Big, bold steps for the IT industry - Financial Times

By Tharindri Rupesinghe Courtesey http://www.sundaytimes.lk/080330/FinancialTimes/ft329.html

A highly professional, highly paid industry is how Madu Ratnayaka, General Manager of global IT-solution provider Virtusa, describes the growing IT sector in the country. Virtusa itself, founded by Kris Canekeratne, a Sri Lankan, in Boston USA, has been highly involved in the rapid growth of developing Sri Lanka as a destination for high-class IT and BPO solutions.

Their most recent triumph has been winning the HRM Gold Award for its HR practices.

“We are primarily people-based, they are the main asset of the company,” says Ishan Dantanarayana, Director of HR, Asia Head of HR, CCT business Unit. He explained that the main attraction Virtusa had for its basically young employee base is the challenge. “The work is intellectually challenging and they are forced to be creative,” he said. The firm allows them career growth as well as well as a clear structure that allows for respect as well as openness. “We have a firm open-door policy,” he said.

What most young people see as a main advantage for joining the IT industry is the fact that the boundaries attached to it are stretchable and almost non-existent. “Software management is not as mature as everyone thinks it is,” said Ratnayaka, going on to explain that the industry is still young enough to need a lot of backup. At Virtusa, the global team has a system of connectivity that enables anyone in the loop to post questions online on their domain regarding any problem they have, and someone from the 4,800 people employed all over the world would answer it within minutes. “The people here get global exposure as well as a fantastic experience in a short time span,” said Ratnayaka.

Lack of capacity

“The main problem we face today is the lack of capacity for IT graduates,” said Ratnayaka, confirming that Sri Lanka has a massive supply constraint problem that lies mainly in the fact that the local universities cannot cater to the current excess demand for IT graduates at all. The fact that foreign universities that are trying to set up here are being barred for political reasons does nothing to help the situation.

Also according to him, there is a high drop-out ratio among those who do join the various ICT course, “because they have no support, no motivation.” The situation is prevalent mainly in areas outside Colombo. It is a reflection of the situation that Ratnayaka says that locally they have competition talent-wise, but not business-wise.

To overcome the barrier of lack of capacity, one of Virtusa’s CSR projects is the “Campus Reach” programme that works with local universities and officials to increase the existing capacity. Since the company mainly recruits graduates the cause is close to their heart. They have so far collaborated with the administration divisions of most of universities in the island to develop and update the ICT curriculum, train lecturers and involve Virtusa officials in the teaching programmes. They also have close to 150 students from the universities interning at Virtusa. The response of the universities has been promising, “You don’t have to go behind them,” he says. The authorities appear to have woken up to the essentiality of IT in the modern world.

Leapfrogging an era

Sri Lanka has leapfrogged an era, says the General Manager. “We missed out on the Internet boom and the PC generation when it was in full force in Europe and the USA, but now have an amazing rate of technology adoption and mobile density. Yet the IT literacy rate in the island is a pitiful 10 percent only, according to a survey done by the ICTA,” he said.

The IT infrastructure in the island is of course plagued by the civil war, a fact that Ratnayaka admits has been a major cause of client hesitancy to invest or engage with Virtusa Sri Lanka. He also sees the costs of telecommunication and electricity (with the newly added tariffs) as not low enough to fully facilitate the IT industry.

The steps that have been taken so far are alright he says but not enough. Including ICT in the school curriculum he sees as a “radical change” while the government’s ‘Nenasala’ programme to set up IT-kiosks across the island he termed, “ great but won’t change the industry”.

Big, bold steps in the industry

When Virtusa decided to expand from the USA, the destination they chose was India. According to Ratnayaka and Dantanarayana, taking an example from India would be the best idea, he says. They made IT a national priority, which was a turning point in their country and the industry as a whole.

A large investment was channelled into IT infrastructure and personnel training, paying off in the form of India fast becoming the most sought after destination for cheap IT and BPO services. “We need to take big, bold steps in this industry,” said Ratnayaka.

