Technology

Sri lankan operations a key -Aepona

by Gamini WARUSHAMANA

The Research and Development (R&D) centre in Sri Lanka will be invaluable for Aepona as it was to Valista said Aepona Vice President of Global Services Declan McMahon. Colombo was one of the main R&D centres of Valista and the new company Aepona sees Sri Lankan operations as a key to future growth, McMahon told the Sunday Observer. Aepona, a global provider of telecom software products and services headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland, acquired Valista early this month creating a powerful, independent vendor of "Network as a Service" solutions

Declan McMahon

Valista based in Dublin, Ireland was a provider of payment, settlement and service lifecycle management solutions to mobile and broadband operators worldwide. The acquisition creates a powerful, independent vendor, operating under the Aepona brand, with a complete solution for the "Network as a Service" (NaaS) business model now being embraced by Telcos globally, McMahon said.

With the NaaS model, mobile and broadband operators treat their network and informational assets as marketable resources that can be made available to third party application developers, upstream service providers and enterprises. These organizations can then enhance their applications, services and business processes with Telco capabilities such as voice, location, massaging, profile, billing and so on.

The new Aepona offers Telcos an end-to-end solution for the NaaS model, including Open APIs towards core network capabilities, 3rd party relationship management, monetization, billing mediation and settlement, and service lifecycle management. Following the acquisition, Aepona's client list now includes some of the world's largest mobile and broadband operators in North America, EMEA and Asia.

Operators have recognized the need to adopt a more collaborative approach to working with organizations such as enterprises and web-based service providers. The rise in Over-the-Top services has made them realize that in order to compete effectively, they need to leverage their assets to the fullest extent possible, and this means opening up these assets towards third parties in a secure, controlled and billable manner.

'The move towards openness initially focused on the device side, but over the past year attention has shifted towards the network side. Aepona has secured several contracts with Tier 1 operators to implement their Open Network API programs, but until now Aepona has lacked the monetization and settlement capabilities that are required for a true NaaS offering. With the acquisition of Valista, the company can now offer Telcos the means to monetize their Open API initiatives, as well as offering third parties a convenient way to bill end-users for their services'.

McMahon said that Aepona's operations in Sri Lankan will be expanded with the new recruitment drive. "We see a huge growth potential in Sri Lanka, he said. Commenting on software industry of Sri Lanka" MCMahon said "I met Sri Lankan trade delegation of SLASCOM in the UK and Ireland recently. There were strong personalities of the industry and they have clear vision and they did a very good job. On the other hand after the civil war was ended the country is changing. I am a regular visitor to Sri Lanka over last nine years and today I see the change. The country is getting a turn and the airport and city hotels are very busy. The expatriate professionals will return with talents, experience and entrepreneurial skills and it will also boost the industry. This happened in Ireland and India. We hope this would positively affect our operations here as well as IT BPO industry in Sri Lanka generally.

McMahon said that global economic situation too is changing and some parts are recovering. Software industry has also shown signs of recovery. The new acquisition will benefit Sri Lankan software professionals, because Aepona have customers all over the world, the global big telco companies, the professionals will get the opportunity to work with them and get diverse skills and experience.

Saab - IFS tie-up to increase cooperation

Saab AB has signed a corporate agreement with IFS to deepen the cooperation between the parties and to position the group for new business opportunities. The agreement covers licences, consulting, support, and maintenance of IFS Applications for the entire group and has an estimated value of SKr 120 million over four years. The value of the licences is approximately SKr 12 million, of which SKr 5 million are called off in June 2009. Several companies within Saab currently use IFS Applications for after-sales services, design and manufacturing, MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul), engineering, supply-chain management, and project management. Saab has been a customer of IFS since 1994 and has a long-term strategy of increasing its use of IFS Applications across the group to achieve greater efficiency within IT. One example is the business units that manufacture aerostructures and related sub-systems for commercial aviation as well as the military market such as the JAS Gripen, Saab Aerostructures, which in 2006 carried out a successful consolidation of 59 self-developed or customized systems into one common system-IFS Applications. "We see great opportunities for similar synergies in the other business units within the Saab Group, and our strategy is to achieve a global standardization of processes and systems by 2013.

