Technology

Ridgecrest Asia to bring solutions to Colombo stock market

by Gamini Warushamana

Ridgecrest Asia (Pvt) Ltd is now ready to provide one of its highly successful and proven products in the Colombo stock market, CEO of the Ridgecrest Sanath Fernando said. Fernando is also a founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Ridgecrest Financial Inc, California US.

Ridgecrest, the Sri Lankan software company which specialises in quantitative finance and money markets provides its solutions to large financial companies in the US. Many reputed Wall Street financial companies are in the Ridgecrest's customer list.

Earlier we didn't consider providing our solutions to the local market, because compared to our business in the US, this is a very small market. However, as we deal with the Colombo stock market, I did see that the technology we use here is very primitive.

As a result, investors face many problems such as manipulation of the market and confidentiality of the investment decisions is not secure. On the other hand, investors here do not have complete information about their investment portfolio because they deal with several brokers; they have shares of the same company purchased from different brokers.

New software solution

To address these issues we offer Qx Trader, a new software solution to the Sri Lankan stock market. The solution will be used by investors and stock brokers. Qx Trader is a Ridgecrest's proven solution in the US that has been customised to satisfy local needs.

Fernando explained how the new solution addresses the present issues in the stock market trading. Primarily this solution enables an investor to view his entire investment portfolio without any request from brokers. The solution provides all details of the stocks he or she has irrespective of the broker.

Today, when an investor wants to sell some of his shares, he has to inform the stock broker. However, if it is a large amount of shares this investment decision becomes a public secret in the investment community and as the result market manipulation starts exerting pressure on the stock prices.

The Qx Trader facilitates investors to avoid this situation. The system provides all up-to-date information such as details of the companies, market trends and historical movements of stock prices.

Easy communication

At the same time the Qx Trader will make the Broker's life easy as everything is handled by the system and makes communication easy. This enables the brokers to concentrate on more value addition. The intelligence of the Qx Trader gives trade options to investors and brokers. This solution provides the rule based trading option in our stock market, he said.

The technology we use here is light years ahead compared to what is used today in the Colombo stock market. This is like a CSR to Ridgecrest than a business, Fernando said.

Fernando said that Ridgecrest's growth is revolutionary and not evolutionary. The company that trusted the brain power of the Sri Lankan professionals comes with innovative solutions. Linklk is a revolutionary web solution that is now under beta testing. Linklk will take Sri Lanka to the electronic world or e-society, he said.

The solution will empower the consumers and make consumer driven markets in the country. The Linklk website will link all information, markets, companies, banks, travel and entertainment together.

Endless facilities

This web service will provide endless facilities to consumers as well as companies, Fernando said. For instance, all banks and financial institutions will be linked with Linklk. A person, who has five accounts in five different commercial banks, can get financial details instantly of all his accounts without searching individual accounts.

Fernando explained how this solution empowers consumers. Linklk facilitates electronic payments of bills. If you get your mobile phone from operator X, you can pay your bill to X through Linklk.

At the same time you can compare your bill if you had obtained your mobile service from operator Y, for the same calls you had taken from operator X. Hence the consumer can select the most cost effective product or service.

This is a very complex system but available in developed countries. In the US the consumer has that power through similar systems. The system will enable e-ticketing, hotel booking and numerous other business opportunities.

Year 2007, was a good year for the Sri Lankan software industry and Fernando said that Ridgecrest performed well during the year and the company is today on a steady growth path.

To cater to the growing demand Ridgecrest has expanded its R&D capacity by recruiting staff and has moved to a new state-of-the-art office facility and has fulfilled US standards, he said.

Fernando said that the software industry lobbies have new plans for 2008 to boost the industry and overcome prevailing issues. The main concern is merging five industry associations into one and appointing a CEO and permanent staff to run the Association as a main facilitator to the industry.

The shortage of professionals is a serious obstacle to the growth of the industry and Ridgecrest plans to join universities to address the issue by providing internships and scholarships for graduates, Fernando said.

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Panora growing from good to great in 2007

Panora Corporation, a subsidiary of PCH Holdings Ltd. bid adieu to the year 2007 with much enthuse and fanfare due to the many successes and landmarks it affixed into the local ICT sector, the value addition it brought into the local economy together with the recognition the company brought upon itself on an international platform.

The Company kick-started the 2007/08 financial year with the opening of its state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Colombo. Established with a phased out investment of Rs. 1.2 billion, the facility is expected to boost the production of Panora branded computers within the next few years, turning out approximately 12,000 units of Panora PCs per month.

With the initial certification of ISO 9001:2000, Panora has established and Applying Quality Management Systems for Panora branded Personal computers, Panora UPSs, Laptops and Servers.

The Microsoft OEM Partner status that is offered only to Panora Corporation in Sri Lanka, and Premium Intel Partner status, has trail-blazed this brand into market leadership during the course of the year.

It has captured more than 45% of the PC market share in the local market due to its reliability, cost efficiency, enhanced channel management capabilities and value added pre-post customer care, dished out from its 40 channel partners located across the island.

