Virtusa gears to meet full potential of IT sector

The Export Development Board (EDB) anticipates an increase of export earning in both IT and ITES sectors to rise by 35% in 2012 alone.

While seeing a steady growth of 26% year on year as the fifth largest export sector earning close to US$ 310 million, Sri Lanka is also gaining a sustainable reputation as a very viable outsourcing/off shoring location. One can only safely assume that we will have to be geared for massive changes within the industry at national level.

There are many contributing factors to this; compared to its counterparts Sri Lanka is financially more attractive in terms of compensation, infrastructure, tax regulatory tariffs and conducive work environments.

“We have an advantage in the fact that many multinational corporates are looking to de-risk having all their critical business activities conducted in one country. Our close proximity to India while being a sovereign entity allows us to position ourselves as a strong candidate for an alternate location,” commented Sanjeev Palihawadana – HR Director of Virtusa Corporation, Sri Lanka.

The Indian IT industry, very large in its capacity primarily focuses on IT services as opposed to development like most firms in Sri Lanka does. IT services companies will have to differentiate themselves, whilst competing with other IT services giants in India. However, there is considerable interest in niche IT markets.

“Daring to be different and willing to face the challenges and demands of the IT services industry, and the opportunities presented to you are limitless. Differentiation in IT services can be achieved by focusing on high-value services. In fact there are many ways of being successful when IT companies offer a niche value proposition that works across or within industry verticals. It so happens that, Virtusa is one of the few companies in the IT services space in Sri Lanka,” said Palihawadana.

Virtusa Corporation, a Sri Lankan turned global IT services company that offers a broad spectrum of business consulting and outsourcing services, competes with some of the largest IT services and consulting companies in the world and frequently come out triumphant. It also works with dozens of Fortune 500 companies which are very demanding.

Probing its track record in delivering to its clientele’s expectations has been comparable with the best IT services and consulting companies in the world. The same success can be emulated by other IT firms if they find the right service offering that are innovative, custom made and comply with standards.

Virtusa  focuses specifically on a valued combination on mobility (iOS, Android), enterprise content management, business process management managed services, test engineering and core software development technologies across banking and financial services, telecommunications, independent software vendors, media and information services, healthcare and insurance industry verticals.

At present the IT industry is riding on the surge of mobile technology. The evolution of technology is taking us to an era with instant access using mobile telecommunication devices. What’s more, over 60% of global consumers are spending much of their time and investments online causing it to rapidly grow and inevitably be one of the most attractive and lucrative industries to be in.

Palihawadana says, “Mobility is the new wave in IT. Mobile IT is revolutionising the industry similar to how the internet created a revolution at the turn of the millennium. Big data and cloud computing are also attractive places to be involved in.  The enterprise world is also moving towards BPM and ECM tools. There is a lot of focus in these areas as well. We have a dedicated R&D team that helps us stay abreast of such changing technologies.”

The IT and ITES industries have the potential of employing around 50,000 IT graduates by 2015. There is much progression awaiting the entire industry. Currently only 16,000 IT graduates are employed across 175 IT firms around the island. The approximate talent pool produced in local and private universities and institutes in Sri Lanka stand at 89,000 (83,000 IT diploma holders, 6,000 IT graduates). Therefore, there needs to be an unswerving intervention in ensuring the quality and quantity of the talent supply.

“For the IT sector, creating a pipeline of strong future leaders is very important. With the industry growing as rapidly as it is expected to, we need great natural leaders who will rise up to the challenge. These young men and women will have to face corporate leaders from all corners of the globe, considering the integration of global markets,” said Palihawadana.

He added: “There are certain time constrains in allowing the natural maturity of the process of a management level head. With the current demanding nature of the IT industry we need to look into means of accelerating this process. At Virtusa we’ve pioneered the Global Leadership programme that contributes to rapid growth and, comprehensive and consistent exposure.”

The program looks at providing focused, in-depth simulation across diverse departments and intensive global exposure at Virtusa counterparts overseas, rigorous apprenticeships with the key decision makers at Virtusa, and equipping them with specific industry knowledge. This is aimed at moulding and qualifying talented and capable young IT graduates in to the next generation global leaders, within a time span of two years. These young future global leaders will be continuously expected to perform at high standards and will have lucrative career progression opportunities.

Virtusa also has industry placement programmes that see mass recruitment from universities and more focused processes such as Launch Pad that initiate careers of gifted and qualified IT graduates and exclusive opportunities for Sri Lankan expats to look in to coming back in to the island after long stints abroad. Despite the shortcomings that set back the potential growth of the IT/ITES industries such as office space infrastructure shortages, language barriers, and staff capacity are issues that can be rectified given the right administration policies. It is promising that 79% of IT export is standard quality certified bringing much credibility to Sri Lankan IT exports. “It is pivotal that the industry, policy makers and action groups take steps, in order to ameliorate and raise internal morale to uplift and bridge the potential proactively in addressing the shortcomings and concurrent exploitation of great opportunities,” Palihawadana added.