Technology
hSenid and IFS to spur Lanka’s software industry
By Gamini Warushamana
[email protected]
Sri Lanka’s software company, hSenid last week plugged its
internationally recognised HR solution to the world famous ERP solution
of the Irish software giant IFS.
The two companies became partners to exploit the fast growing
international markets by sharing their domain expertise and promised to
bring a global perspective to Sri Lanka’s software industry with a
comprehensive integrated solution.
hSenid’s HR solution can be plugged easily to the component based
architecture of the IFS’s ERP. Both companies have a large number of
customers locally and internationally.
However, they said that the new partnership is not to share existing
customers and targets at expanding new territories. Vice President, IFS
South Asia, Jayantha de Silva said that the new partnership will help
both companies to expand globally.
“We are proud of the hSenid partnership. IFS has partnerships in 54
countries and we work and live with partners. In today’s international
context, synergy is a must in software or other businesses. hSenid is
truly a Sri Lankan company that has gone international and is successful
in HR and telecommunication solutions.
De Silva said that today HR is recognised as the most important part
of any business organisation.
However, most of the companies did not see this in the past. hSenid
had seen the value of HR solutions 11 years ago and they are experts in
that domain. Bringing an international company to Sri Lanka is easy. But
for a Sri Lanka’s company it is very difficult to be a global company.
However, hSenid has done it, he said. hSenid CEO Dinesh Saparamadu
said that the new partnership is an important milestone for hSenid. Our
customers, the Sri Lankan software industry and finally the country will
benefit from this partnership.
Now our customers can get a total solution, he said. hSenid started
with three people and grew rapidly during the past 11 years. We went
international and today we have offices in the United States, India,
Singapore and R&D centres in Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
Officers of the Colombo Crime Division, with the assistance of
representatives of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) conducted raids
against distributors of illegal business software in Colombo marking the
beginning of greater focus and crackdown on business software piracy
distribution and business software under-licensing in Sri Lanka.
Three outlets in a leading supermarket were raided and 412 illegal
software CDs were seized by the police during the raid.
These targets are primarily dealing in illegal computer software
containing trademarks and copyright owned by business software companies
such as Adobe, Autodesk, Corel, Microsoft, Symantec and McAfee, all
members of the BSA.
Most of the suspected pirated software found involved business
software commonly used for photo editing, animation rendering, web and
computer-aided designing, anti-virus protection and productivity suites
(word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, personal time and
information management tools).
The search warrants were issued by Additional Magistrate of Mount
Lavinia Ms. Darshika Wimalasiri, while the raids were conducted by ASP
Nuwan Vedasinghe and SI Shantha Vithana under the supervision of the
Director of the Colombo Crime Division SSP Anura Senanayake.
According to SSP Anura Senanayake, Director, Colombo Crime Division
who was on-site during the simultaneous raids, said he strongly
encourages all computer dealers and software resellers everywhere to
ensure that they only sell legal and original software to avoid facing
the full consequences of the law.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and will be conducting
continued enforcement against software pirates until piracy is wiped
out.
Innocent consumers and traders simply need to be protected against
this criminal trade which is costing millions in losses to the industry,
as well as the government in the form of taxes.
We recommend and remind all businesses to respect the law of the
country by purchasing and using original software and avoiding dealing
with vendors who sell pirated or unlicensed software. Business owners
and senior management should take a proactive role in auditing their
existing computers to ensure the software is fully licensed with the
necessary documentation,” he said.
The additional Magistrate of Mount Lavinia, Ms. Darshika Wimalasiri
fined the offenders Rs. 450,000 and sentenced them to six months’
imprisonment suspended for 5 years after they pleaded guilty to
committing offences under the Intellectual Property Act No. 36 of 2003.
The speed in which the offenders were brought to justice signifies
police and court commitment to protect intellectual property in the
country.
The sentence imposed also sends a strong signal to not only dealers
who sell illegal software but also to companies using unlicensed
software.
Criminals behind counterfeit syndicates are considered to be
organised, resourceful and willing to spend large amounts of money to
develop and ship pirated goods to markets all over the world.
Sri Lanka is no longer a stranger to the issue of piracy, being
ranked as the country with the sixth highest piracy rate in the world at
90 per cent, and the second-highest in the Asia-Pacific region -
bringing notoriety and unwanted global attention to the island.
In a global software piracy study conducted independently for the BSA
by IDC, the information technology (IT) industry’s leading global market
research and forecasting firm, the high software piracy rate has
resulted in US$86 million in retail revenue losses to the local Sri
Lankan software economy.
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