Lanka must go for concept innovation in software product industry

by Gamini Warushamana

Sri Lanka should take the cue from Ireland to exploit the world's software market, said General Manager Valista, Anura De Alwis. Valista, an Irish software company which specialises in digital commerce solutions has its largest engineering arm based in Sri Lanka.

After the revolutionary liberalisation process by introducing low tax and other incentives Ireland's destiny changed. Some of the world's biggest companies shifted to Ireland exploiting its skills and the country's cost advantages. Off shoring and outsourcing businesses flowed in and this was a boost to the industrial and service sectors in Ireland.

Alwis said that in the world's software industry, India, China and the Philippines are more aggressive in the labour market and therefore it was very difficult for Sri Lanka to compete.

He proposed two strategies for product development and human resource development and said we should go for a specialised market and develop human resources in specialised areas. Firstly, we should look at some concept innovations in Colombo and market those products.

Secondly, we should build the capacity of 2,000-5,000 graduates who could specialise in some industry and tell the world that we have the best people in that industry. Build capacity on specific niche demanding markets will enable us to capitalise more than merely building IT capacity. This is a two-way process. One is national level and industry awareness and the other the paradigm shift of universities to areas such as e-commerce and wireless technology. This idea has already been identified by the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) to develop specialised graduates in the Telco industry.

Alwis said that at present there is a positive trend and added that during the past two to three years our universities have started to evolve to meet the needs of the industry. The Moratuwa university started this and advocated that the industry adapts their curricula to ensure a job market for graduates. Alwis, is now in the IT faculty-industry consultative committee of the University of Moratuwa.

Valista is a model for this kind of business. Valista, a product development and managed services company is different from software service companies or other outsourcing businesses.

The company specialises in digital commerce solutions and has a niche market. Valista provides multi-channel commerce solutions for merchandising, payments and settlement. Its solutions are used by businesses such as mobile, broadband and cable operators, ISPs, aggregators, media and entertainment companies.

To develop the software product industry we should identify the difference between Service and Product cultures, change our mindset and target concepts or unique ideas and products, Alwis said.

This is a challenge in the sub continent. Unlike a service company we don't need thousands of software engineers. Relatively we need a small engineering staff with an excellent domain knowledge. Generally the domain knowledge of Valista's architects is very high. It comes from product culture as well as from the Irish culture. We expect everyone to have solid technical experience and to become professionals with a very high domain and technical knowledge.

In the Sri Lankan culture, our developers want fast growth. The best technical people end up as managers and this is a challenge the software product industry has faced in Sri Lanka.

Although thousands of IT graduates pass out from the universities annually it is not an easy task to find the skills our product industry needs. Therefore in capacity building, the number of graduates as well as the right skills and quality of people should be considered.

However, Valista's strong presence in Sri Lanka proves that it has the right talent pool that caters to the needs of the company. Valista opened its Colombo base in 2005 and within two years the company shifted the majority of its customisation services to Colombo.

In addition the company is increasing its product development operations in Colombo as well. Valista's solutions have been proven in real-world implementations globally and it has secured some of the big global brands as customers including AOL, Cricket Communications, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, France Telecom's w-HA, Orange, GTECH, 3 (eight countries), mBlox and Hong Kong CSL. The company is now attracting more and more US clients.

Our products are very powerful and sophisticated. For instance France Telecom processes up to one million transactions per day at peak times through our digital commerce solutions.

Today Valista processes over 30 million transactions through its Valista Plus suite of solutions worldwide.

The founder, CEO and Executive Chairman of Valista Raomal Perera, a Sri Lankan now resident in Ireland, has over 25 years' experience in the technology industry having worked in both small and large enterprises.

He provides the strategic vision for Valista's future growth. He has the Irish Software Association Outstanding Software Achievement Award to his credit and was chosen as one of the 40 entrepreneurs worldwide to join the prestigious World Economic Forum.

Valista has won several prestigious awards such as International Business Award (The Stevies) for most innovative company, the Red Herring Top 100 Award and the GSM Association Award for best wireless application developer. Valista, headquartered in Ireland has offices in UK, France, Singapore, Japan and USA.