UK body picks Sri Lanka as ‘Offshoring Destination of the Year’

Tuesday, 29 October 2013 01:15 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka has bagged the prestigious ‘Offshoring Destination of the Year’ (2013) award at the National Outsourcing Association Awards (NOAAs) held at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London last week. The NOAAs recognise best practice in outsourcing projects and reward end-users, suppliers, advisors and destinations. The NOAAs is the only award ceremony dedicated to the UK outsourcing. Other shortlisted destinations for this award included Serbia and Fiji. The judges compared the how well each destination has performed in the two key criteria, namely strategy (40%) and results (60%). Strategy of the destination which was evaluated with 40% weight included sub criteria such as overall strategic vision of the destination, approach to differentiation, target markets and approaches to them, focus on skills development and talent management, approach to building an innovative continual collaborative environment. Results criteria which was evaluated at 60% weight included various sub elements such as country’s focus on and commitment to best practice, country’s contribution to the on-going development of the global outsourcing industry, top line projects of UK companies who have recently invested in the country, UK client testimonials that are currently active in the country. The Sri Lankan IT/BPO industry is penetrating into the UK market at a rapid phase and the results of such efforts have brought this award for the industry. This achievement is expected to result in a heavy limelight for the IT/BPO industry of Sri Lanka in the global market place, especially in the European region. “This is yet another fruition of implementing the ‘Mahinda Chinthana – Vision for the Future’ policy statement of the Government. This coincides with yet another concomitant achievement in the industry, that of IT/BPO industry reaching the fifth position as the best foreign exchange earner for Sri Lanka. The IT/BPO industry is also a great sector for generating employment,” ICT Agency CEO Reshan Dewapura said, commenting on the securing of the award as the best offshoring destination in the world. Expressing views on Sri Lanka’s magnificent achievement, SLASSCOM Chairman Madu Ratnayake stated: “We are delighted that Sri Lanka has been awarded the prestigious ‘Outsourcing Destination of the Year’ award by the National Outsourcing Association. Over the last five years, we have executed a focused market development strategy internationally, building on the strong relationships and foundation many pioneering companies have established in the international markets. SLASSCOM pitched for this award for the last three consecutive years and we are truly delighted to have won this year. This is a great testament of our industry potential and more specifically of the growing visibility of the Sri Lankan IT and knowledge services industry.” Ranked among the Top 25 Global Outsourcing destinations by AT Kearney and among the Top 30 Outsourcing destinations by Gartner, Sri Lanka is highly conducive for global enterprises to enjoy premium access to a high quality talent pool whilst establishing high-in-demand niche global competency centres. Sri Lanka acts as an off-shore development centre and joint venture development centre to several Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders from the North American continent, Great Britain, Australia, Sweden, Norway and Japan. Responding to media as to what plans were underway for the development of the industry and ICT for development in general, the ICTA CEO Dewapura said: “We have just had an outstandingly successful global ICT event, the World Summit Award 2013 Winners’ Global Congress. Inaugurating the event, President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced the new ICT strategy for the next five to six years. Called ‘Smart Sri Lanka,’ the new strategy will turn a new leaf in ICT for development. It will include development under sub-heads highlighted as ‘Smart Jobs’ and ‘Smart Society’.” Sri Lanka’s IT/BPO industry has set its vision to achieve US$ 5 billion in exports by 2022 while generating 200,000 jobs and creating 1,000 start-ups in this process. Various plans have been put into place to achieve these goals by various stakeholders. Pointing out the outstanding quality of the submissions for the 2013 award, National Outsourcing Association Director, Kerry Hallard said: “2013 is a monumental year for the NOAAs, as it was our 10th anniversary and yet again we saw a growing number of submissions – all of outstanding quality. The shortlist truly represents the best of the best in outsourcing, and I am extremely proud to see that so many organisations clearly value the positive association of participation. We’d like to congratulate all the winners and thank all those that took part.” Outsourcing isn’t just about contracts, it’s about the people. In recognition of this, and the talents of the relationship managers, operations directors, CIOs, consultants, lawyers, et al, the NOA has created a new set of awards. Outsourcing refers to an organisation contracting work out to a third party, while off-shoring refers to getting work done in a different country, usually to leverage cost advantages. It’s possible to outsource work but not offshore it; for example, hiring an outside law firm to review contracts instead of maintaining an in-house staff of lawyers. It is also possible to offshore work but not outsource it; for example, a Dell customer service centre in India to serve American clients. Offshore outsourcing is the practice of hiring a vendor to do the work offshore, usually to lower costs and take advantage of the vendor’s expertise, economies of scale, and large and scalable labour pool.