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Industrial and Financial Systems (IFS) Sri Lanka Chairman/CEO and recently-appointed ICTA Board Director Jayantha de Silva |
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How do you feel about being appointed as a Board Director at ICTA?
ICTA is an agency established under the Information and Communication Technology Act. The mandate given to this Act by the Government is immense and quite surprising. The ICT Act addresses many aspects of IT in depth. The mandate it has been granted allows it to be used to implement projects for the benefit of the IT industry and in turn the entire nation.
I’m quite happy that I was invited to join ICTA even though I will have added responsibilities now. I must also say that the rest of the Board members very cordially welcomed me. I can give a lot of IT-related input to ICTA. Still being an active member of the IT industry I’m quite pleased to be of help though my time is taken. I personally think it wouldn’t have been much use if I had joined ICTA after I had retired.
Was this a position you expected you would get someday?
I was called upon by ICTA to join them as a Board member. There would have been a lot of things they regarded when inviting me. Maybe my being the President and CEO of IFS and having over 30 years of experience in the industry would have been a consideration. When we started this company, it was extremely tough. No one would come to Sri Lanka except IFS. We had a lot of challenges as there were a lot of options for them to go out of this country.
At that time our communication was horrible and we didn’t have people. Regardless of all that, we had a vision, but more importantly, we had a passion which drove us to be here today. It’s good to have visions and missions; but I believe that passion is what drives a person and for this reason it’s the most important of all. I believe that the success story of IFS is one of the main reasons I was invited to join ICTA.
How important is private sector input into ICTA?
The private sector is the engine of growth. The Government sector cannot replace the flexibility, passion and drive it adds to the industry. This is not the case in Sri Lanka alone; the same phenomena can be seen in countries like Australia, USA and even in China and Russia. There is a difference in the input from the private and public sector.
In some of the developed countries the public sector is very dull today. They don’t have a role apart from formulating high-level policies, budgeting and so on. As Sri Lanka is a developing country it’s obvious that the Government has to hold some part of the industry and evolve. Irrespective of that, the driving force of the industry will be the private sector.
Sri Lanka is in a transition stage. If I were to compare Sri Lanka to its neighbouring countries, I would say that Sri Lanka is better than India. India is a very bureaucratic country but of course the bureaucracy there is firm and transparent, hence does not change according to the whims of the government. Sri Lanka on the other hand is very flexible, which is good. Nevertheless, flexibility in administrative systems has its own inherent problems. Flexibility can lead to misuse of resources, power or privileges, which eventually transforms into unacceptable behaviour. I have seen many companies close down due to the relaxing of rules and allowing too much flexibility.
To be very honest, I believe that the private sector can survive on its own, but only to a certain extent. Actually what the private sector and public sector are capable of cannot be compared. It’s a different sport altogether. Metaphorically if we imagine the private sector to be like the high jump, then the public sector would be like pole-vaulting. The high jump can go up to six feet and a little more with difficulty; but in pole-vaulting you can go up to 20 to 21 feet. Some countries go a long way by pole-vaulting but that depends on how much the private sector is facilitated. This basically means that the Government or public sector should be involved in the industry to keep the balance.
Can you briefly recap how ICTA has progressed and outline what its challenges are?
The aim of the ICT Act is to ‘provide guidance and facilitate the implementation program and strategies by the Information and Communication Technology Agency in Sri Lanka in both public and private sectors’. The Government has taken major steps to improve computer literacy rates and develop IT infrastructure in Sri Lanka. ICTA has focused on IT enabling in Government procedures such as issuing passports, ID cards and birth certificates. Moreover, education, tertiary education and hospitals are some of the areas ICTA is concentrating on.
ICTA has been given a lot of authority to implement national level programs. However, there are challenges when actually carrying out these programs. In an organisation, let’s say IFS, I am guided by the principles and policies in the organisation when taking care of 800-odd people. Therefore, it’s best when the policies reflect all their interests as a whole. However, when creating a national level policy, it’s a lot more difficult and it requires careful formulation and homogeneous environments. For instance, policies which are imposed in the office that issues ID cards and driving licences should correlate with each other.
