will mark its tenth anniversary this year.

The primary objectives of NBQSA are to provide recognition for outstanding achievements of individuals and organisations in Sri Lanka which have contributed to the development of ICT.

It will also create a window to gain international recognition for locally developed ICT products and improve standards and the quality of local ICT products and services, to be able to compete in the international market place.

24-Jun-2008

The University of Moratuwa became the No 1 University worldwide to have the most number of projects accepted for the Google Summer of Code programme this year.

‘Apache Harmony’ is the second project report that the Daily News Business is carrying as a series.

This report was submitted by Senaka Fernando, a final year undergraduate of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the University of Moratuwa. He hoped to make the opportunity he got through GSoC a fruitful one that would increase his visibility within open source as well as to become a part of various new open source communities. He is looking forward in making use of any opportunity to take part in open source.

24-Jun-2008

Sri Lanka is projecting to import Rs 15 billion worth of computer hardware to the country in 2008 and this was Rs 13.5 billion in last year.

Chairman of INFOTEL Lanka Society and Director/ CEO of Softlogic Trading (Pvt) Ltd Roshan Rassool said that comparing with 2006 there was a significant growth in the hardware imports.

He was speaking at the Press launch of INFOTEL 2008 Sri Lanka’s premier Information Communication Technology event which will be held in October at the BMICH.

The current growth rate of the local hardware market is 10 per cent. However few years back there was a 15 per cent growth rate and it was slowed down due to current economic conditions, Rassool said.

23-Jun-2008

Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka’s premier Telecommunications service provider was honoured with three awards at the Asia Pacific GCCRM Customer Management Awards ceremony held in Shanghai, China. Following on from success at the Customer Relationship Excellence (CRE awards) in 2007, Dialog Telekom’s Service Delivery excellence secured international recognition on an Asia Pacific wide stage - winning the awards for Customer Management Strategy, Customer Management Technology and Excellence in Retail Customer Experience.

“Our focus on excellence in service delivery is inherent to our corporate vision of enriching the lives of our customers. The desire and commitment to make each and every customer interaction a pleasurable experience is strongly embedded in the work ethic of our service delivery team. I am very proud that their efforts and dedication to service have been recognized at an international level. I am confident that these awards would motivate our team to continue to innovate along multiple dimensions of service delivery with a view to delighting our customers who in turn are the nerve centre of our business” said Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Group Chief Executive of Dialog Telekom PLC.

18-Jun-2008

By Santhush Fernando

The proposed Malabe IT Park with an investment close to Rs 9 billion, would be capable of housing nearly 200 Information Technology (IT) companies.

“In the first phase, we plan to bring in about 50 Indian IT companies, while at its final stages, nearly 150 to 200 companies will be able to set up offices here.” Executive Director, Infinity Infotech Parks, Pulak Chamaria, said at a news conference held last week at the Ministry of Enterprise Development & Investment Promotion.

Malabe IT Park is a collaboration of Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), with an Indian consortium comprising Infinity Infotech Parks Ltd and PS Group Reality Ltd.

22-Jun-2008

A team led by a young Sri Lankan was placed second in Australia’s most prestigious entrepreneurship award programme for his company’s innovative software product and business model.

This is the first time a Sri Lankan-led team has won this competition, which is into its eighth year, and sponsored by Asia Pacific’s largest business school, the Melbourne Business School (of the University of Melbourne) and KPMG. The programme attracts a large number of budding businesses every year and is judged by leading industry experts and academics during a rigorous process spanning nine months. That includes the preparation of detailed business plans, investor pitches and presentations to various forums over a number of rounds, the winning team said in a press note.

22-Jun-2008

The Board of Investment (BOI) has signed an agreement with the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology to undertake research and development in nanotechnology for value addition and provide for export oriented manufacturing. On behalf of the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology, Ashroff Omar (Chief Executive Officer Brandix Lanka) and Mr. A. N. R. Amaratunga (Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology) signed the agreement.

This project is an investment of US $ 4.2 million and is sponsored by National Science Foundation, MAS Holdings, Dialog Telekom, Hayleys PLC, Brandix Lanka and Loadstar. The venture will be located at the Biyagama Export Processing Zone. In a press release, the BOI said six new agreements have been signed at a total investment of US$ 15.5 million. They include the agreement with New Medicare Hospitals to establish a hospital with state of the art medical equipment.