If the state were to encourage and facilitate the foreign colleges and institutions which are willing and even eager to set up here, the massive shortfall of graduates could be dealt with. Also, getting more industry officials involved in the IT struggle would have a beneficial effect.

Success lies in Sri Lanka realising a niche market and working toward developing high-end services.“The Sri Lankan IT/BPO industry has the potential to be the highest revenue gainer within the next 10 years,” says the positive Ratnayaka.

VILLAGE BPO SERVING BLUE-CHIPS

This article appeared in The Sunday Leader on March 02, 2008

A village based business process outsourcing  (BPO) service that handles part of the backoffice operations of Sri Lanka’s largest diversified company, has also been contracted by the country’s biggest telecoms operator, whilst having talks to provide similar services to Sri Lanka’s largest white goods supplier.

This BPO operation located at Mahawillachchiya, Anuradhapura, that processes data of suppliers’ to John Keells supermarket chain (a process that began some months ago) has now been employed by Dialog Telekom to process some of their market research data, Dilip Jayawickrama, Projects Director, Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunity in Sri Lanka (FARO), an NGO, told The Sunday Leader.

FARO, which was among seven NGOs to receive World Bank grants of Rs. five million each through the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) on Wednesday  to develop ICT opportunities to the rural and disadvantaged people, provides support to this BPO operation in Mahavillachchiya.

The village youth involved in this project, some eight of them, had their basics right, that is having a working knowledge of English and in the use of computers, due to the work of another NGO, Horizon, said Jayaweera.

“This made it possible for our entry, such a foundation has to be first laid before we can move in,” he added. Jayaweera said that outsourcing of this work by Keells has helped them to cut costs, with eight of their staff who were involved in this work earlier, being relocated to other departments.

He alleged that Dialog which hit the top in a short span of under 15 years, with most, if not all of their work done inhouse, were somewhat cautious in outsourcing their work, though a start has been made, with some of their market research data being now handled at Mahavillachchiya.

In the case of Singer, talks have been initiated, with no business deals having been yet procured, he said. Jayaweera further said that he wants to start a similar BPO unit in Seenigama, a village which was devastated in the recent tsunami.

The performance of BPO employees in January has further improved

The performance of OnTime BPO employees in January has further improved.

Name                Performance against industry standards                Quality Audit Score        Fatal Error Accuracy Score
Isuru                        1.69                                                                      100%                                99.27%
Nadeeka                1.95                                                                    99.91%                           99.93%
Nilanka                   1.65                                                                       99.88%                          99.27%

The Performance of Isuru, Nadeeka and Nilanka at OnTime BPO

The performance of Isuru, Nadeeka and Nilanka at OnTime BPO for the month of December could be summarised as follows. The customer, John Keells Holdings announced an attractive incentive for the three best performers and will continue to do so.

Name                Performance against industry standards                Quality Audit Score
Isuru                        1.31                                        100%                        100%
Nadeeka                  1.29                                        100%                        100%
Nilanka                    1.17                                        99.96%                        99.96%

Computerboekhouders met uitzicht op rimboe

This article about OnTime Technologies BPO appeared in

www.volkskrant.nl Dutch language.