We look forward to working with IFS to continue streamlining and rationalizing our operations based on a common business system", Johan Sj"din, Vice President ICT Coordination Office at Saab AB, said.

As a corporate supplier, IFS plays a central role in assisting Saab to reach its business goals. "The agreement will help us reach our goals both in terms of new revenues and savings. Now that many central business processes can become common, we get more mobility and flexibility as well as lower IT costs as a result of economies of scale" said Johan Sj"din. IFS' focus on the defence industry is positive.

Their developers and consultants really listen to us and I look forward to the continued development of our collaboration and partnership". For IFS, collaboration with customers is critical for the continued improvement of the solutions.

"The industry solution for Aerospace and Defence is continuously developed in close cooperation with key customers like Saab and partners such as BAE Systems, Logica and EDS", Glenn Arnesen, Managing Director of IFS Scandinavia said. "One of the primary areas for our 2009 research and development is to improve the functionality we deliver to the A&D segment."

The aerospace and defence industry is one of IFS' focused industries. Recent analysis made by ARC Advisory Group in the "Enterprise Asset Management Solutions Worldwide Outlook" by Ralph Rio in May 2009, puts IFS in the market-leading position in the aerospace and defense industry. In the Enterprise Asset Management for A&D, ARC states that IFS is "...providing an exceptionally agile solution with low total cost of ownership." IFS' customers in aviation and defence include the British, Norwegian, and American defence. Commercial workshops and operators include Finnair, Bristow Helicopters, Aero-Dienst GmbH, Hawker Pacific, and LTQ Engineering Pty Limited (formerly known as Jet Turbine Services).

IT centre for IDP children

According to a concept introduced by the First Lady, Mrs. Shiranthi Rajapaksa, EWIS together with the Siriliya Saviya Organisation donated a fully equipped computer centre to the internally displaced children in Vavuniya on June 27. The First Lady opened the `Siriliya Sewana Girls' Home' in Vavuniya along with the EWIS "Mithuru PC" computer lab.

"Siriliya Sewana" will provide shelter to nearly 150 children under the age of 10. All selected children were from among the IDPs in the Northern Province who were left orphaned by the war.

Mithuru PC computer laboratory is a fully-equipped centre which will unlock a new world for the internally displaced children. EWIS will also provide a trainer for the laboratory to provide the children with ICT knowledge. Mithuru PC is a new product of EWIS which is user friendly, eco-friendly, budget friendly and easy to maintain.

Minister of Industrial Development, Kumara Welgama, the Chairman of EWIS Group of Companies Sanjeewa Wickramanayake, Senior DIG of Police Nimal Lewke, Major General Jagath Jayasuriya, Major General G. A. Chandrasiri and the Director of EWIS Group of Companies Ms. Roseanne Wijayanayake were also present at this event.

KBSL and IBM launch to "Peace of mind"

KBSL Information Technologies Ltd, along with their business partner IBM World Trade Corporation recently held a gala event at Waters Edge under the theme "Peace of mind to the corporate".

This event was focused on addressing the main challenges faced by corporates in today's world such as optimizing business processes to improve efficiency and competitiveness, increasing business demands.

In his welcome address, Director KBSL, Rohan Wijeratne stressed the importance of considering the "Peace of Mind" factor IT solutions offered by KBSL and IBM bring to the IT community and said "when procuring IT infrastructure, it is important not only to consider the tangible benefits and the difference in pricing, but consider the quality time that IBM innovations will allow you to spend with your family, and what harm non-green products would cause to the environment that will affect our children and future generations." Country Manager System and Technology Group IBM, Sivakumar Nallathamby congratulated KBSL on winning the highest number of IBM awards, most notably the "IBM Business Partner of the Year" award for 2008, and spoke of the different innovative solutions.