Attract professionals by creating right climate

by Gamini Warushamana

The software industry in India was boosted with the expatriate professionals returning with vast knowledge and experience as well as strong ties with the US and European markets.

IIT graduates who left the country and returned to India greatly contributed to the rise of India's IT industry. This is no different in Sri Lanka too since all large and small IT firms successful in the export market are initiated by professionals who have worked many years in US or Europe.

CEO of the Ridgecrest Asia (Pvt) Ltd Sanath Fernando is one such Sri Lankan, who is highly successful in the US market. His clients are top Wall Street financial companies.

Fernando who declined to publish their names, said that all his US clients are larger than any big Sri Lankan company. He is also a founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Ridgecrest Financial Inc, California US.

Fernando who passed his A/L in 1986 entered the University of Moratuwa as an engineering student. The political turmoil which prevailed obstructed the university system with frequent closures and protests. He left the country in 1989 and entered the University of Pennsylvania and obtained his BSc and Masters degrees in electrical engineering and BSc degree in economics specialising in finance.

With his financial and technological knowledge he started his career in Wall Street's technology driven financial companies and finally became the Managing Director of the Schwab Soundriew Capital Markets.

"Two years ago, one of my colleagues Reilly Hayes, an American, and I found that the products that financial companies and customers need are missing. Fernando said outlining his journey to enter into the software business.

There were no companies coming up with solutions that customers really wanted. Businesses such as Hedge Funds use a vast amount of data needed tools to analyse data, build models and test their models. They needed more sophisticated solutions. We build frameworks that can be used for Hedge Funds or any fund or company in quantitative trading and money management.

Then we decided to set up Ridgecrest Financial Inc., based in California to provide software solutions for financial companies.

Ridgecrest Asia, started in September 2005 is a fully owned subsidiary of Ridgecrest Inc., Fernando said.

He said that Ridgecrest is not an outsourcing company and is a product specialist that provides very sophisticated customised financialsolutions. Instead of producing what the client says we work with our clients and with our experience and knowledge we suggest to them the solution they require.

Within one and a half years, Ridgecrest Asia has grown five-fold. It was started with four professionals and today it has 21 and the number will increase to 40 by the end of this year.

Ridgecrest is expanding gradually and Fernando said the slow growth is the culture here that preserves the quality of the work done by the company. There are plenty of opportunities in the financial market sector and it is a fast growing and changing sector.

Ridgecrest looks for technical skills as well as the English speaking and presentation skills of the graduates.

According to Fernando, technically skilled people can be found fairly easily. But the issue is speaking and presentation skills in English, which he refers as the finishing of the graduates. Ridgecrest invests on developing these skills of its staff.

"As Ridgecrest's customer base grows - now we want to support our products during the working hours of our clients in the US from 6 pm - 2.30 in the morning Sri Lanka time," he said.

The support office will be started shortly and Fernando is looking for skilled people such as Software engineers, quality assurance, technical writing and people with strong mathematics, quantitative and statistical skills.

Ridgecrest uses Java, .net and opensource technologies. We strongly use and contribute to the opensource technology and we have open source components. Sri Lanka is a very good place for opensource software. Sri Lanka has a very good track record in the forefront of the opensource movement, he said.

His biggest motivation to start the business in Sri Lanka was his desire to return to Sri Lanka. However, he also wanted to contribute to the growth of the IT industry in Sri Lanka.

In India the industry is very competitive and the attrition rate is very high. This is a very good place to set up a software business, he said.

According to Fernando, the biggest problem for the industry in Sri Lanka is the lack of a talent pool. The number of graduates who pass out from universities is lower than the demand.

As the industry is rapidly growing worldwide, to sustain the industry we should increase the talent pool and universities should produce more IT graduates. Nobody will come here to invest if he has to wait six months to hire people.

For new software companies to exploit the export market is difficult if they do not have good connection with the market. If the multinationals are here it is not a problem but, without a strong link with the market it is difficult, Fernando said. This is the greatest advantage of expatriate professionals. You have to convince your client to buy your product and you should have a good track record.

However, to start a business tremendous opportunities are available in the country as well. The Software Exporters Association started matchmaking events that enable two ends to meet and this is a great opportunity for new software companies that do not have ties with the market, he said.

He said that there are so many Sri Lankan professionals in the US, Europe and Australia who would come back and contribute to the growth of the Software industry in Sri Lanka. A large number of Sri Lankan professionals left the country in mid 1980s.

However, for them to come back good opportunities should be created in the country. Firstly, this should be a safe place. Secondly, infrastructure and other facilities should grow here for them to give up their present lifestyle in those countries. In brief, there should be peace in the country and the economy should grow to attract that knowledge capital.

Other issues that are hurdles to the software industry are extremely high electricity and bandwidth costs. Telephone infrastructure is good but bandwidth and electricity costs reduce our competitiveness, Fernando said.

The government has to do much to boost the software industry. New proposals such as starting IT parks are very important. This will bring down the costs and time taken to start new companies.

[email protected]