technology

Lanka's software industry optimistic

By Gamini WARUSHAMANA

[email protected]

Sri Lanka's software industry is optimistic of the future despite the industry already feeling the negative impact of the US financial crisis.

Most of the Sri Lankan investors believe that the impact on the crisis in the IT industry is temporary and short-term. They expect higher investments in IT during and after the recovery period.

Vice President South Asia, IFS, a leading Swedish software company in Sri Lanka, said that the software industry has a direct and indirect impact of the US financial crisis.

The industry covers a vast area and some companies are resilient while some may be vulnerable and affected immediately. Well established software companies will not be affected.

BPO - KPO companies and especially the bespoken companies which the small companies do third or fourth stage contract in a long outsourcing chain will be the worst affected.

On the other hand, a large number of Indian software professionals are returning from the US and they will start new businesses in the region and sell low cost software in countries such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. But soon after the recovery they will go to the US and investors should be careful of these software companies.

De Silva said that the industry has experience of the last recession. This is the time most companies start to look back. They think of using IT more productively and as a result we have already got some big contracts. The crisis compels companies to reduce costs, be smarter and especially the financial companies to be more transparent. For this they may have to use IT and therefore the IT industry would recover sooner than other industries, he said.

CEO, Ridgecrest Financial Sanath Fernando said the US financial turmoil has hit the software industry but we are looking at long term benefits.

The crisis will not last forever. Ridgecrest provides solutions for Wall Street financial companies and Fernando said that the crisis has hit all sectors of the economy and the financial sector is the worst hit.

However, they will come with better business plans and the IT sector will be benefit in the long run. It will take two to six years to recover and therefore we have to focus on other areas. Today we are planning to go to other markets and our first priority is the Middle East, he said.

General Manager of Virtusa Madu Ratnayake said that in the long run the slow down in the US economy will force companies to out- source more to reduce costs.

Director, Marketing, Valista, Evanna Kearins said the industry is in an uncertain period and it will take a couple of weeks to stabilise and until then it would be difficult to truly access where all markets lie.

"We are still seeing major opportunities for our merchandising, payments and settlement solutions among mobile, broadband and cable operators and even media and entertainment companies. With this plan we still hope to expand our R&D centre in Sri Lanka", she said.

Meanwhile, the Indian software industry has already been hit by the US financial crisis. Businesses of small mid-sized firms in the BPO - KPO industries have been hit further in the industry since a major part of business comes from banking and financial services firms in the US, the Indian media reported.

According to Nasscom, the BPO and KPO industry together generated Rs 1,160 crore revenue and provided employment to seven lakhs people in 2007-08 . The share of the US in the Indian BPO-KPO export market was 61%, making it the largest contributor to exports in the segment in 2007. The Ahmedabad-based KPO, Azure Knowledge Centre, foresees a slow down in the financial services by 25% and 15% in the insurance services by the end of this year, the Economic Times of India reported.

Some Indian companies have expressed uncertainties regarding the continuity of current financial services contracts and how the future contracts would be signed with the US financial companies.

Industry analysts said that IT companies will have to cut employment to face the situation and this together with low hiring rates would affect the industry. The future hiring rate of BPOs will be far worse compared to the KPO firms. The BPO employment rate is projected to decline by 60% within one year, according to the Economic Times.

Wijitha Group of Companies opts for FiNAC

The Wijitha Group of Companies, a leading FMCG in marketing of consumer products such as Noodles, Instant Noodles, Soya Products, Pappadam, Tea, Joss Sticks, Laundry Soap and Tiny Tips, flavoured snacks have signed on for the FiNAC Midrange ERP solution.

The Wijitha Group has its head office in Mawanella and the nine factories are in Kegalle, Nuwara Eliya and Mawanella.

Managing Director Cassim Rahumathulla and Rudy Fernandez, the Business Strategy Consultant said that timely accurate information is the key for making right decisions and thus, when a business expands, it must have a proper ERP solution in place.

The FiNAC Midrange ERP commences with data entry for the complete manufacturing process in the nine factories itself.

Using an IP/VPN solution, the factories will be linked to the head office and at the head office the entire data flow will be consolidated.

