Technology

Epic Lanka secures 13 awards

by Gamini WARUSHAMANA

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Epic Lanka, a leading Sri Lankan software company, secured 13 awards including eight gold awards in 2008, its tenth anniversary. The latest is the gold award at APICTA won by Epic Dial-a-Bank banking solution bringing fame and glory to Sri Lanka.

This is a historic achievement for Epic Lanka and for Sri Lanka's software industry because this is the first commercial software solution of a local company that secured an APICTA gold award, said the Chairman and CEO of Epic Lanka Nayana D. P. Dehigama.

Epic Lanka declared 2008 as a celebration year to mark its tenth anniversary. However, the style of celebration was different and they decided to participate in all national and international competitions in the field presenting its highly successful software products in four core areas-secure electronic payments, information system security, mobile enterprise automation and secure document personalisation.

Milestone

We took this year as a milestone in the business and we wanted to assess where we stand in the local market and international market through competitions. We achieved surprising results and during the past eight months we secured 13 local and regional awards and eight of them are gold, Dehigama said. "I highly value the National Best Quality Software Award (NBQSA) of BCS Sri Lanka and consider it a great achievement.

At that competition we secured the overall bronze award and three category awards, two gold and one silver. This is the highest number of awards that was won by a single company at the NBQSA. This is an important milestone in our business".

Referring to the APICTA gold award, Dehigama said that it was a great achievement for Sri Lanka's software industry. Representatives of over 15 countries including big names in the software industry such as India, Australia, and Malaysia were present at the APICTA award ceremony and our achievement has won an international recognition for Sri Lankan software products. We proved that Sri Lankan software products are no second to other world-class products.

Epic is a well known software brand in the local market. However, penetrating the international market was a daunting task for this totally Sri Lankan company.

One of the drawbacks we faced was when we say that the product and the technology is from Sri Lanka the clients doubt whether we can meet the quality and the technology they require, since Sri Lankan software brand has not been developed, Dehigama said.

Though some of the large software companies, most of which are foreign or foreign collaborations, are successful in the international market, there is still no brand value for Sri Lankan Software because they market their products under their parent company's name.

Pathetic situation

"I personally experienced this pathetic situation three years ago. We participated in the CBIT exhibition, the world's largest IT exhibition in Germany.

The Export Development Board (EDB) had organised the Sri Lankan pavilion and over six Sri Lankan software companies participated. We were there for three days at the exhibition but not a single person visited the Sri Lankan pavilion.

This is our image in the international market. We are very confident of our products and our technology is advanced and no second to any world leader. But we have failed in marketing". With this pathetic experience we considered ways to overcome this issue. We decided to go to Australia and set up our office and market our products as Australian products. This project is going ahead and we will open our Australian office soon. We expect to use this office as a springboard to go to the international market.

However, the situation started to change in 2008, especially with the publicity Epic gets through the celebration campaigns. Having won the APICTA award we feel that we can build the Sri Lankan brand. This is vital and all Sri Lankan companies should publish their success and contribute to make a Sri Lankan software brand, Dehigama said.

Epic Lanka recently entered into an agreement with the BCSIS Singapore, a fully owned subsidiary of the OCBC Bank to market Epic Lanka products in the international market.

This is a rare situation and generally, what the leading international software companies do here is carrying out mere value addition jobs. Important areas such as designing are done by the parent company abroad and all the property rights of the solutions are owned by the parent company. Here we are the principal and the BCSIS markets our products. We target the South Africa and Singapore markets through BCSIS.

Global brand

In addition, we are building markets in South East Asia and recently we got two contracts from Malaysia. As a policy we undertake complete projects or end to end solutions and not parts of coding, Dehigama said.

Dehigama's dream is to make Epic Lanka a global brand and he is hopeful that it will be a reality very soon. Epic Technologies, a separate company has been set up under Section 17 of the BOI, targeting especially international operations. However, going global is very costly, Dehigama said. Our strategy is to focus on a few niche markets. We are planning to enter Vietnam, USA and the Canadian markets as well through other dealers, he said. Even under there turbulent conditions in the main global markets, Dehigama is confident about the future of the software industry. Still, the trends are upward. Software companies need not kill each other in the competition because there are plenty of opportunities. Key values of Epic Lanka are Innovation, flexibility and speed.

We are very concerned on early delivery of software and 100 per cent of our projects have been delivered in time, at least one week ahead of the agreed time, Dehigama said.

Microsoft brings winds of change to 'Reawakened East'

Microsoft, together with the Ministry of Education is bringing about the winds of change to the 'Reawakened East.' Having identified the East as a key priority area in upgrading the skills of teachers, knowledge delivery will be via the globally acclaimed International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) course, which is comprehensive, and provides participants with a well rounded knowledge of basic IT skills.

In keeping with the Government's primary objectives to develop underprivileged areas of the country, the East has now been earmarked as an area for resources to be invested in.

Thus, the Eastern Province is one of the key focus areas of the Government and a sustainable social and economic integration of the province has been one of the primary policies of the Government subsequent to the liberation of the East from terrorism.

The main objective of the programs launched in the East is to bring about rehabilitation and reconstruction to its residents to improve their quality of life, in turn resulting in economic prosperity.

Thus, in uplifting the quality of life in the East, quality, relevant and up-to-date education plays a pivotal role in empowering its citizens to be on par with the rest of the world.

Moreover due to the era of digital inclusion, IT education too takes on great importance across the country, and more so in provinces that are less progressive and resource constrained such as the East. In bringing about the much needed heightened levels of IT literacy in the East, Microsoft, together with the Ministry of Education is embarking on an initiative to equip teachers with the ICDL.

"We firmly believe that the knowledge of Information and Communication Technology must be improved to take the students and teachers to the knowledge society of the 21st century. So, with the worthy partnership of Microsoft Sri Lanka under the 'Partners in Learning Program,' we jointly launched the ICDL training course to teachers in the East. Once they are armed with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) qualification, I am sure it will spread throughout the education system with a rapid growth in ICT literacy and related activities," said Project Director, Secondary Education Modernisation Project II, Anura Dissanayake. Under the Isuru Schools Development Program, the Ministry of Education has started developing physical infrastructure of 19 selected schools, by providing new teaching appointments in the Province, whilst at the same time empowering them with knowledge.

Since the Eastern Province was liberated from terrorist activities, the Government has initiated many development projects under the Eastern province re-awakening program.