22-Jun-2008

Sri Lanka’s MillenniumIT said this week it has been selected by the London Metal Exchange (LME) as the solution provider for the new LME SMART (System for Matching and Registering Trades) matching system.

With the deployment of LME SMART, exchange Members will be able to save a part of their clearing fees.
Further, MillenniumIT’s rule-based matching technology used in LME SMART will make it easy for the LME to deploy new services and make rapid changes to existing service configurations at minimal cost, thereby meeting the future needs of its members, the Sri Lankan firm said.

22-Jun-2008

WSO2, the open source SOA Company has been recognised as a 2008 SD Times 100 award winner in the Middleware category.

The SD Times 100 is a listing of companies, organisations and individuals, selected by the editors of SD Times, that most broadly “set the agenda” for software development managers, developers, and the industry through leadership and innovation during the past calendar year.

The SD Times said that in today’s services-based world, “The promise of SOA is beginning to come true.” Recognising middleware companies on the SD Times 100 list for their role, the magazine said, “Our finalists provide the best tools and systems for keeping track of all those services.”

22-Jun-2008

Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka’s premier Telecommunications service provider was honoured with three awards at the Asia Pacific GCCRM Customer Management Awards ceremony held in Shanghai China. Following the success at the Customer Relationship Excellence (CRE awards) in 2007, Dialog Telekom’s Service Delivery excellence secured international recognition on an Asia Pacific wide stage - winning the awards for Customer Management Strategy, Customer Management Technology and Excellence in Retail Customer Experience.

“Our focus on excellence in service delivery is inherent to our corporate vision of enriching the lives of our customers.

21-Jun-2008
by Jayantha de Silva

Information Communication Technology (ICT) Week -2008 scheduled to be held from October 28 to 30 will host the 9th International Information Technology Conference (IITC) together with Infotel 2008 Exhibition.

The event organizer is Infotel Lanka Society Ltd.

The mega event coincides with the ICT Week, where research papers are billed to be presented by both local and foreign academia and industry experts. The conference will be followed by Workshops and Tutorials offering a window of opportunity to learn about the current developments in the IT field and in addition, provides a glimpse into the spectrum of new technologies surfacing in the IT industry.

20-Jun-2008

The National Science Foundation (NSF) celebrated its 40th Anniversary recently. During this period, the Foundation has rendered unprecedented services in the development of science and technology in Sri Lanka over the past 40 years. To mark this special occasion, a ceremony was held at the institute with the Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Tissa Vitarana attending as the Guest of Honour. The event, attended by many distinguished guests, also incorporated a felicitation ceremony for staff who had served the institution for more than 20 years. Former directors and scientists were honoured for their contributions to the NSF and to the development of science in the country.

19-Jun-2008

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka signed agreements for 6 new projects. Mr. Dhammika Perera, Chairman / Director General signed the agreements on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the investors with the BOI Certificate of Registrations.

New Medicare Hospitals (Private) Limited

The agreement signed with New Medicare Hospitals is for a project to establish a hospital.

The hospital will provide all medical facilities and is equipped with state of the art medical equipment. The hospital will include 2 Operating Theatres with the latest technology for Cardiology and an Intensive Care/High Dependency Unit. The hospital has 24 Luxury Rooms with all facilities, a Labour Room and an Emergency Treatment Unit. This hospital will be established with the objective of providing the best facilities at an affordable price.

17-Jun-2008

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) signed an agreement with HNB Assurance, for providing total data communication solution for HNB. The solution offers mission critical data services with seamless connectivity for 70 branches/locations via IP/VPN (Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network) solution.

This result in inter-branch data communications via the corporate network, helping to save costs directly.

HNB Assurance will have access to a centralised IT network at any given time, enabling effective communication between the head office and the branches.

It also enhances the capabilities of the HNB Assurance, through the online information, the customer’s financial information and the company’s investment information, etc among others services through their real time system.

17-Jun-2008
Dr. Archana Arcot

Today and without a doubt tomorrow, “Talent” has become the singular catchword that has and will continue to be reckoned as a global mantra for success among organisations strategic agenda.

Clearly the last decade has been a wake up call for CEOs, Business and HR Leaders, to shift the strategic focus towards “Talent”.

