TECHNOLOGY

Over-crowding, a key risk for Sri Lankan telcos - Fitch

Overcrowding remains the key medium-term risk to telecom operators (telcos) in Sri Lanka, said Fitch Ratings in a special report.

The agency expects competition among local telcos to remain high through 2011, given the fact that five mobile and four fixed-operators serve an addressable population of less than 21 million.

Subscriber acquisition and retention costs are likely to keep operators' profitability under pressure over the medium-term, as subscriber growth in both the mobile and fixed segments has slowed due to high headline penetration (end-2010: mobile 83 percent and fixed 17 percent of population).

Fitch also highlights that direct price competition, which eased thanks to regulatory intervention in 2010, could re-emerge if floor-tariffs on local calls are reduced as indicated by the Government of Sri Lanka in late 2010, or removed.

Floor tariffs on local calls, combined with aggressive cost cutting, has improved the credit profile of Dialog Axiata PLC (Dialog, National Long-Term Rating: 'AAA(lka)'/Stable), and to an extent of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT, Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating: 'B+'/Positive, National Long-Term Rating: 'AAA(lka)'/Stable), over 2010.

The agency notes that some consolidation among operators is likely to prove healthy for the industry.

The three larger mobile operators - Dialog, Mobitel (a subsidiary of SLT), and Etisalat (a subsidiary of Emirates Telecommunications Corporation of the UAE, 'A+'/Stable) - controlled approximately 82percent of the subscriber market share at end-2010, which has left the two later-entrants, Hutchison Telecommunications Lanka (a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited of Hong Kong, 'A-'/Stable) and Bharti Airtel Lanka (a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited of India, 'BBB-'/Negative) with weak economies of scale.

Two stand-alone fixed wireless operators, Lanka Bell Limited and Suntel Ltd, have been offered on sale in the recent past.

Growth is likely to be spearheaded by data (from both mobile and fixed sources) and to an extent by mobile voice, benefiting from relatively low penetration and improving usage, respectively. Usage volumes are on an improving trend across most segments since 2010, helped by improving economic activity, following the end of terrorism in mid-2009.

Fitch also notes that tax reforms introduced in 2011 could help to improve usage levels.

Asiri Hospitals launches the ROTEM

The Asiri Surgical Hospital (ASH) recently introduced the Rotational Thromboelastometry (ROTEM) machine to Sri Lanka.

The machine is commonly used for the diagnosis, treatment and follow up of patients suffering from illnesses that cause bleeding and thrombosis.

Head and Professor of the Department of Transfusion Medicine and Immunohaematology, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, Prof. Sukesh Nair said that this is one of the few clinically proven machines that is known to simplify and accelerate the management of acute bleeding situations.

It can analyse whole blood samples within ten minutes, allowing doctors and hospital staff to monitor and control targeted coagulation therapies in double quick time.

It is used in the treatment for illnesses that are caused by internal haemorage like heamophilia, and bleeding following cardiac and neurosurgery and trauma.

The ROTEM allows for the monitoring and quick control of therapies, and enables the reduced usage of blood products.

This, in turn, improves the outcome of the patient's condition faster and allows for the stabilisation of the patient's condition.

It is an effective tool in the management of haemostasis, and is widely used as a point-of-care instrument.

COO Asiri Hospitals Dr. Manjula Karunaratne said, "ASH has already sent two of its technicians to the Christian Medical College and Hospital in Vellore to be trained under Prof. Nair in the use of rotational thromboelastometry.

The machine is installed at ASH making it accessible to all in-house and outpatients.

WSO2 wins KuppingerCole European Identity Award 2011

WSO2, has been awarded the European Identity Award 2011 in the Cloud Provider Offerings category by analyst group KuppingerCole.

The award cited WSO2's multi-tenant open source cloud service for its OpenID, XACML support and innovative features, including the ability to migrate from on-premise to a full cloud service.

The award was presented at the European Identity Conference 2011 in Munich.

The European Identity Award honours outstanding projects and initiatives in identity management, highlighting implementations and programs that promote the awareness and business value of digital identity in business and commerce.

Winners have distinguished themselves through exceptional efforts in identity and access management (IAM), governance, risk management and compliance (GRC); and cloud security.

WSO2 co-founder and CTO Paul Fremantle said,"We created our WSO2 Identity as a Service to address the big challenges for identity and access control faced by enterprises as they start to use cloud services like Salesforce and Google Apps.

The recognition validates our vision that standards-based, policy-based identity in the cloud is vital to the success of the cloud."

WSO2 Identity as a Service helps companies eliminate the complexity of deploying identity management and authentication across multiple software as a service (SaaS) applications, as well as internal and traditional systems.

By supporting a broad set of authentication and security standards-including SAML2, XACML, OpenId and OAuth-WSO2, Identity as a Service gives administrators a central identity management system while users gain single sign-on access to different cloud applications.

The use of standards means that the WSO2 offering works out-of-the-box with major Web systems, such as Tomcat, Liferay and Drupal, as well as major cloud providers, such as Google Apps and Salesforce.

