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| Sunday, 8 June 2003 |
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Set for an 'epic' journey by Pelham Juriansz EPIC (Electronic Payments and Internet Commerce) was formed in 1998 to provide Sri Lanka with the latest in state-of-the-art technology and innovations, Chairman EPIC Nayana D.P. Dehigama said. He started the company as an electronic payment automation company. It has as its customers, some of the leading banks in the island with about 4000 credit card terminals. Bank of Ceylon, Commercial Bank, Hatton National Bank, HSBC, People's Bank, Sampath Bank, Seylan Bank and Standard Chartered Bank are EPIC customers. "We thought of diversifying our business last year. This year, before our fifth anniversary, we managed to secure two large non-financial projects. One is the Immigration and Emigration Department project, a collaboration with technological partners from Hungary, Malaysia and Indonesia. "The second is the Sri Lanka Telecom project. We want to secure more businesses in the government sector and in this regard, we have teamed up with a large Malaysian Company called HeiTech Padu Berhad. It is the largest IT company in Malaysia and also the second largest wide area network owner. "Compared to Sri Lanka, Malaysia is far ahead in IT. We want to bring some of its experts because infrastructure-wise, it has much to offer us, at a competitive price. They have already expressed willingness to come to Sri Lanka with large scale investments and infrastructure development projects. Ours is an ISO 9001:2000 certified company. Twenty five out of our 30 staff members are technically qualified and contribute directly to our business process." EPIC holds a 60 per cent market share in Sri Lanka for EDC/POS terminals. It works with two companies - Ingenico, France and Verifone Inc, USA, the world leader and the second in the world respectively in this sector. The company has also produced its own solutions in the Internet Payment Gateway. It imports the hardware and develops the application locally. "We have the development capability to provide 100 per cent of the needs of the local customer. We are the only local company developing terminal software from scratch. That is why we are able to offer 24-hour services to our customers. We have a branch office in Kandy too," Dehigama said. "Our services are efficient where terminals are concerned, so much so that if there is a problem, anywhere in the island, within half an hour we respond and within eight hours, we rectify the problem. If we cannot rectify the problem, we replace it. We have also installed a fully automated fault recording system". The name EPIC signifies Efficiency, Productivity, Integrity and Cooperation. Epic Lanka Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, Epic World Trade Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, Secure Payments Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, and eSecure Lanka(Pvt) Ltd come under the group. He said: "I want to give credence to the Lankan market and help the locals, because for too long, we have been dictated to by foreigners. I want to create an environment where the customer can dictate terms to the supplier. I actually want to give independence to the Lankan entrepreneur and give a hard time to those from other countries. "We should be able to give the local customer a product at a low price. Sometimes foreigners charge as much as 10 times for a product. We have to safeguard our people and our nation, but at the same time, we can use the expertise of Malaysians and Singaporeans. I want to bring in expertise that would help Sri Lankans. For example, we should not use software that is brought from Europe or America. We should develop our own." EPIC introduced the first Smart Card-based financial tool in Sri Lanka for People's Bank. "We were actually specialising in smart cards, but promoting them is not as easy as we thought as they are rather costly. Investing in smart cards is not beneficial for us, so we decided to concentrate on card-based solutions like loyalty cards, where we also specialised. "We want to be the best company in the region that enlightens its customers by delivering total quality and defect-free electronic and commerce products and solutions," he said. Airport and Aviation Sri Lanka, Department of Immigration and Emigration, Sri Lanka Telecom, Golden Key Credit Card Ltd and the Ministry of Interior are also EPIC customers. The company's principals are CD Holdings Sdn Bhd and Heitech Padu Berhad of Malaysia; Datastrip; Gemplus and Ingenico of France; Jura JSP of Hungary; MagTEK and Verifone Inc of USA; Perum Peruri of Indonesia and Posiflex of Taiwan. |
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