NEWS IN Brief

Zone24x7 wins export award

Zone24x7 won the Presidential Award for High Tech and Innovative Product at the Presidential Awards 2014/15 organized by the Export Development Board (EBD) recently.

Zone24x7 won this award for 2014 and 2015..

Zone24x7 Inc. is a global end-to-end technology innovations company, set up in 2003, and headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. The BOI-approved Advanced Technology Centre, Zone24x7 (Pvt) Ltd and the Research Centre in the University of Moratuwa are based in Sri Lanka.

Zone24x7 (Pvt) Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary by Zone24x7 Inc. The company perceives leading edge Research and Development as a priority in serving areas of innovation services, embedded systems, testing and software product engineering.

Zone24x7 was founded by Llavan Fernando, the CEO of the company. Llavan is also an advisor to Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM). The company is the innovations partner to two of the top three department stores in the world.

PromoLanka Group wins quality award

PromoLanka Group was presented the BID International Quality Summit Award in the Gold category for 2016, at a ceremony in New York recently. The award was received by PromoLanka Group Chairman and Managing Director Azad Mansoor during the BID International Quality Summit Convention - a gathering of professionals and business leaders from around the world to recognise excellence in quality management.

PromoLanka Chairman and Managing Director Azad Mansoor said, "Our commitment to quality has ensured the success of our products and services."

"This award is a reaffirmation of that continued commitment to further improving our processes and supply systems, ensuring that customers in the hospitality industry receive the best quality driven, technologically innovative solutions to their needs," he said.

PromoLanka offers turnkey hospitality solutions in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The extensive PromoLanka portfolio also includes EuroKitchens Trading and Contracting (Pvt) Ltd and PromoLanka Marketing.

Singapore Airlines, Silk Air introduce travel promotion

Singapore Airlines and Silk Air have launched the 'The Great Singapore Airlines Getaway', a travel promotion program that offers great fares to the world's top destinations, along with a variety of perks to make travelling more rewarding, the airline said in a press release.

"Our flights departing on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and also daily services will give our customers great connections to Australia such as Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Singapore Airlines now offers over 100 flights weekly to these Australian cities," it said.

NIBM charts strategic direction with MTI

The National Institute of Business Management (NIBM) has selected MTI Consulting to develop a Ground Zero based six-year corporate plan for the period 2016-2021 to strategize the institute's future direction. Director, Productivity Management and Development of NIBM, Dr. D. M. A. Kulasooriya said, "It is a pleasure to work with MTI again and the corporate plan will enable NIBM to streamline a variety of programs to attract more students."

He said the corporate plan will also tap into areas of consultancy and training along with education.

MTI's Senior International Consultant Jason Cordier said, "The corporate plan will focus on developing implementable programs to equip NIBM to be a high quality educational institute in Sri Lanka continuing to help its students to embrace the challenging global dynamics in the workforce."

NIBM has had a legacy of operating as a Management Education Institution, producing high calibre graduates in Sri Lanka for over four decades. The institute is spread across five regions in the country offering qualifications in Management and IT.

Four years ago, NIBM branched into its degree awarding body, National School of Business Management (NSBM) which is now in the process of establishing the first Green University in Sri Lanka.

Since its inception in 1997, MTI has developed over 510 strategic consulting projects in Corporate Finance, Human Resource Management, Market Research and Technology across 40 countries.

People's Bank awards top GCE O/Level achievers

People's Bank recently presented cash prizes to the students who were ranked All-Island Top 10 at the G.C.E. (O/L) Examination. The felicitation ceremony was held at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo under the auspices of President Maithripala Sirisena. Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, State Minister of Education, Seduvel Sami Radhakrishnan, Secretary to the Ministry of Education, W.M. Bandusena, Commissioner General of Examinations, W.M.N.J. Pushpakumara, Chief Executive Officer/General Manager, People's Bank, N.Vasantha Kumar, Deputy General Manager, Process Management and Quality Assurance, Renuka Jayasinghe, Assistant General Manager, Retail Banking, People's Bank, Sunil Ilukkumbura and principals, teachers and parents of the top performers were also present.

Big Data Meet-up

The Big Data Meet-up, organised by VirtusaPolaris, is a quarterly forum, where industry professionals discuss the latest findings in Big Data tools and technologies and network.

The event attracts a diverse crowd of like-minded individuals across industries and academia with the single passion of handling big data.

This quarter, the forum moved away from the conceptual use of big data to the actual practicality of big data handling with the topic being 'Digging into Big Data with Google's BigQuery and Apache Spark'.

Team Lead at DuoSoftware, Sajeetharan Sinnathurai outlined Google's BigQuery, which is a petabyte scale, low cost analytics data warehouse owned by Google.

Mastercard, Arpico partnership

Mastercard and Richard Pieris Distributors Ltd announced a partnership to offer savings on purchases of fresh produce and a wide selection of fast moving consumer goods. The offer is available to all Mastercard cardholders making purchases at Arpico Supercentres, Arpico Superstores and Arpico Daily Supermarkets throughout Sri Lanka.

Head of Marketing, Richard Pieris Distributors Ltd., Minodh de Sylva said, "We are excited to offer additional savings to customers with Mastercard. With the wide selection of products and superior shopping experience on offer, this partnership is sure to give shoppers added incentive to come shop at Arpico."

Country Manager, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Mastercard, R. B. Santosh Kumar ,said, "At Mastercard, we strive to provide cardholders with more benefits and privileges that are aligned to their evolving lifestyles. Our partnership with Aprico is a step in this direction as we seek to acknowledge our customers for their continued loyalty and add value to every transaction they make through our world-class, secure payment solutions."

Expert to head MTI's Investment Advisory

MTI Consulting, as part of an initiative to scale up its corporate finance and investment advisory practice, has appointed Naushervan 'Naush' Beg, a Canadian-Pakistani with vast international experience in financial services, capital markets, private equity and investment facilitation, to head its Investment Advisory.

Having worked in North America, the Middle East and South Asia, Beg brings a wealth of international experience to the South Asian (Sri Lanka in particular) and the Gulf financial industry.