Currently a policy is being formulated where a unique number will be offered to every baby born. This number will then be used in the birth certificate, National ID, passport and every form of identity that is issued by the Government. This is carried out as a part of the e-government initiative where the Government will be able to cater to you efficiently, while knowing everything about you which the Government ought to know. This permits the information layer which consists of data about your bank accounts, income, Inland Revenue and so on to be easily available and more acceptable.
Nenasala is one of their most successful programs and now they are opening the 1,000th centre as well. The objective is to go around Sri Lanka installing IT hubs and bringing IT knowledge to as many citizens as possible. Due to this program, computer literacy rates have gone up from 3% to 50% in this country, which is a huge achievement.
Moreover, ICTA has enabled the RMV license to be obtained from home via the internet and passports to be issued within hours. These are projects ICTA has done really well. Technically enabling these services are easy; the difficult thing is to bring it to an operational level where people will actually use it to save time. Then again, as I mentioned before, flexibility can be a big problem. With regard to IT systems, it’s the computer security aspect which becomes a challenge. Systems worth millions of dollars can be brought down and destroyed over a small period of time due to vulnerabilities that are not taken care of.
ICTA is mandated to do a lot of things. When I became a Board member I realised that ICTA has already done a lot of things but I feel there is a long way to go. ICTA has tried to implement many projects, but unless these are brought to operational level, all efforts will be futile. It’s only wise to look into how much we can carry out practically. When taking decisions it’s important to consider all available options and prioritise what needs to be done. Sri Lanka has many constraints in terms of resources. The projects that are being implemented should be realistic enough to be supported by the resources that are already available. When you come down to it, trying to do many things without prioritising will only result in poor quality or failure.
IT solutions bring a lot of transparency to the administration. It allows a fault or mistake to be traced back to how it happened, when it happened and who was responsible for it. In manual systems mistakes can be hidden, but in IT systems it’s very difficult to hide or cover such mistakes.
When ICTA does something new it has to satisfy either of the following. It should be done if there is a genuine demand for it, or because it’s a political requirement or the most beautiful reason is to do it for the love to serve people. The best would be to have a mix of all this.
I personally think ICTA has done a lot and has a lot more potential. ICTA needs to get the private sector involved, give them the confidence, be honest with what they say and translate what the Act says into a good operational model. This is when the common man, the common business guy and the common IT company can benefit. I intend on working very hard to achieve these goals. I’m trying to get the industry and SLASSCOM together to make the industry more beneficial for everybody.
How do you think your experience at IFS, where you have gone from being a Director to the CEO, will help you in your new position at ICTA?
For all reasons, IFS has been a very successful project within the country as well as within IFS. We have almost 800 people today and we have taken a strategic decision to enlarge and strengthen this operation further. We are one of the very few companies in Sri Lanka which go with a huge recruitment drive.
It’s a fact that IFS Sri Lanka is a success story. We are bold enough to say that IFS has a huge dependency on IFS Sri Lanka and when you’re at that level, you’re very confident. Anyhow, we at IFS feel that we have a responsibility to help the country. Whatever said and done, we have prospered and used the resources of Sri Lanka. In this context I think ICTA needs industry people and in turn the industry depends on ICTA to formulate policies.
The private sector needs to work very closely with the Government and ICTA works as a catalyst in helping us tap Government resources and advice. We can reach the Government directly but we don’t need to do that because we can go through ICTA instead. I also represent SLASSCOM at a very high level and I think they need to work with ICTA closely as well.
Are there any new projects you’re planning to propose as a part of the e-Sri Lanka initiative of ICTA?
I feel the formulation of ideas is there within ICTA. I’m a bit worried that there are too many ideas and my concern is bringing these into an operational model. This is where prioritising is important. Suppose you’re trying to go through a door but you’re so fat that you simply cannot push yourself through. In such situations the solution is not to change the doorframe but to become leaner. Likewise, a lot of ideas are good, but you need to be realistic and consider how feasible they are. Sri Lanka has a lot of constraints in resources and funding. Therefore, it’s important to consider the constraints when trying to put these ideas into action. ICTA is trying to do a lot of things at the same time. At this point, ICTA has to either strengthen the team or put in a lot more funding. The question is if we can really take up that challenge at the moment.