The system will provide the Wijitha Group on line real time information along with one hundred per cent work flow automation ensuring that the top management have access to the status of the total business at the press of the button.

HP ships one million blades

HP has shipped its one millionth blade server demonstrating its strong leadership position in the server market's fastest growing segment. According to IDC, HP continues to be the leader in revenue and shipments for the blade market due to grow 45 per cent in 2008.

VPIDC EMEA Systems Research Thomas Meyer said that blades have developed into a mature technology in the data center. When IT decision-makers are asked for the main reasons for investments in blades, they cite reliability, scalability, manageability and TCO/ROI as the top four reasons. At the same time, the improvements in features and functions, combo solutions including servers and storage and improvements in the software stack drive the blade proposition further downstream, making it increasingly viable for SMBs.

More and more small, midsized and large enterprises choose the HP Blade System c-Class servers to help reduce costs, save time, speed change and improve energy efficiency.

With less energy usage than traditional rack servers, HP blade servers can save up to 47.9 per cent compared to traditional 1U rack mount servers. HP's innovative Thermal Logic technology enables accurate monitoring and control and the ability to pool, share and allocate the right amount of power and cooling to match customer demands.

Building on its 'blade everything' strategy, HP recently introduced the Integrity NonStop NB50,000c Blade System, the ProLiant BL2x220c and the ProLiant BL260c demonstrating unique innovation leadership. Supporting high transaction volumes and real-time response capabilities in a cost-effective design, the Integrity Non Stop NB50,000c Blade System is an ideal replacement platform for mainframe applications. The ProLiant BL2x220c G5 enables customers to double compute power and significantly reduce data centre space requirements.

The BL2x220c is the world's first double blade designed specifically for the High Performance Computing (HPC) market, combining two independent servers in a single blade. It delivers 60 per cent better performance per watt than similar configurations on the market and minimises cooling and power costs.

IBM software to increase profitability - Anil Menon

Software at present contributes to 40% while in the future it will contribute to 50% of our company's profitability said VP, Channels, Marketing and Ecosystem, Software Group, IBM India/South Asia, Anil Menon. IBM software is a great way to increase profitability in this depressed economic status worldwide.

With the appointment of Midware Technologies as the value added distributor for IBM Software Group for Sri Lanka and the Maldives markets Midware Technologies will henceforth distribute the full range of products from all the five software brands of IBM: Lotus, Tivoli, Information Management, Rational and WebSphere.

This partnership reiterates IBM's commitment and strategy to focus on emerging markets and help address the channel needs to source IBM products to meet customer requirements in a timely and effective manner said Director of Midware Technologies. Romeish De Mel. "The Company will actively engage in brand building and product awareness campaigns in both countries.

In addition there will be special promotions on specific brands which are expected to enhance revenue and increase market share in both countries.

Midware Technologies will work through its diverse business partner channels thus enabling their technical teams to provide strong support and bring more value to their business."

The IBM Software Group offers an operating infrastructure environment with a wide range of middleware for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the globally integrated era.

The IBM Software Group offers solutions in transaction processing, messaging, data management, information in all of its forms application development, systems management and social software.

A member of the Blue Chip Group of Companies, Midware Technologies was formed early this year to address the needs of Value Added Distributorship for IBM's Software Group. Every member of its corporate and operations team has more than a decade's experience in dealing with IBM and the Sri Lankan IT market place, which is a definite advantage in servicing the business partner network and customers.

De Mel said, "Sri Lanka represents a large market opportunity in the South East Asian region.

Although we do not have a direct presence in the Maldives, we will work through our Business Partners there, with support provided from Colombo.

We are indeed very happy to network with IBM's Software Group and handle these two diverse clienteles", he said.

SG

Cenmetrix Fingerprint Security System Solution

Duo Software, a leading provider of Subscriber Management and Billing, Contact Centre Management and Enterprise systems and solutions to corporations across highly competitive industries worldwide, has selected Cenmetrix Systems for its development centres for high level security, utilising a biometric fingerprint security system. Cenmetrix Systems is a leader in biometric fingerprint software applications and installations in Sri Lanka.