Computerboekhouders met uitzicht op rimboe
Winnaars Verliezers
Olav Velthuis
AMSTERDAM
AMSTERDAM Van binnen lijkt het Sri Lankaanse OnTime een doodgewoon outsourcingscentrum, zij het een van klein formaat: een kale ruimte met bureaus waarop computers staan. Jonge medewerkers voeren achter die computers gegevens in.
Maar stap naar buiten en je staat midden in de rimboe van het plattelandsdorp Mahavilachchiya. Dicht in de buurt ligt een natuurreservaat waar olifanten, beren en luipaarden vrij rondlopen. Veel dorpsbewoners leven er van hun rijstvelden.
De belangrijkste kracht achter OnTime is Nandasiri Wanninayaka, dorpsbewoner, leraar Engels en beroemdheid in Sri Lanka omdat hij Mahavilachchiya naar het digitale tijdperk loodste: het hele dorp heeft draadloos internet, een op de acht bewoners bezit een computer, en het lezen van online-kranten is een doodgewone bezigheid.
De stichting Faro (Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunity) benaderde Wanni met het voorstel die digitale infrastructuur ook commercieel te exploiteren. Faro selecteerde twee jeugdleiders en stuurde hen naar het buitenland om ze te scholen in outsourcing.
OnTime ging in mei van start en heeft nu twee klanten: Dialog, het grootste telecombedrijf van Sri Lanka, en John Keells, naar marktwaarde het grootste bedrijf dat onder meer actief is in vastgoed, het toerisme en de transportsector. Voor de laatste voeren de werknemers van OnTime onder meer prijzen in het boekhoudsysteem in. Over een contract met de Amerikaanse naaimachinemaker Singer wordt onderhandeld.
Kapila Gunawardana van Faro laat per e-mail weten dat de onderneming inmiddels bijna quitte speelt - het is uitdrukkelijk niet de bedoeling geld te blijven steken in OnTime. De tarieven die het rekent komen overeen met die van 'traditionele' outsourcingscentra in de Sri Lankaanse hoofdstad Colombo.
Zou het niet efficiënter zijn om plattelandsbewoners aan een baan te helpen bij outsourcingscentra in de stad? Gunawardana vindt van niet. 'Ze zijn zeer blij dat ze geld kunnen verdienen terwijl ze thuis blijven wonen.' Het alternatief was geweest in militaire dienst te gaan (voor jongens), bij een textielfabriek te gaan werken (voor meisjes) of voor een hongerloontje op het platteland blijven werken. OnTime combineert de geneugten van het platteland zoals de natuur en het familieleven, met die van de stad: werk.
Het plan is om soortgelijke centra ook in andere dorpen te beginnen. Gunawardana schat dat ze 35 duizend dollar per stuk kosten. Daarvoor krijg je vijf computers, internet, en opleiding van het personeel.

Olav Velthuis

Winnaars: plattelandsbewoners in Sri Lanka.
Waarom: kunnen vanuit het dorp outsourcing aanbieden.

Sri Kanth walks tall in the IT world

We reproduce this inspirational story about another rural BPO with the courtesy to Sunday Times. Original Link http://www.sundaytimes.lk/071202/Plus/plus00011.html  (Also read the post at  http://www.lirneasia.net/2007/12/another-rural-shoring-initiative-in-sri-lanka/)

Sri Kanth walks tall in the IT world

By Patrick Harrigan

If you think people with disabilities never get ahead in life, think again! Some of Sri Lanka’s leaders in fast-track industries, including Information & Communications Technology (ICT), come under this category. On August 1, this year in New Delhi, 25 ICT champions representing countries including Sri Lanka were honoured as Fellows of the Jamshetji Tata National Virtual Academy (NVA), along with 600 Indian grassroots leaders, by Prof. M.S. Swaminathan and Prof. Rajshekharan Pillai, the Vice Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University.

According to one Indian newspaper report, “One of the Fellows, a Nanasala operator from Sri Lanka, informed that his telecentre is accepting Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) work from Delhi, India and their client is satisfied with their output!” The Fellow was Selvaratnam Sri Kanthan of Koslanda, or Sri Kanth as the diminutive rural ICT champion is best known among Sri Lanka’s 454 ICTA-sponsored Nanasalas, or Rural Knowledge Centres.

Sri Kanth

Sri Kanth was born in 1973 to Saraswati (a native of Tiruchy) and Selvaratnam, a school principal and native of Koslanda. Sri Kanth, his younger brother Chandra Kanth, and their older sister Prema were born with the same congenital condition (dwarfism) – they are unusually short and suffer from debilitating bone conditions that hinder normal mobility and dexterity.

Their condition made it difficult to attend school with other children, or to engage in normal activities. Chandra Kanth is affected to an extent that severely limits his mobility and dexterity. Sri Kanth alone works and travels to support his family since their father’s retirement.

