Passion for computer led to software company

by Gamini Warushamana

The passion of a group of school children for computer created a fast expanding global software company. CEO of Microimage (Pvt) Ltd, Harsha Purasinghe, the winner of the most outstanding entrepreneur award at the ICTA IT/BPO awards ceremony 2007, said that the passion for the computer and fast changing technology led him to commence this business.

In 1993, a group of Advanced Level students of Ananda College, Colombo, formed a group to share computer knowledge, diskettes and other IT resources. After leaving school they formed a Microimage Computer Club to continue their hobby, worked together and later developed Sinhala fonts and drivers for Windows 3.1.

At the Infotel 2004 exhibition they showcased their Sinhala applications for Windows 3.1 and there was a huge demand for the product from individuals, private sector and government institutions.

We only had the pocket money we got from our parents but earned a lot of money from this Sinhala computer applications and decided to establish a commercial entity and in 1995 incorporated Microimage, Purasinghe said.

Today, after 12 years, Microimage is well established in Sri Lanka and is rapidly expanding in regional markets. Today we have penetrated markets in India, Maldives and Singapore and are planning to go to the United States and European markets. We have our office in Singapore and is setting up another in France, Purasinghe said.

Microimage is a product development company and its expertise are in HR management, radio automation solution for broadcasting industry and mobile applications.

HCM 4 is the HR management solution of Microimage. It is a component based advanced e-human resource management solution. Ontime/eOntime are time management solutions for enterprises. mStudio is a complete automation solution for the broadcasting industry. Today most of the FM channels in the country function on this software.

Digital divide

Microimage has the credit for introducing the world's first most complete messaging products for mobiles that uses local languages. The product "mobile messaging solution for emerging markets" sends SMS in local languages.

The product today supports Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Malayalam and Thaana. It also provides mobile browsing solutions in local languages. It has also developed solutions for content browsing such as reading local language newspapers or access any localised content on the mobile phone.

Purasinghe said that these products have a huge local and world market because there is a huge digital divide in the world due to the language barrier.

However, reaching the market has become a challenge because it needs strong business partners in the markets.

Microimage together with Dialog Telekom and the University of Moratuwa have developed Disaster Early Warning Application (DEWA) for mobile phones.

In the future your mobile phone will warn you in advance of any natural or man-made disaster and the product will be deployed by the Disaster Management Centre. Purasinghe said that the three institutions have a joint patent for the product. Microimage also has a patent for its Mobile messaging solution for emerging markets.

Microimage has secured many reputed clients in Sri Lanka and the region. Dialog Telekom, HSBC - Sri Lanka, DFCC Bank, MAS Holdings, MBC Radio Networks, Lanka Bell, World Vision, Expo Lanka, ABC Radio Network and Sri Lankan Government are its local clients. Airtel in India, Robinsons Department Store in Singapore, Dhivehi Rajjayage Gulhun and Dhiraagu Telecom in Maldives are some of the foreign clients.

Purasinghe said that his company's growth so far is organic. We did all this without any external capital. Now we are planning to get venture capital and are providing our mobile and media products to a new company. In this industry venture capital is important because they come not only with the capital, they also bring businesses as well, he said.

Microimage is an innovative software research and development company. Its slogan is "Innovation is our passion". The company has proven its innovative capabilities within its 12-year history by winning 14 national and international excellence awards.

Microimage won the British Computer Society (BCS) best quality software award in 1998, BCS best quality software special gold award in 2003 and gold award and silver awards in 2004.

Talented people

It also won the BCS best quality software gold award, BCS's SLT special gold award and BCS gold award for overall best product in 2005.

In 2006 it won the gold award for R&D and gold award for overall best product from BCS. In the same year it won the National Science Foundation innovation award and reputed GSMA Asia mobile innovation award and GSMA world award commended Microimage in 2007.

Purasinghe said that Sri Lanka has talented people that the industry needs and there is a huge potential for the country.

However, the industry should find a niche in this vast industry and focus its whole effort to develop that segment.

However, professionals who are willing to come into the industry should have a passion for technology. This is not an eight-hour job but an innovative career. That culture should be developed together with IT education, if we are to carve a niche in the global IT market.

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