IT-BPO capacity building strategy launched at NICS 2007

The National IT-BPO Capacity Summit (NICS) 2007 hosted the launching of the key strategy for the capacity building of the IT-BPO workforce. Jointly organised by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), academia, key industry leaders and associations, the event brought together over 250 IT-BPO industry professionals and players, who together endorsed the national strategy and are now working towards a blue print action plan.

The Chief Guest at the event was the Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremenayake.
“The IT-BPO industry is a world-wide supply constrained industry. Meaning, there is more of a worldwide demand for IT-BPO work than there are qualified people to carry it out. Fuelled by the strong business needs for cost effectiveness and agility, this trend will continue for the foreseeable future,” said Madu Ratnayake, Chairman of the technical committee of NICS and General Manager of Virtusa Corporation.

“Sri Lanka’s IT-BPO industry needs to create a shared vision and synergy between policy makers, industry players to drive the industry forward and propel the country into becoming a top IT-BPO off-shoring destination in our chosen niche focus areas. The coming together of industry leaders is critical to support the successful implementation of the National Strategy.”

An eminent panel of speakers include personalities such as WNS Group CEO, Mr. Neeraj Bhargava, Managing Director Asian Operations-Virtusa Corporation, Mr. R. Keith Modder and CEO of an Indian BPO-Quattro, Mr. Raman Roy.

Short term initiatives:
Establish an industry backed ‘single’standard English competency programme
Encourage private investment in education
Make advanced ICT education affordable
Launch a nation-wide awareness campaign
Accelerate ICT teaching capacity development
Initiate a short term accelerated capacity programme

Long term initiatives:
Basic IT literacy for all
English for all
Develop an ecosystem of innovation
The culmination of the conference was the Awards Night on the evening of August 31, at Trans Asia, where exceptional individuals who have made significant contributions to the IT-BPO industry were recognised. The awards were handed out by the Minister of Enterprise Development & Investment Promotion, Dr. Sarath Amunugama. He highlighted the need to improve Sri Lanka’s education system, as well as take the IT-BPO industry forward to bigger and better heights.

The award winners were:
Young ICT Professional Awards
Anuki Gunawardene, Associate Team Lead at Virtusa (Pvt) Ltd.
Dumidu Ranaweera, Assistant Manager of Business Process Excellence & Transformation, WNS
Zulfer Hassen, CEO, Zeelabs (Pvt) Limited
Most OutstandingEntrepreneur Award
Harsha Purasinghe, CEO, Microimage (Pvt) Ltd
Most Outstanding CEO Award
Kris Canekeratne, Chairman and CEO, Virtusa Corporation
The two-day National IT-BPO Career Guidance Fair got underway at the BMICH on September 1 and 2, 2007. The opening ceremony was presided by Minister of Education, Susil Premajayantha, Secretary to the subject ministry, A. Hewage, Director, ICT Education, Neil Gunadasa, COO, ICTA, Reshan Dewapura and other officials.

The main objective of the fair was to create a paradigm shift and change the mindset of both students and parents from traditional careers such as medicine and engineering to potential career options in the IT - BPO industry. “Annually 116,000 students pass out with A/L’s but only 14,500 of them qualify for university. Out of these 14,500 students only 3,500 enrol for IT related undergraduate programmemes. There is a talent pool of over 100,000 that is not harnessed and one of the objectives we are trying to achieve through this event, is to attract this talent pool into the ICT industry,” commented Dr. Archana Arcot, Chairperson for the Career Guidance Fair and Vice President - Human Resources for WNS Global Services, Sri Lanka.

According to the latest Sri Lankan ICT Workforce Survey, the IT work force in 2006 was estimated to be 30,120 and the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) workforce to be between 6100. However, there is an additional requirement of 7,672 employees for the IT industry and 1000 – 2000 more for the BPO sector.

Other highlights of the fair were the Career Counselling Unit which was manned by career counsellors from the Ministry of Education and industry representatives.

Platinum sponsors of the event were Microsoft and Bank of Ceylon, Gold sponsors, Attune and Suntel, while the Silver sponsors were Virtusa, USAID, iSmart Timex BPO and HSBC.

NICS is one of many initiatives under ICTA’s ICT Capacity Building Programmeme (ICBP) aimed at catalyzing the development of the country’s ICT capacity.