Available as cloud-enabled application platform (CEAP) software and a hosted platform as a service (PaaS), WSO2 Identity as a Service offers the flexibility to deploy on-and easily migrate between-on-premise servers, private clouds, public clouds, and hybrid environments.

WSO2 Identity as a Service is designed to support millions of users, and its ability to automatically scale across as many server instances as required ensures high availability, performance and reliability whether on-premise or in the cloud.

Kingslake to increase tea exporter productivity

Kingslake together with Infor presented its integrated software solution to a gathering of tea exporters recently.

The tea industry with its colourful history as Ceylon Tea and current aim to be a $2.5 billion export revenue business needs to ensure that it is world class and competitive.

To be competitive the tea exporter should automate operations to be productive and on time, while maintaining profitability.

The integrated software solution based on Infor Syteline focuses on delivering operational results from the time an inquiry is received to be capable to deliver on time while maintaining just in time inventory of tea from the auction and other packing material, blending of tea, optimising factory resources and staff and finally preparing financial reporting and analysis ensuring productivity and profitability.

The system handles data from auctions to blending of tea, lot allocating and other functionalities vital to the tea exporter seamlessly integrated with the Syteline ERP.

Ada Derana launches Apple app

Ada Derana has delivered accessibility on yet another platform with the launch of an app for Apple iphones and ipads. This is Sri Lanka's first comprehensive and interactive app and is in line with its international counterparts.

The app enables millions of users of Apple's popular portable devices to access the full suite of Ada Derana features including breaking news, video stories, video news bulletins, and interactive features via social media.

The app is a comprehensive technically sound application developed by Derana's strategic web partner FortunaGlobal (Pvt) Ltd along with the Ada Derana web news team, under the supervision of Apple Computer, Inc.

Manager Ada Derana Web Division Janith Rodrigo said, "Months of research went into the development of this app. With the growing popularity of ipads and iphones among Sri Lankans, our primary objective was to keep them updated of the latest news without a second's delay. We're excited to be the first such app to be launched in Sri Lanka and hope our users will love the experience."

CEO FortunaGlobal Suren Kohombange said that the Ada Derana Android app is in development and will be launched shortly.

Ada Derana has constantly innovated its news content and distribution, and is delivered across a multitude of media platforms including television, radio, web, IVR and SMS.

BSA commends Lanka on its anti piracy initiatives

The commercial value of unlicensed software installed on personal computers in the Asia Pacific region reached a record US$18.7 billion in 2010 as 60 percent of software deployed on personal computers (PCs) during the year was pirated, more than double the losses of US$7.5 billion in 2003.

In comparison, in 2009, 59 percent of the software installed on PCs in Asia Pacific was obtained illegally, while the value of pirated software amounted to over US$16.5 billion.

These are among the findings of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) 2010 Global Software Piracy Study, which evaluates the state of software piracy around the world.

There was good news for Sri Lanka where, from 2009 to 2010, installations of unlicensed software on PCs in Sri Lanka fell by three percent, the highest drop recorded in Asia and the Pacific, bringing the rate down to 86 percent in 2010.

However, the commercial value of pirated software rose to US$83 million from US$77 million against a backdrop of increased PC shipments for the year.

"Despite the improvements recorded in most markets in the Asia Pacific region, these findings show that the fight against software piracy remains a critical issue and there is still much work to be done.

PC software piracy rates and the value of pirated software in Asia Pacific have risen compared to a year ago," said Senior Director - Marketing, Asia-Pacific BSA, Roland Chan.

"In Sri Lanka, the consistent efforts of the National Intellectual Property Office and the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), and their anti-piracy drive including policy initiatives, awareness, education and infrastructure have contributed towards lowering the piracy rate.

The establishment of the Anti-Piracy and Counterfeit Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Sri Lanka Police has also played a pivotal role in curbing infringement of intellectual property rights. The improvements seen are a credit to the vision of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Government of Sri Lanka".

This is the eighth study of global software piracy to be conducted by BSA in partnership with IDC, the IT industry's leading market research and forecasting firm, using a methodology that incorporates 182 discrete data inputs for 116 countries and regions around the world.

This year's study also includes a new dimension: a public-opinion survey of PC users on key social attitudes and behaviour related to software piracy, conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs.

The opinion survey found strong support for intellectual property rights, with seven in 10 respondents expressing support for paying inventors for their creations to promote more technology advances. Strikingly, support for intellectual property rights was the strongest in markets with high piracy rates.

The survey also found widespread recognition that licensed software is better than pirated software, because it is understood to be more secure and more reliable. The problem is many PC users lack a clear understanding of whether common ways of acquiring software, such as buying a single program license for multiple computers or downloading a program from a peer-to-peer network, are likely to be legal or illegal.

"Clearly, there is a strong appreciation for the value delivered by legal software," said Chan.

"The results reinforce the need to educate users that software downloaded from P2P networks is often illegal, and installing software purchased for one computer on multiple home or office PCs is piracy."

