ICT firms announce expansion plans at London 2012 Summit

East London recently received a boost as five ICT firms announced plans to expand their operations in Tech City, Europe’s fastest-growing digital hub. Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Ulster will also benefit from multi-million pound international business deals announced at the Global Business Summit on ICT, organised by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in August and September this year.

The new investments will help drive growth by boosting jobs and company start ups in the areas, while helping cement the UK’s reputation as a leading player in ICT. The summit showcased the best of UK ICT innovation and technology to delegates from around the world, promoting new opportunities for international business. Seminars focused on key fields including broadband; digital innovation; multimedia; and next-generation mobility.

London’s Tech City has grown dramatically to become the capital’s leading destination for digital, creative and high-technology companies. In just three years, it has expanded from around 15 companies to over 700 – growth that is set to continue, with the UK Government actively supporting the area’s development.

Chancellor George Osborne said: “The Government is determined to make Britain the technology centre of Europe, with the London’s Tech City at its heart. London 2012 was the perfect stage to show investors and entrepreneurs how much we have already achieved, and the exciting potential of what is to come. We are also proud to demonstrate the world-class innovation of the British tech industry, which helped deliver the most digitally-advanced Games in history.”

UKTI has formed the Tech City Innovation Organisation (TCIO) to accelerate the growth of this area and turn it into Europe’s leading digital technology hub. The TCIO is attracting Venture Capitalist funding to the area and encouraging new entrepreneurial overseas companies to set up there. It is developing the eco-system for talent in Tech City and aims to provide a successful pipeline of companies from SMEs to consider setting up at the Olympic park post-2012.

The UK is one of the most important and sophisticated markets for ICT. Many of UK’s leading industries such as aerospace, defence and pharmaceuticals depend on the successful exploitation of special-purpose industrial electronics, embedded communications and software, and IT systems for their success. For instance, technology designed by the UK company ARM is used in more than 95 per cent of the world’s mobile handsets and over 25 per cent of all smart electronic devices.

Attracting £900 million per annum software R&D investment from international businesses, the UK is a powerhouse for software development with over 100,000 specialist software companies in the country, as well as sizeable operations for all the global software businesses such as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Over 27 per cent of UK jobs are ICT related.

Aepona is one of a growing number of British ICT companies which have chosen Sri Lanka in which to base their software development arm. Aepona is a multi-national company with offices in the USA as well as the UK where it houses its global HQ. Aepona is a Java-centric software product company with expertise in Telco product development. Aepona produces software that provides the interface between operators and users, to facilitate transactions – referred to as Mobile Cloud computing. Since opening its offices in Sri Lanka over two years ago, Aepona has grown in size currently employs 140 highly qualified personnel.

Since the acquisition of Millennium IT in 2009, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has continued to invest heavily in its Sri Lankan operations – expanding the workforce to over 600 and investing in property and infrastructure on the Malabe site. LSEG sits at the heart of the world’s financial community. The Group operates a broad range of international equity, bond and derivatives markets, including the London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana, MTS and Turquoise.

The Group is also a leading developer of high performance trading platforms and capital markets software and offers its customers around the world an extensive range of market access, real-time and reference data products and market-leading post-trade services. Products developed by LSEG’s Sri Lankan operation, Millennium IT, currently power exchanges, depositories, brokerages and regulatory bodies in the United States, Europe, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

Companies like the LSEG and Aepona choose Sri Lanka not just because of the strength of its economy, but also because of the wealth of talent here, and its proven ability to develop new software to sell to the world.