Technology

MphasiS launches operations in Sri Lanka

by Sapumali GALAGODA

MphasiS, an IT services provider launched its global delivery centre in Colombo recently. The centre was opened by Minister of Economic Development, Basil Rajapaksa and CEO, MphasiS Ganesh Ayyar.

Ayyar said that prior to investing the company looked at several countries and decided to invest in Sri Lanka due to the talent pool available.

Minister Basil Rajapaksa plants a tree at the opening of MphasiS. Pic: Chaminda Hittatiya

MphasiS announced its intention to set up a centre in Colombo at the end of last year and has since been working on hiring local talent as well as setting up infrastructure to start its full fledged global delivery operation.

Ayyar said that the company will start its second hiring drive during the next two weeks.

He said that at present they can accommodate 250 people but was fairly bullish that the 250 seats will run out soon. He said the workforce was brilliant, capable, wanting to learn while the attitude and aptitude is pro-customer oriented. These attributes of the staff should make any investor look at Sri Lanka, said Ayyar.

The company, plans to hire over 2000 people in the next 3 years.

The MpasiS global delivery centre in Orion City had joined MphasiS network of delivery centres providing applications, BPO and ITO services to the clients worldwide.

With over 38,000 employees, MphasiS has a presence across America, Europe, Australia, Asia, Pacific, Japan and India.Employees at the Sri Lanka centre will be part of MphasiS global talent pool and groomed as a part of MphasiS talent development program.

"Sri Lanka's vibrant talent pool is of strategic interest to us and we hope to expand our footprint here. Our focus in Sri Lanka is holistic.

Our aim is to develop the larger eco-system and be a responsible corporate citizen.

We want to build deeper roots into the talent supply chain in Sri Lanka, partnering with academia, industry bodies and the government", said Ayyar.

"Our launch is a testimony to our well laidout plans. We are working closely with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka to play a pivotal role in redefining the IT landscape in the country", he added.

MphasiS is a leading provider of applications services, remote management services and BPO services.

The company delivers real improvements in business performance for clients through a combination of technology know-how,domain and process expertise.

The company was founded in 1998.

They are based in India with offices worldwide.

They have 10 years of global service delivery experience.

MphasiS services clients in financial services, healthcare, communications, transportation, consumer and retail industries and to governments around the world.

MphasiS was the fastest growing company in 2009 with a growth of 43 percent.

IBM completes phase 1, CSC initiative

by Sapumali GALAGODA

IBM has completed the first phase of its Corporate Service Corps (CSC) initiatives in Sri Lanka for the year 2010, where it tied up with four different NGOs and not-for-profit government organisations to bring IBM professionals from different countries to work on critical projects for these partner organisations.

Sri Lanka is among 14 countries around the world hosting the first phase of IBM's most competitive global program this year.

IBM CSC places its most highly valued assets,its employees in emerging and developing countries to address core societal and environmental challenges. Between August and September this year, nine CSC participants from around the world arrived in Sri Lanka to work on a number of key socio-economic development projects. These IBM professionals work closely with organisations like Respere, The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) University of Moratuwa and Energy Forum to implement a variety of development projects.

The projects in Sri Lanka have attracted IBMers from USA, UK, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Ireland, India, Slovakia and Switzerland. These are among the 500 global professionals who were selected after a rigorous evaluation process to work with the organisations in Sri Lanka on a wide range of projects.

"Sri Lanka is an important market for us and we are focusing on strengthening our network and presence. CSC enables IBM employees to bring different perspectives and expertise to solve problems as well as encourage people from different cultural backgrounds and traditions exposing the employees to diverse cultures and changing societal expectations" said IBM Sri Lanka Country General Manager Chrishan Fernando. "The Stakeholders involved with ICTA in the implementation of the eSri Lanka development Project have reached a high level of maturity to deploy information and communication technology for national economic development", said the Program Director and Legal Advisor ICTA Jayantha Fernando.

H One 'Best Dynamics Partner'

H One Pvt Ltd. a Hirdaramani Group venture was presented the Best Dynamics Partner Award at the recently held Microsoft Partner Awards. Having achieved Tier 1 partnership with Microsoft within their first year in operation, winning this award reinforces the company's rapid ascent as a leading Microsoft Partner in the country.