At the age of 16, Sri Kanth moved to Colombo where he worked for ten years as a sales clerk, cashier and storekeeper. In 2000 he started his own offset printing press in Koslanda. Working as a team, the family including father, mother and three siblings, managed to earn a modest living.

In 2005 they learned that the Information & Communications Technology Agency (ICTA) had launched an initiative to create Nanasalas or ICT-based Rural Knowledge Centres in economically backward areas. The family applied and in April 2005 their Nanasala (www.nanasala.org) opened its doors to Koslanda villagers, most of whom had never before seen a computer. Since then, Koslanda Nanasala has introduced hundreds of villagers to Information Technology, and is today recognized as one of Sri Lanka’s best in terms of innovation and range of services to nearby communities.

The Koslanda Nanasala’s success is due to teamwork between Sri Kanth, brother Chandra Kanth who is an expert at hardware and network administration, and sister Prema, who manages the Nanasala. Their shared disability drives them to be innovative and hard working. Through ICT, social networking and constant learning, they are discovering—and sharing—novel ways of problem solving.

Sri Kanth with brother Chandra Kanth and sister Prema

His family’s experience with disabilities—and their success after a long struggle to overcome social stereotypes and economic handicaps—led him and his family to want to help other families suffering from poverty and disabilities, starting with those in the hill country, where poverty and isolation are especially severe among families of the handicapped.

The Selvaratnam family, through a network of Nanasalas in Badulla District and with help from the Sri Lanka Children’s Trust, created the Hill Country Disability Group. Without even waiting for funds, they launched their own newsletter and website (www.hcdg.org). By rallying support for their cause and implementing novel pilot projects, they have earned praise from families, government officials and sponsors alike.

From the start, their philosophy has been not to stigmatize the handicapped further by merely targeting them for charity, but rather to seek imaginative solutions whereby persons with disabilities can become economically self-sufficient. Improved health, sanitation and education all play important roles. But emphasis is upon empowering the disabled to become economically self-reliant.

Notably, the Selvaratnam family has engaged other Nanasala operators in Badulla district. The Nanasala operators meet quarterly, and are in almost daily contact via phone and broadband Internet. Through their ICT-enabled network, the Nanasala operators are helping families living with disabilities to apply for monthly support stipends issued by the National Secretariat for Persons with Disabilities, with forms in Sinhala and Tamil available on the Group’s website.

Despite his handicap, Sri Kanth, always talkative, sociable, speaks three languages, travels ceaselessly and is a common sight in villages and towns in Badulla District, where he initiated and leads the Uva Province Telecentre Family (www.tcf.lk). Lately he has accepted repeated invitations to lecture to young Nanasala operators in Colombo and on the east coast as well.

Spreading the message: The family at the Koslanda Nanasala

Sri Kanth is also a coordinator of the Telegenetics Project, a joint undertaking of the ICTA, Koslanda Nanasala, Kurunegala Base Hospital and the Human Genetics Unit of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, that uses ICT to facilitate remote diagnosis of genetic disorders among families in remote areas. Of special interest to the Nanasala community has been Sri Kanth’s work in the field of BPO or Business Process Outsourcing. As BPO partner with NLingua Services of New Delhi, a voice transcription and translation service, his Nanasala employs Koslanda residents to translate and transcribe audio files from Tamil or Sinhala into English, or vice versa.

Sri Kanth recently launched BeePeeO Data Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (www.BeePeeO.com) that outsources work among Nanasalas, serving corporate customers in Sri Lanka and abroad. He was feted at the ICTA-sponsored 10th Private Sector Forum in Colombo on November 20 where the acting Chairman of the ICTA singled out Sri Kanth as a pioneer in promoting BPO as a ‘win-win’ proposition.

Next week the Third Global Knowledge Conference, a unique gathering of 2,000 global visionaries, innovators, practitioners and policy makers, takes place in Kuala Lumpur.

