SLASSCOM’s Product and Platform Council to empower local enterprises to reach global markets

Nalina Wijesundara

Chalinda Abeykoon

Lakmini Wijesundera

Formed to increase the flow of IT products and platforms from Sri Lanka to international markets, the Product and Platform Council (PPC) of Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) is on an accelerated drive to increase IT exports and IT revenue of the nation. 

“With SLASSCOM’s vision of growing the IT and BPO industry to generate revenue of $ 5 billion in exports, 200,000 highly skilled workforce and 1,000 startups by 2025, it is crucial to give due priority to IT products and platforms made in Sri Lanka, as well as software services. When we launched the PPC in August 2020, we identified that at present, the contribution of products and platforms into IT export revenue is about 5%; and our goal is to double it by 2025,” stated Techlabs Global Managing Director and SLASCOM PPC Chairman Nalina Wijesundara, further explaining that the council focuses on both startups and existing businesses to scale up their operations to be competitive and global market-ready.

An industry forum that rides on the synergy of experienced professionals who have successfully created and launched products and platforms, the PPC is driven by a passion to build local capability and enable Sri Lankan enterprises to create high technology products and platforms capable of competing in the global marketplace. 

Already having an academy that is working towards building a knowledge base which includes videos of interviews with successful business personalities and other material, covering technical knowledge around product management, marketing, engineering and other aspects. 

It also includes a policy group which will work towards influencing the Government and liaising with the relevant authorities to create a more collaborative environment and on identifying the pain points of local enterprises so that these can be forwarded to the Government to provide solutions. 

Scaling up is the main focus area for the PPC, who is building a bespoke mentoring program based on what different companies need so that they can accelerate their growth, resulting not in a one-size-fits all mechanism but tailormade solutions for all, Lanka Angel Network and PPC Advisory Board CEO Chalinda Abeykoon explained.

“Today, we’re seeing a plethora of products and platforms, solving regional and global challenges. The Advisory Board, all who have built and scaled products and platforms, has assembled the experts who are ready to support the next generation. We’re looking to support three to five startups this year with the aim of building a structured program that can be rolled out to a wider audience from 2022 onwards.”

The PPC ecosystem is a coalescence of various parties – startups, existing organisations, experts, professionals, academia and others – who can learn from and collaborate with each other, brainstorm and create a bigger impact in terms of scaling local IT products and platforms.

Currently over 100 companies have already registered with the PPC and the team is keen to increase this figure in the coming months. 

BoardPac and IronOne Technologies (and Advisory Board of the PPC) CEO Lakmini Wijesundera affirmed, “The PPC startup ecosystem initiative aims at creating a high awareness and interaction between the growing Sri Lankan startup ecosystem and the scale up ready product startup companies. The PPCs at present includes 45 ecosystem partner organisations who will serve to strengthen the PPC’s scale up ready product companies across varied areas such as global market access, SaaS digital marketing and lead generation, patents, trademarks and IP services, ISO, GDPR and industry certifications, startup growth funding, AI and other specialised technology specialists and more.”

The council is currently actively engaged in building the product and platform community, identifying companies to scale up and are recruiting volunteers for the executive committee to help execute their plan of action. Being a Centre of Excellence of SLASSCOM, the PPC is an accelerator of the chamber’s objectives and vision for the IT/BPO industry of Sri Lanka.