Judged an industry leader in ERP & CRM by Forrester Research and Gartner, Dynamics has been core to the Microsoft Applications Strategy in recent years and is focused on simplifying user experience, increasing productivity and delivering continuous innovation for customers making ERP solutions more accessible than before. "Having watched many companies struggle with ERP implementations, our focus was to find a product that offered functionality and flexibility - Dynamics was the ideal application. Combined with our experience with enterprise class infrastructures we are able to provide tailor made solutions while ensuring rapid implementation for a better ROI for our customers," said CEO of H One Samath Fernando. With a team of 5 business analysts supported by 14 developers and a strategic partnership with Dynamics specialists Right Field in India, H One has a strong and focused Dynamics offering.

1919, a catalyst for Govt bodies

The positive values of the Government Information Centre-1919 could have a catalyst effect on all government institutions, said Chairman GIC-1919 Project Steering Committee and Additional Presidential Secretary Dr. I. H. K. Mahanama delivering the keynote address at the National GIC-1919 Conference held at Hotel Galadari, recently.

Placing the GIC in its perspective Dr. Mahanama said that the 'Mahinda Chintana' had covered the whole spectrum of Sri Lanka's economy. Backed by a thorough study of the past it points out what should now be done in the naval, aviation, commercial, energy and knowledge sectors etc., for a better future.

The GIC acclaimed for its promptitude, courtesy, accuracy, personal interest, tenacity and on-going improvement through advanced technology could percolate into government institutions and play a pivotal role in making Sri Lanka the Knowledge hub of Asia. "We might not be able to reduce the number of letters received daily to five as in Singapore, but substantial time could be put in for productive work with greater public service efficiency", Dr. Mahanama said. Sri Lankan people were prone to address even matters that could be thrashed out at levels nearer home to the Head of State.

However, there is an in-built facility in the GIC project to put forward grievances and complaints. Each complaint is considered carefully, brought to the attention of the relevant office and the caller is sent a reply with regard to his complaint with confidentiality maintained at all times.

ICTA Chairman Professor P.W. Epasinghe said that the GIC over the past four years had promptly, accurately and courteously responded to over 235,000 public calls. "GIC now operates seven days a week, 365 days a year for 12 hours each day from 8 am to 8 pm and provides information in all three languages Sinhala, Tamil and English in a very courteous manner through multiple channels.

This service obtained simply by dialing 1919 makes it easier for people and organizations to obtain information relating to government departments and State banks.

It commenced with 15 government organisations, but now represents over 134 organisations.

Its first call resolution rate is 94 percent. This is most important in improving customer satisfaction. The average speed of answer is 11 seconds of being in the queue."

ICTA Re-engineering Government Program Director Wasanta Deshapriya presented the GIC annual report (May 2009 - April 2010), and also an overview of the GIC from its launch in 2006 up to date under the direct supervision of Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and guidance of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Pointing out that a large percentage of people were still going through much discomfort by limiting the service they get from the GIC only as an informant of telephone numbers of government institutions, Mr. Deshapriya said: "People should not have to first call the GIC for the telephone number of the relevant government institution and then call the institution concerned; instead in one call they could ask the GIC for the required information.

For example they could ask the GIC what documents should be taken for submitting an application for a driving licence. An apt slogan for GIC would be 'By dialling 1919 - you can ask for more than a telephone number'."

The audience of about 350 officers representing some 134 government institutions including 14 ministries, 47 departments and 15 government banks and 58 statutory bodies that are currently covered by GIC was also avid listeners to a talk on 'Role of the GIC in a knowledge society' by ICTA Chief Operating Officer Reshan Dewapura.

He said that the GIC had won world awards (WSA 2008, GTA runner-up 2007) and was known even among people in the remotest village and contributed to creating a knowledge society.

"In a knowledge society, information is a key factor which decides the level of life standards.

In such a society people use their brains more than their hands in their work and personal lives.

There, people create, share and use knowledge for the prosperity and well-being of its people.

In a knowledge society people build their lives around information which can be processed into knowledge soon afterwards," he said.

