Opportunities and Challenges For Software Development Work in Sri Lanka Through Information Technolo

1
Opportunities and Challenges For Software
Development Work in Sri Lanka Through
Information Technology

• Chelvan Vithiananthan
• Aings Aingaran

2
Agenda

• Overview of IT Landscape in Sri Lanka
• What are the opportunities?
• What are the challenges?
• Next Steps

3
IT in Sri Lanka

• What?
• Primary focus on Java and .Net based development.
• Limited database expertise.
• Lot of interest in universities for open source
  projects.
• Where?
• Outsourcing
• Local Private Sector needs
• Local Public Sector needs

4
IT in Sri Lanka

• Who?
• Universities (Colombo and Moratuwa) produce about
  150-200 graduates every year.
• Mostly CS. Some EE with CS background.
• They are recruited very fiercely.
• About 3 or 4 more technical institutes (all in
  Colombo) produce an additional 400-500 graduates
  per year. 
• They get a basic SW development and applications
  training. 
• They are not in as high demand as the university
  graduates but all of them find work.

5
Opportunities

• Develop outsourcing capabilities
• Why?
• Supply much lower than demand in Sri Lanka
• Leverage strong reputation
• Cost efficient - Lower cost compared to other
  nations
• How?
• Specialized Training and Education to bridge the
  technology gap - Focus on certain areas of
  expertise lacking in Sri Lanka such as Oracle
  databases, Ruby, CGI, Animation etc..
• Provide access to cutting edge technologies
• Knowledge sharing with outside/experienced
  experts.

6
Opportunities

• Support organizations supporting core industries
  in SL
• Key Areas
• Banking
• Tourism/Hotels
• Textile
• Real estate
• Large Retailers
• These are existing or emerging industries that
  have local IT departments.
• What about things relevant to the North and East?
• These are industries that can/will most likely
  implement packages?
• Accounting packages small to medium in size.
• How do we help small businesses and local
  industries?
• Community organizations?

7
Opportunities

• Supporting Public or Government Sector
• Government Departments
• E-Govt Initiatives
• NGOs
• Partner with local universities.
• Universities are involved in open source
  development and are looking for grants. This
  could lead to more of a product approach to
  development work rather than work for hire.
• Larger IT organizations in the country are not
  competing for local work due to higher payoff for
  outsourced work and market maturity.

8
Opportunities

• Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
• What is it? Backoffice outsourcing, which
  includes internal business functions such as
  billing or purchasing, and front office
  outsourcing, which includes customer-related
  services such as marketing or tech support.
• Why?
• Most of the big players not doing this
• Much lower technology barrier
• Global market is still in the growth stage
• Lower risk for clients
• Easier to win the business
• Broader market
• How?

9
Challenges

• Security
• General
• Live and Work in the south
• Access to technology (perhaps opensource is the
  way to go)
• Cost
• Availability
• Infrastructure
• Connectivity and Bandwidth
• Knowledge
• Limited to certain technologies (this could be an
  opportunity to focus on certain aspects)
• Bureaucracy
• Regulations, graft, discrimination etc..

10
Challenges

• Capital
• Need capital to start
• Continuity/Retention
• Critical mass of talent to launch. Can we tap
  into the western universities/NGOs to supply the
  knowledge transfer.
• Brain drain international/local

11
Conclusions

• Key takeaways
• Infrastructure improvements are critical for
  success. What is the workaround?
• Education and Training
• Create leading edge technology based curriculum
  that is constantly updated.
• Retention
• This is a challenge considering the culture and
  attitudes.

12
Next Steps

• ????

13
Backup Slide

• Major Players in SL SW Industry
• Virtusa 4000 employees, listed in US Stock
  market, 165M revenue
• Informatics
• EDS
• Millennium
• Valista
• IT Training Organizations
• IDM, TEC Lanka, Informatics Institute