As a result of the phenomenal success achieved in the local market, Panora Corporation extended its operation to Taiwan under the visionary leadership of its Chairman SHM Rishan, making its mark in the local IT industry as the first Sri Lankan IT manufacturing company to spread its wings beyond the island.

The objectives of this expansion according to Rishan is to reach out to international markets and capitalise on the ever increasing and diversifying demand for IT products and services. With this bold venture buying, selling, re-treading, importing and exporting of IT related products would take place at Panora Taiwan.

Commenting on the operation Rishan said, "Any business related to IT sector, whether it is software or hardware has become a very competitive trade, locally and globally.

To support our bottom-line, to enhance business scalability, to allow the free flow of industry related business practices and to bring in much needed foreign exchange to Sri Lanka, we as local entrepreneurs should think beyond our horizons.

Panora Taiwan was set up with these objectives in mind." Panora moved from being good to excellent in 2007 receiving ISO 14001: 2004 for their manufacturing plant in Colombo, making it the first Sri Lankan computer brand to acquire such an accomplishment.

Because of this improvement, customers will get assistance to dispose the product and its parts, thus reducing e-waste. It will also help save costs in the long run while minimising PC related disasters.

Panora's phenomenal success continued to grow with Springboard Research - Singapore identifying Panora computers and Panora Servers as one of the most preferred and leading brands in the IT computer market in Sri Lanka.

In a category that grew by 12% during the first half of the year, Panora managed to secure a high market share among the customers.

JKCS sponsors IATA Summit in Amsterdam

Amsterdam - Noordwijk aan Zee, - JKCS was one of the main sponsors of the prestigious IATA IT Summit 2007, which was held in Amsterdam recently.

The International Air Transport Association, popularly known as IATA, hosted its annual IT summit in the Netherlands for the third consecutive year and the event was well attended by top officials of airlines around the world.

The JKCS sponsorship increases the company's brand awareness globally and further expands its network in the fast-moving aviation business.

John Keells Computer Services (JKCS) sponsored this year's event along with other mainstream aviation IT providers such as Amadeus, Oracle, SAP, SITA and Lufthansa Systems.

Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin served as the venue for the summit - a 120 year old 5-star luxury hotel on the Noordwijk coast.

The Head of IT of Qatar Airways, Sourav Sinha was invited by JKCS to be a guest speaker at the event. His topic was "Passenger service systems: commodity or competitive advantage?" Qatar Airways, ranked among the world's Top 10 by "Skytrax", is a key JKCS customer.

Some of the other speakers at the event were Toru Sato - Senior Vice President of All Nippon Airways (ANA), Jack Wang - Managing Director Technology of Continental Airlines and Roy Braganza - Manager Remote Check-In, American Airlines.

The dynamic pace of today's aviation business is putting greater pressure on airlines to continuously respond to new challenges such as growth in passenger traffic, evermore stringent security procedures and further budget pressure. All these require an increase in operational efficiencies aimed to benefit customers and cut costs. This is where IT emerges as an essential ingredient of the formula for success.

With this in mind, IATA provided airlines and IT partners with the opportunity to address and examine together important IT investment, costs and infrastructure-related issues within the context of the unique two-day industry meeting. The summit focused on the climate of change, in which tough competition co-exists with increased willingness to cooperate and learn from each other.

As an IATA Strategic Partner, JKCS is continually helping airlines achieve their strategic business objectives through cutting-edge IT systems.

The company has engineered a host of mission-critical and passenger facing systems such as Internet booking engines, integrated reservation solutions, self-service check-in systems, loyalty programs and dynamic holiday packaging systems.

Schols for BPO training from ICTA

Many of the world's largest companies are now doing Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO), where entire parts of their business are moved to an offshore location.

Accountancy and legal work are the two most commonly outsourced areas. In India, the BPO industry is well known. It has been partly responsible for India's high economic growth and the benefits BPO employees receive are similar to the benefits received by employees in the IT industry.

According to the NASSCOM 2007 statistics, the BPO Industry in India has provided direct employment to around 553,000 individuals.

Sri Lanka's BPO industry has gained impetus, with a number of benefits as well as new entrants during the past year. ICTA is offering scholarships for 300 students in this regard.

The scholarships entail development of basic skills needed for entry into this growing industry.

Commenting on the Sri Lankan BPO industry, Programme Manager ICTA Fayaz Hudah, said, "In Sri Lanka, the BPO industry is gaining momentum. Most of India's biggest BPO companies operate in Sri Lanka and some of Sri Lanka's largest companies have also entered the BPO arena.

One thing they all have in common is that they are seeking Sri Lankans who have the right skills to work with Global MNCs and niche market operations.

Sri Lanka has a highly educated workforce that can be fed into this growing industry which can be developed into a labour force capable of competing on a level playing field with markets overseas.

They require certain skills upgrades and these scholarships are awarded to encourage this ultimate objective".

The grants are funded under ICTA's ICT Capacity Building Program (ICBP). It is a US$5.2 million program meant to develop the ICT industry in Sri Lanka.