As early as 1998, McKinsey’s study on “war for talent” found that whilst this is a defining characteristic of on organisation’s competitive landscape, very few organisations are equipped to combat this and even the best organisations were highly susceptible.

16-Jun-2008

The Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) marked yet another milestone recently, by inaugurating the three year Special Honours Degree programme in Business Management in collaboration with the prestigious Sheffield Hallam University of the United Kingdom.

At a ceremonial launch which took place at the SLIIT Malabe Campus auditorium on the 13th of May 2008, SLIIT entered into an affiliation with Sheffield Hallam University, one of the United Kingdom’s most progressive and innovative universities which is known to have a flexible, business-led approach. The two institutions will now collaborate to enable Sri Lankan students to obtain a Bachelor of Business Administration Honours Degree in Business Management from Sheffield Hallam University while continuing to be based in Sri Lanka.

ZILLIONe, the leading provider of pioneering technology based business solutions in Sri Lanka, is proud to be the associate sponsor of CIMA’s flagship conference, the CIMA World conference, for the eighth consecutive year.
The CIMA World conference, which will be held at the BMICH at the end of this month, is, in CIMA tradition slated to be a sell-out and will be attended by over 800 corporate decision makers. ZILLIONe, having sponsored this flagship conference for nearly a decade, shares a strong bond with CIMA and is also a CIMA training partner.

Delegates to the conference can look forward to an offering of cutting-edge financial management solutions from Sage Accpac at the ZILLIONe stall. Product demonstrations and special offers will also be part of the attractions at the stall.

PC Partner, the retail arm of PCH Holdings held their annual Achievers Night to celebrate a highly successful sales drive that resulted in their staff achieving 75% of the total revenue. In celebration of this outstanding achievement, the management of PCP recognized their executive staff whose performance contributed significantly to the growth in sales, by rewarding them for their commitment and dedication.

Both qualitative and quantitative aspects were taken into consideration when deciding on the awards, which was presented under three main categories; Senior Management; Showroom Managers and customer friendly employees who keep their customers smiling. PCP has a total Sales Force of 150 and 21 top achievers received this honour based on their performance in 2007.

Colombo, Sri Lanka – June, 2008 – SLIIT, the largest IT degree awarding institute in Sri Lanka in the field of Information Technology, has agreed to place well trained, high caliber SLIIT students at Rezgateway office for hands on training.

Rezgateway has agreed to initially take 20 students for this on-the-job training. Through this agreement, Rezgateway will continue to take students from SLIIT in a rotation basis; to constantly have more than 20 students at Rezgateway office at all times.

Rezgateway is implementing a wholly-redesigned training process to accommodate SLIIT’s students and give them a better understanding of new cutting edge technologies.

15-Jun-2008

IBM Sri Lanka held a two day in depth training session on IBM products and services at Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo recently. This session covered the technical overview, market opportunities, solutions, and competing products. The main focus of this event was to help IBM Business Partners to deliver the right solution for the existing and growing customer base.

IBM with its complete products and services portfolio maintains the largest customer base in Sri Lanka and Maldives than any other IT company. The Company has been working for the development of the IT infrastructure of both these countries for the last five decades.

Colombo, May 12th 2008 – SunGard (http://www.sungard.com) today announced that Ambit, a new brand and a new software strategy for its solutions for retail, commercial and private banks, will become available in Sri Lanka in June.

SunGard’s Ambit brings together the technology of a range of SunGard solutions and the experience of a global team of industry experts that already serve more than 800 banks in 70 countries, including 41 of the world’s top 50 banks*. Ambit provides banking professionals with software solutions that support front-, middle- and back-office operations, as well as solutions for financial management, risk and compliance.

15-Jun-2008

A new US$ 80 million IT park for the government is being developed at Malabe by two Indian companies, Infinity Infotech Parks Ltd and PS Group Realty Ltd. The project envisages the development of 1.6 million square feet - more than twice the size of the entire World Trade Centre complex in Colombo with the first phase to be completed within four years, accounting for 500,000 square feet.

The consortium was selected by the Board of Investment (BOI) after a rigorous bidding process that also involved the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) and Ernst & Young, India. This week BOI Chairman Dhammika Perera issued the Letter of Intent (LOI) to the developers, with an agreement to be signed within 45 days of issuing the LOI. Construction is due to begin early next year.