“I will also be there,” says Sri Kanth, proudly but modestly. In fact, he leads the small delegation of rural Nanasala operators who have managed, despite all odds, to find a way to attend it. Says Sri Kanth, always the optimist, “The best is yet to come!”

AuxiCogent to expand BPO operation - Mahavilachchiya a role model:

Ronnie F. Peiris

by Surekha Galagoda

AuxiCogent International (Pvt) Ltd, the BPO operation under the JKH umbrella has just concluded a contract with a client based in USA for 500 seats (the BPO industry pays by the seats).

In six weeks we hope to start the operation with 40-60 persons and ramp up to 500 within 6-8 months, said Group Finance Director John Keells Holdings PLC J. Ronnie F. Peiris.

He said, “we are confident that the manpower can be found within the next 6-8 months with the support and help of our Shared Services office Infomate and CSR initiative at Mahavilachchiya, a model BPO. They have to be trained and we are happy to do that.” He said that the success of the first step gives us the impetus that this model will succeed.

Some challenges are difficult to solve on our own. Therefore we will need the support of officials in the government sector to solve these issues. From the JKH point of view this is an element of an overall strategy, the first step towards establishing a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.

One of the reasons we chose the BPO industry was because Sri Lanka has the critical success factors for a BPO industry to flourish such as the supply of quality manpower, particularly in the finance and accounting fields. We may not have the numbers as in India but we certainly have quality in the limited numbers we have.

JKH looked at the numbers and the quality and decided to engage in areas we can optimise the return on the limited supply that is available in Sri Lanka in accounting. In Colombo there is a fair number but out of Colombo it is very low.

We then realised that the whole success of the BPO industry was not only based on having these higher level analytical people but also having more people who are good but may not have the analytical knowledge but who are able to support the analysis - people who can be entrusted with a fairly regular process be trained in that process and ultimately be good in that process.

You have the analytical people who are supported by the processes to give out the information. These are the repetitive processes, which are important for the success of outsourcing. You can do outsourcing in many forms. The most common form is to do a repetitive process where they analyse them and up the process which results in efficiency levels increasing by the day, he said.

JKH has a shared service named Infomate Ltd that employs 70 energetic people who are either following accountancy examinations or are graduates. They provide accountancy support to all our 70 companies.

This venture was started two-and-a-half years ago. Our companies were used as a guinea pig to understand the pros and cons which helped them to develop their skills. This is a parallel step towards entering the BPO industry. In BPO we talk to International competitors.

He said that “we at JKH don’t market a product unless we are confident and can satisfy the customer. Therefore, it would have been foolhardy to do it two-and-a-half years ago without having the experience in that area. But now with all the experience, we are confident that we can match to international standards”.

He said the opportunity we came across in Mahavilachchiya was glorious and in this day and age where connectivity was not a problem. If people are skilled or they have the potential to be trained then they can be trained. There is nothing magical about these skills as anybody with O/L or JSC can be trained.

The youth of Horizon Lanka Foundation from Mahavilachchiya have the yearning to succeed but lacked the opportunity. Therefore we were happy to give the opportunity for them to go forward. When we get involved we do it well, that has been the JKH policy.

We got the COO of Infomate involved and gave an incentive to the students during the training period. Now we pay them on a per transaction basis and we have got a tracking mechanism.

It is working extremely well and we are confident that we can expand it quite rapidly. It is not only a part of our business plan but also it enmeasures with our CSR objective.

We at JKH firmly believe that for CSR to succeed there should be a sustainable development. For this to be a reality it should get linked to your business otherwise it becomes philanthropy. We try to make it a part of our business so that with the growth of our business they also grow, he said.

For example we have the ginger farmers producing ginger for the CCC ginger beer. Similarly at Walkers Tours we arrange financing and all the people own the vehicles and they work for the various people we bring in. it is a sustainable development. Similarly in the BPO industry this is also fitted with the sustainable development program.

This showed that a massive potential exists in the country and if we can extend it to the East where there are well-educated English-speaking youth it will help solve a lot of problems in that area. The BPO operation is based on labour arbitrage and the cost difference between a low level accounts clerk in USA and Sri Lanka are 11:1.

