IT-BPM industry aims at US$ 5b revenue by 2022

By Lalin Fernandopulle

Sri Lanka's IT-BPM (Business Process Management) industry should be a vibrant brand to attract outsourcing business and be a one billion dollar industry, said IFS Sri Lanka President and CEO Jayantha de Silva.

He said that the country has been the focus and not the industry as a potential outsourcing destination. The IT-BPM industry in Sri Lanka which comprises a large number of professionals could compete with any country and be ahead of them.

ATKearney, a global management consultancy firm, ranked Sri Lanka among the top 25 destinations in their global ranking during the past three consecutive rankings.

Gartner, an American information technology research and advisory firm, ranked Sri Lanka among the top 30 global locations.

De Silva said that the Sri Lanka Association for Software Service Companies (SLASSCOM), the umbrella organisation for software companies in Sri Lanka, has launched many initiatives to build the IT-BPM brand and facilitate start-ups to be major outsourcing business entities in the country. SLASSCOM comprises around 160 members from around 300 software service entities in the country.

The IT-BPM industry recorded impressive growth during the past five years with export revenue increasing from US$ 213 million in 2007 to US$ 720 million last year.

Employment generated by the industry grew from 33,700 in 2007 to over 75,000 in 2013 and the number of companies rose from 170, five years ago to 220 last year.

“The IT-BPM industry's brand position improved significantly during the past five years. The recent ‘Outsourcing Destination of the Year' award in UK presented by the National Outsourcing Association validates the enormous potential of Sri Lanka's IT-BPM industry,” De Silva said.

The IT-BPM industry aims at inspiring a wave of growth during the next 10 years. The industry stakeholders, policy makers and academia have pooled resources to achieve the three goals of attracting an export revenue of US$ five billion by 2022, 200,000 direct employment opportunities and 1,000 new start-up companies.

Sri Lanka's competitive advantage in the IT-BPM industry is built around agility, cost, niche talent base, ethics and cultural adaptability. The industry's focus is to drive on two fronts for the next wave of growth. The BPM front continues to build on finance and accounting as the primary global niche while in IT, the competitive position of product engineering is becoming a formidable advantage with many global and local outsourcing product engineering work in Sri Lanka.

De Silva said that building industry capacity is a major challenge. SLASSCOM has launched educational programs from primary to tertiary level to enhance and harness the IT skills of youth.

Sri Lanka has a potential IT-BPM industry but it needs government support to develop it. There should be IT professionals in all government institutions who could interact with the IT industry.

“The IT-BPM industry needs a good business model to attract business without bureaucratic red tape.

With the recovery of the global economy, the demand for IT-BPM software and services increased to around US$ 1.2 billion last year, a 4.5 percent growth over 2012,” he said.

“In terms of the growth outlook, the global BPM market alone, a vital sector for Sri Lanka is expected to reach US$ 209 billion by 2017,” de Silva said.