In life, it’s a matter of expectations management, whether they are personal matters or business. There are some overly-enthusiastic people in ICTA who say we have to do many things at the same time. Currently it’s not possible for ICTA to function in such a way because it requires more time and people or a mandate to give some of the tasks to the private sector. Nevertheless, I believe that ICTA has a very good idea of what is required and they have understood what needs to be done. Then again, it’s a matter of managing and designing a strategic business model. In simple terms, ICTA needs to come up with a to-do list which should be prioritised accordingly. My goal is to bring a good strategic business and planning model for ICTA.
What should be priority areas for ICTA in the next five years?
Strengthening the Nenasala program and improving education, research and the e-government initiative should be the priorities of ICTA. Computer literacy rates have been increased and will continue to grow with programs like Nenasala. The computer literacy rate in Sri Lanka has risen from 3% to 50% during the past few years. This is important as everybody will be then ‘speaking the same language and will be on the same table’. The other thing is improving education standards. Education builds the capacity of a person and later allows this capacity to be transformed.
Moreover, we have a big problem in marketing and we are lacking in terms of product development. For instance, in the tea and garment industries, we don’t market the product; instead we still market the country. It extends even to the IT industry. This is an indication that we need to increase our portfolio because that is how we can go further and earn a lot more. Besides product development, ICTA should also focus on enabling IT in Government processes and this will eventually create a lot of IT jobs in the private sector.
Then again, within the next five years we have to accept the reality that ICTA has to follow the vision of the Government despite other plans it may have.
Where do you think the software industry in Sri Lanka stands compared to the rest of South Asia? Is it an industry that will continue to grow?
Software is a booming industry and has huge potential as many other industries also depend on it. Software is a 700 million dollar industry in Sri Lanka today and it grew so much only during the last five years. We were a very small industry and no one cared but today we’re within the top five industries in Sri Lanka.
Be it home appliances, phones or vehicles, these have a big software component. The software components of devices contribute to most of the product value since the efficiency depends on software and firmware. Entities like Facebook and Twitter are all about software and their operational models have been developed so beautifully that people use these services without being asked to. This is where Sri Lanka needs to improve. We need to be competitive and yet have good relationships with other countries.
We cannot directly compare development in the software industry with other countries in South Asia because what we do and what they do are different. There’s also a difference in the population and other factors. Sri Lanka goes to niche markets. For instance, we don’t go for voice support systems as our young generation doesn’t tend to like it very much, but this is not the case in India.
Likewise, the areas we work on are different. We’re going to BPM rather than BPO. That means our services and knowledge will become our intellectual property. I think that this is what we should be doing as our people are more educated. We never say we’re competing with India, simply because we’re going in another direction. We focus on quality rather than quantity. We’re well ahead compared to other South Asian countries like Bangladesh or Pakistan.
As a professional who has over 30 years of experience in the IT industry, what areas of IT do you think Sri Lanka is lacking expertise in?
Sri Lanka is lacking expertise in research and development. We still borrow technology from the developed world and learn to make use of it. We still only focus on catering to the demand. We haven’t come to the point where we create a demand for an item or invent. We still work on specifications we get from other countries and there’s only a little value addition in this method. In the IT sector the value addition is very high but we still haven’t gone into products.
R&D is a very costly thing; it’s a matter of researching, developing a product, marketing it and selling it. Say we are talking about tea blending solutions by Sri Lanka. We at IFS developed a software application for tea blending. It’s true that there are not many countries to which this product can be sold. However, we’re trying to sell it to India, Kenya and even Germany. Tea blending is a complex thing and to keep the taste and blend consistent, software needs to be used. These are the areas that many Sri Lankan companies have not reached yet. Product development is expensive but the Government has given a tax concession for anything spent on R&D, which is a very good step in developing this area.
Is there any advice you would like to offer to young IT professionals in Sri Lanka?
When we were small, we only had a few directions to head in terms of IT-related jobs. We mostly focused on programming or analysis, but now IT has gone in many directions, which extends to management, security and so much more. I always tell the employees at IFS that like human doctors, we’re ‘business doctors’. You go to a business to see where they are weak and their shortcomings and advise them on how to improve. IT is not difficult to learn and it’s quite interesting. A career in the IT field is right for any young person because the industry will grow in a large way and I see that there’s a future in it.