He said the working ethics and culture in Sri Lanka are very high and strong, though modernism has to some extent eroded it. Therefore if we are really keen we can expand the BPO operation, he said.

We are no grumblers and we see and look for opportunities at every point, he said.

surekha@sundayobserver.lk

TECHNOLOGY-SRI LANKA: Leapfrogging Out of Poverty on IT - IPS Website

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39814

By Feizal Samath

MAHAVILACHCHIYA, Oct 26 (IPS) - In a north-central village, deep inside Sri Lanka’s backwoods, a young man is glued to a computer screen, pushing a mouse and filling in figures.

Isuru Senevirathna is entering data at Sri Lanka’s first Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) company set up in a village, and probably among the first in the world that is surrounded by tall trees, bird calls, paddy fields and streams.

“It’s nice to be able to do a job like this,” the 20-year-old youth, operations director of OnTime Pvt. Ltd, told IPS..

BPO is a growing IT business which Sri Lanka has taken to quite capably. Dozens of companies are now springing up in Colombo as the world’s best corporations look for cost-effective ways of handling their back-office operations in countries where labour and communications are cheaper than in the West.

But OnTime’s setting, next to a wildlife park, and subject to the occasional threat by Tamil Tiger guerrillas, makes it unique. Mahavilachchiya lies 250 km north of Colombo and the fact that it is close to the ancient town of Anuradhapura is an added feature.

OnTime owes its existence to the vision of Nandasiri Wanninayaka (better known as ‘Wanni’), an English teacher-turned village entrepreneur. Except for its sylvan location it is no different from the rest of the BPO industry. It boasts of such clients as John Keells, Sri Lanka’ biggest conglomerate, and once the blinds are drawn and with air-conditioners running, it could well be an office in downtown Colombo.

OnTime operators log into an accounting system through a secured link and enter data like prices and inventories. Some 150 documents are handled by one operator per day. New client negotiating with OnTime include Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka’s biggest mobile phone operator, and Singer, a multinational known for its sewing machines.

“The BPO entry came as we needed to create job opportunities for our youngsters to remain in the village after their initial training in English and IT,” said Wanni.

OnTime is a part of the ‘Horizon Lanka’ initiative launched by Wanni, while still a schoolteacher, in 1998. Starting off as an English teaching exercise for the children of rice farmers, its scope widened dramatically following the gift of a personal computer by the United States embassy.

From there the village quickly progressed into a centre of IT learning where one in every eight families now has a computer (a ratio of 100 computers for 800 families). Impoverished farmers are now reading online newspapers in their ramshackle homes with the help of seven wifi nodes set up using ‘MESH’ technology. The villages have wireless Internet access at all times.

Wanni and his Horizon Lanka exploits are legendary and have been profiled in newspapers and other media across the world. The IT village’s big moment came when Wanni and his best students shared the stage with Intel chairman Craig Barrett in December 2005, during the latter’s visit to Sri Lanka.

Wanni said the idea of setting up a BPO emerged as he pondered over the next stage of development. “Having taught English and then IT, the next issue was where do they get jobs? How can we retain them in the village?”

Enter the Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunities in Sri Lanka (FAROLanka) to help Horizon set up its BPO and find its first client. FARO’s help however comes with conditions — Wanni’s support and guidance to help other villages develop on similar lines.

Sponsored by John Keells, OnTime staff received BPO training in Laos and India. For other Mahavilachchiya youngsters, the choice of careers is limited to joining the armed forces (in the case of girls it’s garment factories) or remain in the village as a farmer.

OnTime’s CEO Nirosh Manjula Ranathunga, a 30-year-old university graduate who studied IT while doing his commerce degree, lives in Anuradhapura and visits Horizon only twice a week as he says he can handle operations from his hometown easily over Internet.

Ranathunga is interested in transferring his skills and learning to other villages. “I joined Horizon Lanka two years ago as a project manager and am very happy with this BPO initiative,” he said. Some 50 youths are now being trained to take up BPO jobs in Mahavilachchiya.