Attesting that these principles were applied in the GIC project Dewapura pointed out that under the e-Sri Lanka initiative which ICTA was mandated to implement, people's lives had become more comfortable by the use of ICT.

People who travelled for hours and stayed overnight at makeshift shelters just to know how to get a document were now able to get not merely the knowledge but the very document to their home by post.

GIC is at the root of the transformation of the society that uses their brains more than their hands, Dewapura said.

Five institutions won awards for their high contribution to the GIC. A 10-criteria scale was strictly adhered to in selecting these winners.

The winning institutions in alphabetical order were Central Environment Authority, Police Department, Registrar General's Department, Registrar of Persons' Department and the Railway Department. Certificates of appreciation were also presented to three GIC personnel.

The down-to-earth questions that were asked and the vivacious discussion that followed added to the formal feedback given in writing that will go a long way in further improving GIC services. A case in point was the question on what could be done with regard to institutions under the Provincial Councils that are currently not covered by the GIC.

Plausible options were proposed during the discussion which the Presidential Secretariat and ICTA are looking into.

Google launches 'Instant'

Google has sped up its internet search engine by launching ' Instant', a product that displays results as soon as users type in queries.

The service predicts a user's query and modifies the displayed results as more letters are typed into the search box.

The company described it as "search at the speed of thought".

Previously Google's suggested search terms and did not reveal results until the 'enter' key was hit or the 'search' button was clicked.

Google Instant goes live in the next week and on mobile devices by autumn.

The service will initially be rolled out in the US, UK, Spain, Germany, France and Russia.

Challenge to Microsoft?

In a demonstration t held at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art, Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of search products and user experience, typed in 'sfm' into the search box to demonstrate the new service. As she typed, result 'SF MOMA' the first predicted search result.

In another demo, when the letter 'w' was entered, a list of links offering the "weather" appeared along with images showing the temperature.

"We've actually predicting what query you are likely to do and we're giving you results for that," said Ms Mayer.

Google estimates that the typical user spends nine seconds entering a query and 15 seconds looking for answers.

The company says Google Instant could save between two and five seconds off a typical web search.

"Google is betting all they have that speed is everything," Harry McCracken of technology blog Technologizer.com told the BBC.

"Saving one or two seconds isn't that big of a deal. One of my instant thoughts is that I am going to see results I don't want because until I type enough that it knows what I want, it is going to show me links I am not interested in."

Technology commentator Robert Scoble said that the new feature would present a real challenge to Microsoft search engine Bing, which has been slowly chipping away at Google's lead in the search market.

"Playing with it, it dramatically changes the way I do searches.

I think it is a pretty major leap forward but this means that Bing becomes far less interesting and they now have to step up," said Mr Scoble.

Microsoft currently commands around 11percent of the US search market compared to Google's 66percent according to research firm Comscore.

Bing has gradually increased its market share since launch, although its growth has recently slowed.

IT/BPO sectors emerge as growth areas for BOI

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka granted investment approval to Senit Technologies Limited and Vingrows Business Solutions Limited to commence operations under the BOI.

The IT/BPO industry in Sri Lanka is witnessing remarkable growth due to the expansion of the global BPO industry. IT adoption in Sri Lanka is also increasing significantly, driven by the awareness created by the initiatives taken to build IT capacity and competence in Sri Lanka.

The Board of Investment having identified the IT sector as a priority growth sector for economic development, provides many incentives to promote investments.

The country is emerging as an offshore outsourcing destination for specialised outsourced services. The combined IT and IT enabled services sector has grown remarkably.

The agreement signed with Senit Technologies Limited is for a venture to provide Ecommerce Solutions for the local and international hotel industry. The venture sponsored by Roomsnet International is an investment of US $ 200,000. The company expects to provide employment for 20 Sri Lankan IT professionals.

Vingrows Business Solutions signed an agreement to provide web based services to Sri Lankan expatriates.

The web solution developed will allow users to request services on real estate, medical and travel sectors. The venture representing an investment of US $ 150,000 will provide employment for 20.

The growing IT enabled services industry in Sri Lanka offers a unique advantage for enterprises to enjoy premium access to a high quality talent pool, which is becoming increasingly challenging to large established destinations.