Technology

IFS steers through tough times

While most of the industries in the world are undergoing bitter experience of the global recession the Swedish software company IFS said the year 2008 is the best ever year of the company and the business is flourishing and future is optimistic.

“Our revenue, profit, recruitment, expansion and R&D all have increased while recession is hitting most of the industries in the world.

From left to right; Managing Director IFS R&D Jonas Bridgwater, Senior Vice President Product and Marketing Thomas Petersson, CEO and President Alastair Sorbie and Vice President, IFS South Asia Jayantha De Silva.Pic:sudath Malaweera

Therefore we believe that our products, most of them produced in Sri Lanka, are good and our strategies are right” said the President and the CEO of IFS Alastair Sorbie. He was addressing the media in Colombo last week.

“IFS has clients in 50 countries around the world and we are very close and concerned about our clients. Because we know that they have many choices and they have specific reason to select us. IFS R&D centre in Sri Lanka is an important part of our company.

There are 700 employees here and it is one third of the IFS, Sorbie said.

IFS group Senior Vice President Thomas Petersson said that the R&D centre in Colombo is by far the largest contributor to the development and support of IFS applications. We are very impressed by the high quality and competitiveness of our products in the international market which are testaments to the success of our Sri Lanka operations.

Although Sri Lanka may not be perceived as the ideal destination for outsourcing, it is the ideal location for IFS R&D operations.

Unlike India, it was easy to set up a strong recruitment process here.

the highly educated graduates from Sri Lanka’s state and private universities are similar in skills and qualifications to their counterparts in the Nordic region.

They have an enormous drive and are always looking for new developments. “Eleven years ago when we decided to start our R&D centre in Colombo some criticised us and asked why we go to Sri Lanka without looking at India or China.

Our decision was not ad hoc and we did a indepth study and found that the graduates produced by the state universities are really good.

The market was untapped. Today we have proved that our decision is correct.

We like the Sri Lankan mentality and the employees are loyal and stay a long time with the employer.

In IFS we all are in one family and there is no offshoring in our business, Petersson said.

E-WIS celebrates 23 years of service with quality products

Celebrating the 23rd anniversary on April 23, E-WIS marked the beginning of another successful year ahead.

The Chairman/CEO Sanjeewa Wickramanayake said - “This journey was not an easy one.

It was made possible by two very important parties. Firstly, our committed customers who, through their suggestions on improvement and constructive criticism made us what we are today. Secondly, the committed E-WIS family who achieved supreme customer care in every direction. `Customers for life’ has been our philosophy throughout this long journey. We serve our valued customers with the best quality products, exceptional services and supreme customer care.

On this special day, I thank all our customers who had faith in us and would like to renew the assurance of our continuous supreme customer care.”

Major contribution

Since 1986, E-WIS has made a major contribution towards the development of the national ICT sector by undertaking many nationally significant projects.

This includes the automation of the Employees Provident Fund, e-pensions project, Automation of the complete process of Attorney Generals Office, Automating the examination process for the Department of Examinations etc.

E-WIS is a one-stop solution provider for any type of ICT related requirement. With its subsidiaries, E-WIS is serving almost all the segments related to ICT such as Hardware/ Software retailing, ICT infrastructure solutions, Software solutions, data printing, web development, career training, secured data printing etc.

During the past 23 years, E-WIS has been an international landmark in the Sri Lankan Information Technology arena. Acquiring the best knowledge and expertise from their international principal partners, E-WIS provides the best quality products and services to their customers.

As the sole business partner of Lexmark in Sri Lanka and the top performing partner of HP, E-WIS also has partnerships for Microsoft, CISCO and many more recognized ICT products.

Islandwide branches

A high level of quality is maintained within the organisational processes and is an important factor at E-WIS. With an ISO 9002 certification and the only ICT Company in Sri Lanka to be affiliated with the United Nations Global Compact are international levels of testimony of quality acquired by E-WIS. Islandwide branches and Engineering services network covering the whole island ensures uniform and high quality services to E-WIS customers in any part of the country.

Wickramanayake expressed his vision for the new and challenging year ahead. “The economic downturn that the world is undergoing after the 1930s has created a very challenging market for every business segment including ICT. Our vision for the year is to get the best utilization of our resources in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness in our business processes.

Use of advancements in ICT is the key to achieve this and we will be sharing our knowledge with our customers to make their lives easier too”.

E-WIS has always been a socially responsible corporate citizen. With its CSR initiative E-Praja Kirana, E-WIS is placing its fullest effort to eliminate barriers between urban and rural communities through technology.

Facilitating the E-villages project inspired by Mahinda Chinthana, supporting underprivileged schools with ICT facilities, annual book donations, scholarship programs etc.

are all geared towards achieving the CSR objective of eliminating the brain drain from rural to urban and develop rural communities.“In the 1980’s, the computer was a luxurious commodity and it was purchased as an ornament to depict the status of the rich.

It was not easily accessible people protected this ornament with care.

But today, everything has changed. People work on real time applications and they live with the technology. The World is becoming smaller and smaller with the advancements of the internet and technology has taken control over almost every segment of the world.

Through our expertise and relationships, we will continue to bring global knowledge to our country as we have through out the past and this will be our ageless promise for the years to come”.