In a reversal of sorts, boys and girls from the cities are now visiting Horizon Lanka. “They come here to learn from us,” said Wanni.

Because of their English speaking and writing skills, youngsters here are beginning to write software programmes for overseas companies and individuals earning foreign exchange. They have a far better future — compared to youths from other villages — as computer programmers, software programmers and in related jobs.

“This (OnTime) has helped us to take on the world from this small hamlet,” says 24-year-old Chamila Priyadharshini. Currently in a state-sponsored teachers training course for English, Tamil (language of the biggest minority group) and Japanese, Priyadharshini says she wants to be a trained teacher in three years and spends her spare time teaching IT and English at the Horizon centre.

Replete with a modern gym, video and audio equipment and other electronic modern gadgetry the centre prepares youth for a life in the city, should they choose move out.

Wanni’s current target? ‘’I want to send at least one youngster from here to the prestigious MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the United States.’’

IT rumble in the jungle - Financial Times Editorial

Source: http://www.sundaytimes.lk/071021/FinancialTimes/ft306.html

Fancy having city kids go into the village to learn? Usually it’s the other way around. But the Horizon Lanka IT village at Mahavilachchiya in Anuradhapura plays host to students from the cities and towns keen on learning IT and this small hamlet has taken Sri Lankan skills to a different plane on this planet.

Sri Lanka’s first IT village, Horizon Lanka, where a group of youth processes data for a fee has given city folk and policy planners many lessons. The first and most important lesson is that English is vital in a globalised world and for those education planners who think they should disturb the current English language education stream in government schools and provide a mix of English and Sinhalese subjects, the message from this small village is don’t!

If not for English and subsequently IT (without English you cannot learn IT), Mahavilachchiya would have been a backward village, unheard and unsung where youngsters grow up joining the military, garment factories or idle as Arts graduates without jobs.

Now because of their almost-perfect English speaking and writing skills, these youngsters are writing software programmes for overseas companies and individuals earning foreign exchange and laptops as gifts.

They have a far better future – than youth from other villages — as computer programmers, software programmers and in connected jobs.

Unlike the city where people grumble about food costs, unruly politicians, politics and the peace process, Mahavilachchiya residents spend their time in more productive ways. There is no huge debate about the plight of the country despite the fact that the village lies next to the Wilpattu National Park and on the Mannar border and even though some men have been abducted apparently by the Tigers.

Here farmers read online newspapers at home after a hard day’s work with the help of donated computers and Wifi-zones; children study English and IT after school and soon become computer geeks having their own blogs and get a training at the Horizon Lanka complex to prepare themselves for city life. There is a modern gym, video and audio CD players and other modern gadgetry so that village youth know how to deal with city life.

It’s like a village in motion heading towards a dream, parts of which have been fulfilled and a few more parts to be filled. Horizon founder Wanni’s dream is to send a youngster to the prestigious MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the US and given the commitment of these children and support from others, that’s most likely to happen in the not-too-distant-future.

The irony is that while Mahavilachchiya youngsters have access to modern technology via the Internet and sophisticated IT equipment like Wifi zones and massive transmission towers like city youth, they are un-spoilt by these trappings.

For example the BP operations director has no complaints about his less than Rs 10,000 salary and proudly says he saved enough to buy a motor cycle.

The youngsters are also competent in making power point presentations in English while their blogs have drawn comments and input from across the world. The success of this IT village in the jungle is expected to see a similar transformation of other villages with the help of Wanni and his dedicated band of IT experts.

English and IT are the only way forward as Mahavilachchiya has proved in its newest state of progression into BPO outfits to provide jobs. Without English, no country can progress in the globalised world while without IT we would be left behind as others in the region develop at a faster pace.

These are lessons from a small village for policymakers and the business community with the most important being — we need to be more productive than spending time on politics!

