Software product companies the need of the hour - OpenArc
Chairman/CEO
by Gamini Warushamana
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Daya Hettiarachchi
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OpenArc, one of the first software companies in Sri Lanka celebrated
its 15th anniversary last week. OpenArc specialises in banking and
financial service solutions.
All leading commercial banks and stock broker companies in Sri Lanka
use OpenArc solutions and the company claims that it has the largest
share in this market.
The anniversary celebrations themed "One world with ICT" was held in
Colombo together with CEOs of all OpenArc's customer companies. OpenArc
released three new products 'OpenArc Skybank' a banking solution, 'OpenArc
eRIMS', the ERP solution and OpenArc' eSecretary, a share management
solution on the occasion.
Chairman and CEO of OpenArc Daya Hettiarachchi said that 15 years ago
OpenArc saw the need for open technology, open architecture and open
platform for the software industry and today it has become a reality.
The open technology must come to the market and the technology has
matured today. OpenArc uses open technology because we want to
facilitate our customers to access our solutions and we do not want
closed systems that restrict access, he said.
Following are excerpts from his speech.
During the past 15 years many software companies came and went.
However, OpenArc stood out supporting our clientele. We went through all
hard times, adverse market and country situations and stood firm with
determination together with the slogan "local first global second". We
served our local companies I called them our partners, he said.
Emerging opportunities
With my experience as IT manager of Merchant Bank I was determined to
start my own software company.
I did see emerging opportunities and the solutions our banking and
financial sector demand. The beginning of OpenArc was very humble.
We started with Rs. 50,000 capital from each director and ten
developers. From the beginning, capital was the major issue. Later Vanik
Incorporation and the Merchant Bank helped us with equity.
All our products were very successful and they led OpenArc to
success. We launched our first stock broker software solution in 1994
and today 25 companies use it and we are the leader in the market. In
1996 we developed our banking solution for Ceylon Merchant Bank and for
more than a decade we maintain this product and most of the leading
banks use our solutions.
OpenArc, a software product company has made a large contribution to
develop the software brand in Sri Lanka. We have more than 30 successful
products and a good asset base. Hettiarachchi said that all product
based software companies have this advantage of building an asset base.
Product based software companies are vital to develop the Sri Lankan
software industry, he said. We have been able to set Sri Lankan
standards in the software industry, specially in the financial and
banking sector. We have set standards in reporting to the Central Bank
and Exchange Controller.
Today OpenArc is a full-fledged company and there are four companies
in the OpenArc group. OpenArc uses ISO 9001:2000 quality management
systems as a guideline to improve our products and services.
Different products
We have been pioneering in integration of different paths and
different approaches and providing one solution.
Today our clients have different products running on different
platforms. This model is difficult to manage.
Our vision is to provide a total solution for our clients.
We have a flat organisation structure. Our HR management policy is
unique.
We have our own school of computer studies that produce the
professionals we need and our students get the opportunity of achieving
training and experience. As a corporate policy we encourage our
engineers to go for higher studies, Hettiarachchi said.
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