Technology

IFS surpasses global growth rate in ERP market

by Surekha Galagoda

IFS Sri Lanka will continue to play a dominant role in the future too in the global operations said Senior Vice President IFS Group Thomas Petersson. He was speaking at the 10th anniversary of IFS Sri Lanka.

He said that they launched the new IFS application interface Aurora, the ipod generation of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or the cool generation of the ERP as the media calls it. Petersson said that they plan to be a cool ERP provider in the future.

He said the history of ERP industry dates back to the early 1970's when it was very primitive. But now every organisation depends on ERP. IFS Sweden started it in the 1980's and today they are one of the leading vendors of ERP and one of the few who are left.

The Company has branched out to areas such as retail, defence and automotive and technological leadership is our key, he said. From its inception IFS Sri Lanka has played a key role in Research and Development, said Petersson.

Vice President South Asia IFS Jayantha de Silva said that IFS has grown 15% globally while the ERP market has grown only between 7-8% globally. In South Asia the ERP market has grown 40% while the projected growth for next year is 50%.

The company, the single largest foreign direct investment in the software industry in the country is planning to invest over one billion rupees next year in research and development.

Managing Director DSI Group Kulatunga Rajapakse said that they were able to become the number one in the footwear market by implementing IFS solutions. "Prior to implementing the solutions we were number two and we had a plan to become the number one within five years but we were able to achieve our targets within three years after implementing the solutions." DSI Group started with the first generation of IFS solutions and now they have implemented the latest version generation seven, said de Silva.

Chairman, Singer Sri Lanka Hemaka Amarasuriya said "We can go from good to great with the IFS solution. Singer has the largest IT infrastructure in Sri Lanka and have already connected 275 branches to the head office online and we hope to roll out by adding another 50 branches to the network. Our plan is to have 500 branches online while our next location is India."

Software Engineering Director IFS Sri Lanka Sajith Peiris said that IT professionals are much more than knowledge workers. They are disciplined and hardworking. IFS Sri Lanka has produced 900 such workers who are now employed in Sweden.

Already the company has made 250 industrial placements for undergraduates while they have also done mentoring programs too for undergraduates.

IFS Sri Lanka has offered more than 90 scholarships for Advanced Level qualified students to pursue higher studies.

He said that the University of Colombo would introduce three IT courses for Science undergraduates to meet the growing demand for IT professionals.

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Google invests hundreds of millions in green energy

NEW YORK, (AFP) - Google said on Tuesday it will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in ways to make "green" energy less costly than that from pollution-spewing coal. The Google initiative is dubbed "REC," using a play on computer code to symbolise "renewable energy less than coal."

"I know it seems a little bit geeky, but it is a good description," Google co-founder Larry Page said of the name while discussing the initiative in a conference call with reporters.

"We want to rapidly push forward, produce a gigawatt of power, and have it done in years not decades. We feel if we can do it at that scale we could do it at a level significant in the world."

A gigawatt of power is enough to power a city the size of San Francisco, according to Google.

It said it will invest in advanced solar, wind, and geothermal power systems along with other technologies promising potential breakthroughs.

The US-based Internet colossus expects to hire 20 to 30 engineers with expertise in energy.

"We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centres," Page said. "We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal."

Coal is burned to produce 40 per cent of the world's electricity and is a major source of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. "Cheap renewable energy is not only critical for the environment but also vital for economic development in many places where there is limited affordable energy of any kind," said Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Sun Microsystems appoints Ceylinco NetAssist as authorised education centre

Sun Microsystems, the world's leading provider of network computing and infrastructure solutions and creator of the Java technology platform, has appointed Ceylinco NetAssist (Pvt) Ltd as its authorised education centre for the island, in a first for Sri Lanka.

In effect, this means that facilities previously unavailable in the field of IT education in Sri Lanka, are now made available. Up to now, the country had no direct presence of Sun Java training partners in Sri Lanka.

The primary benefits of such direct representation are many: the provision of the original Sun Java curriculum to universities and training institutes, the provision of examination vouchers for students, as well as the facility of training by foreign experts specially flown down to the country for this purpose.

The nett result of training in Sun Java is that once an individual is so certified in Sun Java, his or her degree of employability is tremendously enhanced and concomitantly his or her earning capacity increases by 30%. In particular, his or her ability to seek lucrative employment overseas is greatly enhanced.

Prior to the appointment of Ceylinco NetAssist, a large number of institutes provided training in Java without any direct communication with Sun Microsystems and thus now that gap is effectively bridged.

PC House in partnership with Samsung India

PC House (Pvt) Ltd., a subsidiary of PCH Holdings entered into a partnership with Samsung India Electronics (Pvt) Ltd. to market and distribute Samsung IT peripherals in Sri Lanka.

PC House will market and distribute products such as CRT and LCD Monitors, Laser Printers and Laser based MFPs, CD ROM drives, DVD ROMs, Combo drives and DVD Writers.

Chairman, PC Holdings, S. H. M. Rishan said a strategic partnership with a global giant will help boost the IT/electronics industry in the country.

"Despite challenges, the PC market has grown by 12 per cent during the first quarter of the year. The growth in the agricultural sector will have a demand for quality equipment.

Samsung India which commenced operations in 1995 today has a sales turnover of US$ 1 billion and is the hub for Samsung's South West Asia regional operations.

Deputy Managing Director, Samsung India, R. Zutshi said they are confident that the partnership with PC House will enhance Samsung's presence in the local market. LF