BPO in the Anuradhapura backwoods

Source: http://www.sundaytimes.lk/071021/FinancialTimes/ft301.html

MAHAVILACHCHIYA, Anuradhapura - Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) is a growing business globally which Sri Lanka has now cottoned onto quite capably.

Dozens of BPO’s are springing up here as global companies look for cost effective ways of handling their back-office operations in countries where labour and communications are cheaper than the west.

Yet ever heard of a BPO company in a jungle setting, next to a wild life park and subject to the occasional threat by the LTTE? OnTime Pvt Ltd is part of rural Sri Lanka’s first IT village, Horizon Lanka in the backwoods of Mahavilachchiya (adjoining Wilpattu) off Anuradhapura, where a group of youth processes data for a fee.

There is nothing different in the BPO industry in processing information inside the office of the client or the service provider located elsewhere. For example, staff at Mahavilachchiya’s proud company, OnTime, processing marketing data for a John Keells Group subsidiary daily could – if we close the curtains in this nice office surrounded by shady trees and occasional bird calls – very well be inside a JKH office in Colombo. There’s nothing different.

OnTime operators log into a JKH SAP accounting system through a secured link and enter data like prices and quality of suppliers. Some 150 documents are handled by one operator per day. Dialog Telekom and Singer are expected to join OnTime as its next clients with negotiations going on with the two parties.

“The BPO entry came as we needed to create job opportunities for our youngsters to remain in the village after their initial learning in English and IT,” said Nandasiri Wanninayaka (better known as ‘Wanni”), the village boy-English teacher-turned village entrepreneur.

Horizon Lanka, Sri Lanka’s first IT village, is a revelation itself. Launched by Wanni, as a Mahavilachchiya school teacher, in 1998, the initiative began as an English teaching exercise for the children whose parents were mostly rice farmers. From there with one computer donated by the US embassy, impressed by an English journal that the students did, the village has progressed to a centre of IT learning where one in every eight families has a computer (a ratio of 100 computers for 800 families).

Unheard of before but in these backwoods poor farmers are reading online newspapers in the comfort of their makeshift homes with uptodate computers with the help – unbelievable again – of seven wifi zones under a new technology called MESH. Here a section of the village amidst paddy fields and streams has wireless Internet access at all times.

Wanni and his Horizon Lanka exploits are legendary and profiled in newspapers and TV stations across the world. The IT village’s biggest opportunity probably came when Wanni and his best students shared the stage with Intel Chairman Dr. Craig Barrett in December 2005, during the latter’s visit to Sri Lanka and presence at a major IT conference.

The idea of setting up a BPO emerged as Wanni pondered on the next level of development. “Having taught English and then IT, the next issue was where do they get jobs? How can we retain them in the village?” he asked.

Enter the Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunities in Sri Lanka (FAROLanka) to help Horizon set up its BPO and find its first client. FARO’s help however comes with some conditions – Wanni’s support and guidance to help other villages to develop on similar lines which the latter and his team are more than willing to do.

Isuru Senevirathna is OnTime’s Operations Director. He has received BPO training – along with another OnTime employee – in Laos and India sponsored by John Keells.

The 20-year old youth like any other Mahavilachchiya youngster would have had to either join the armed forces (in the case of girls it’s garment factories) or remain in the village as a farmer, until Wanni and his vision came along. Now Isuru is the proud owner of a motor cycle, happy and contended.

OnTime CEO is Nirosh Manjula Ranathunga, a 30 year-old graduate from Kelaniya University who studied IT while doing his B.Com degree. Ranathunga, who lives in Anuradhapura and visits Horizon twice a week saying he can handle operations from his home town easily through email/Internet, is also interested in transferring his skills and learning to other villages. He has his own company, Real Business Solutions, and runs a formerly-owned Horizon Lanka cyber café in Anuradhapura.

“I joined Horizon Lanka two years ago as a project manager and I’am very happy with this BPO initiative,” he said. Some 50 youths are being trained to take up BPO jobs in Mahavilachchiya which has a modern computer lab with 512 KBPS Internet connection. The Horizon Lanka website is www.horizonlanka.org