Additional findings from the study include:

The commercial value of stolen software in Asia Pacific totalled to over US$18.7 billion.

Globally, the value of software theft grew to a record $59 billion - nearly double that when the study began in 2003.

Half of the 116 geographies studied in 2010 had piracy rates of 62 percent or higher, with the global average piracy rate at 42 percent.

Emerging economies have become a driving force behind PC software piracy.

Piracy rates in the developing world are 2.5 times higher than those in the developed world, and the commercial value of pirated software ($31.9 billion) accounts for more than half of the world total.

The most cited advantages of licensed software globally are access to technical assistance (88 percent) and protection from hackers and malware (81 percent).

Strong majorities of PC users around the world believe intellectual property rights and protections produce tangible economic benefits: 59 percent globally say IP rights benefit local economies, while 61 percent globally say IP rights create jobs.

Among the common ways people engage in piracy is to buy a single copy of software and install it on multiple computers.

In fact, this year's survey found that 51 percent of business-decision makers in developing markets erroneously believe that this is legal.

Consumers have been buying an increasing share of the world's PCs in recent years.

Just three years ago, they accounted for 43 percent of the world's installed base of PCs. In 2010, this rose to 52 percent.

This growth is also significant because consumers tend to install more software per computer than do enterprises.

Speaking on behalf of IDC, Vice President, Asia/Pacific Consulting Operations, Victor Lim said, "Under-licensing - installing one single, legal copy of a program on numerous computers - remains the biggest contributor to software piracy.

This has broad implications beyond just the software sector, because software is a productivity tool in every sector of the economy.

Companies that do not pay for the programs they use to run their operations have, to an extent, an unfair cost advantage over companies that do, and this skews competition.

IDC believes that it is imperative that governments take action, through education and enforcement mechanisms, to ensure that IP ownership and rights are properly respected, thus ensuring continued enhancements and development of business critical software and solutions."

"Today's study shows that while piracy continues to threaten the global economy, people clearly understand and appreciate the value of intellectual property, especially its role in driving economic growth," added BSA president and CEO Robert Holleyman.

"Software theft continues to stifle IT innovation, job creation, and economic growth around the world. This report clearly shows the importance of educating businesses, government officials, and end users about the risks of software theft - and what they can do to stop it."

Metropolitan, Fonterra implement distributor management system

Metropolitan partnered with Fonterra Brands Lanka (Pvt) Ltd recently to conclude an islandwide IT infrastructure upgrading project aimed at automating field sales for speedier service and delivery to consumers across the island.

The project included a three phased rolling out of software and equipment with training of field sales and stock taking staff, across the island.

Consignments agent staff and sales representatives were trained to use the new software and usage of PDAs and mobile printers.

Since the field sales staff was provided with PDAs and mobile printers for real time transaction processing, customer invoice is being generated on-line. Once the PDA is synchronised through GPRS, all transactions are uploaded in the central server of Fonterra in Singapore.

Metropolitan has also set up a 24 hour call centre to attend to the needs of the field staff and consignment agents to ensure that the processes and transactions are not hindered in any way.

The help desk will provide assistance on software and hardware, data entry and data management, as well as sales and operations issues.

"The effectiveness of our operations underpins the timely and reliable delivery of our popular dairy nutritional products to our customers. It was important to us to work with a partner who could enhance our existing capabilities and manage the transition.

By upgrading our distribution and sales processes with Metropolitan, we have improved the efficiency of our deliveries and enhanced customer service," said Managing Director Fonterra Brands Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, Achyut Kasireddy.

"It was a challenging project considering the time limitations and the fact the project was spread across Sri Lanka, but we managed to upgrade the hardware such as computers and printers, implement the new Distributor Management software.

Softlogic introduces Enterprise Solutions

Softlogic Information Technologies has entered into a partnership with renowned IT companies to introduce latest IT solutions for large corporations.

Director/CEO Softlogic Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd Roshan Rasool said, "Softlogic is focused on delivering maximum performance with standards based solutions, while ensuring the right mix of cost effective solutions with value at every level."

A challenge facing IT departments is how to lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

Tackling this challenge requires a laser-like focus on optimising resources, reducing complexity, increasing performance, and improving manageability.

Director - Sales and Marketing, Softlogic Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd Sidantha Peeris said, "We see a pickup with entities making large investments and foreign investors setting up offices.

They need Enterprise class infrastructure.

Organisations who have already invested in Enterprise Solutions are interested in lowering cost."

MARKSS HLC sponsors medical administrators' sessions

MARKSS Healthcare (MARKSS HLC), a fast growing pharmaceutical company in Sri Lanka in its fifth year of operations sponsored the inaugural Annual Sessions of the College of Medical Administrators of Sri Lanka, recently. Minister of Healthcare and Nutrition Maithripala Sirisena was the chief guest and Minister for Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Rajitha Senaratne was guest of honour. "Optimal delivery could only be achieved by maintaining perfect harmony in the disciplines that enrich the health sector and by making accurate decisions on resource allocation.