Technology

JKCs feels dearth of software personnel

by Gamini WARUSHAMANA

Marketing Sri Lanka globally as a software development centre is vital at this juncture of the Sri Lankan software industry, said the CEO of John Keells Computer Service (JKCS) Dhananjaya Chandrasekera.

To position Sri Lankan software industry in the global market a combined effort of all stakeholders of the industry is essential he said. Today the marketing efforts of the industry is dispersed and individual companies who are highly specialised in certain domains carry out isolated marketing campaigns.

They are successful in their markets. For instance JKCS is specialised in aviation industry solutions and we have clients in the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia. Some Sri Lankan companies are highly successful in the ERP, HR and mobile communication domains. But still we have failed in creating the Sri Lankan brand as India has done, he said.

Chandrasekera said that both ends of the industry ie the markets as well as the production base should be developed simultaneously. Focusing on one end will be a disaster, he said.

JKCS was incorporated in 1998 as a fully owned subsidiary of John Keells Holdings, the premier bluechip company in Sri Lanka. It was the time that Indian software industry also picked up. Though a subsidiary of a blue chip company with a strong financial support of the parent company JKCS had a humble beginning. It started with 20 people and focused on international markets. We undertook overseas projects including aviation industry and started offshore development centres in Sri Lanka to our customers which have dedicated teams of professionals. Later with our success and domain expertise we presented specialised software products for the aviation industry.

Today JKCS is one of the few IT companies in Sri Lanka that provide a range of IT services including projects, offshore development centres and software products. This is a special advantage we have in this business, Chandrasekera said. he said that JKCS is a technologically neutral software development company which means the software solution of the company are not restricted to one or two specific technologies. Our solutions work on any technology including open source technology.

Therefore the customer has a wide range of choices in the selection of the technology.

When asked why the JKCS has not fully exploited the potential the country has in this knowledge business even though it has a strong backing of a bluechip company, Chandrasekera said that it is a matter of the overall industry. There is no well focused country effort to develop the industry. The secret of the success of the Indian software industry is this well focused country effort they had to develop the industry. However, Chandrasekera is optimistic of the future and expects that the new entity, Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLSSCOM) will fill this vacuum.

A single company cannot face the issues in the international arena.

The software industry is a supply constrained industry. In the production front we have a severe HR issue. This will be one of the reasons for Sri Lankan software companies to focus and specialise on a certain domain. At this moment too JKCS has some vacancies to fill but we cannot find qualified people. We cannot plan big projects which need a large number of software engineers.

Chandrasekera said that the competition for JKCS, mainly in the aviation industry solutions, is from international software companies in US, EU and India. However, with over 10 years experience and knowledge JKCS is successful in the business and provides solutions for the world' biggest airlines. These systems cover several aviation domains such as commercial (sales and distribution, revenue management), flight operations, ground handling, crew management, engineering and safety.

Today most of the airlines use software solutions with very old technologies. Our new internet based solutions are very cost efficient and valuable at this turbulent time in the industry, Chandrasekera said.He said that the global economic crisis will affect the software industry as well. However, JKCS is planning to deploy excess resources at this lean time to develop some new products that were on the cards for some time but was lagging behind due to lack of skilled people.

JKCS has initiatives to help solve HR issues in the software industry. We have a scholarship program for which we select students based on the GCE A/L examination results and sponsor them to follow IT degrees. They become employees of the JKCS from the beginning, Chandrasekera said.

Chandrasekera who did his IT studies at NIBM and Informatics started his career as a software engineer in 1985. He joined JKH in 1991 and was among the 20 professionals who started JKCS. Today he holds the highest position at the JKCS.

PC House appointed G & D dealer

Giesecke & Devrient of Germany appoints PC House as its distributor :

Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, of Germany has appointed PC House as its distributor to provide innovative bank automation products and solutions to Sri Lankan banks.

PC House will focus on marketing highly accurate and reliable small desk top bank note processors to large high speed bank note processors that meet Central Bank sorting criteria. PC House will expand its product portfolio to include other G & D solutions, such as Cash Management software.

The founder Chairman of PC House S. H. M. Rishan and its group PCH Holdings said that, "Giesecke & Devrient is a company which can trace its history back to 1852, when the company was founded as a specialist printer for currency and securities. After a century and half years, G & D has developed into an intern ational group of companies, operating worldwide.

The group's core business strategy is to develop and implement technology to make cash and cashless payment transactions secure and efficient and it prompted us to join with them".

G & D, the international market leaders in automated banknote sorting machines sets new standards for banknote processing. They are multifunctional desktop machines and floor standing versions, which inspect and sort banknotes by authenticity, denomination, issue, orientation, and different fitness criteria at speeds of over 100,000 notes per hour.

E-WIS excels again

Acquiring the Premier Business Partner of the year 2007/2008 - PSG (Personal Systems Group) award for the fourth consecutive year, E-WIS proved its service excellence again, at HP (Hewlett Packard) Business Partner Forum 2008. This was awarded in recognition of the outstanding performance of E-WIS by achieving year-on-year revenue growth of over 30% towards HP PSG, significant contribution to HP PSG business with over 40% revenue, penetration to key customer accounts and its exceptional performance in the public sector.

The award was given during the Business Partner forum at 'HP Drums Up 2008' held at Amaya Hills, Kandy, recently. The event took place under the patronage of Tian-Chong Ng - Vice President of Personal Systems Group - South Asia and Taiwan, Ms. Nargaret Ong - Vice President South East Asia Imaging and Printing, Steven Kim - General Manager Technology Solutions Group Asia Emerging Countries and officials from HP Sri Lanka. E-WIS also acquired The Best Emerging Partner of the year 2007/2008 - TSG (Technology Systems Group) award.

Airtel and RIM launch the BlackBerry solution

Bharti Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd., a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, one of the leading integrated telecommunications service providers in Asia, and Research In Motion (RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, launched the BlackBerry solution for enterprise and individual customers with the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Curve smartphones.

The BlackBerry solution brings together smartphones, software and services to provide customers with easy wireless access to email, phone, calendar, web and multimedia applications, as well as thousands of other mobile business and lifestyle applications. Airtel customers in Sri Lanka will now be able to enjoy the freedom and productivity benefits of using BlackBerry smartphones to stay connected to people and information on the go.

The introduction of BlackBerry Bold marks the beginning of a new era in business mobility in Sri Lanka. Crafted from premium materials inside and out, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone is the first BlackBerry smartphone to support tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks around the world, providing superior functionality and performance for business professionals and power users.

Dialog now @ GoGetter

Dialog Telekom extended its bill payment facility to GoGetter, a popular convenient store chain in Colombo and its suburbs.

The facility at GoGetter allows customers to pay Dialog GSM, DialogTV, and Broadband Internet bills, plus, do eZ reloads for their Dialog Kit Pre-paid connections.