Easy fix to Sri Lanka IT industry issues

The Sri Lankan IT industry is riddled with problems. The country currently spends millions of rupees on software imports when there is ample expertise to export software. IT companies are also hard put to find skilled recruits while talented young men and women while away productive years in some remote nook of the island, their talents undiscovered and unrecognised.

“Sri Lanka has the expertise to export software, so why import?” Siyomek Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, Director Thushara de Silva posed a valid question. De Silva pointed out that Sri Lanka spends millions of rupees on software imports. “Even government departments opt for foreign software, for example RAMIS software of the Inland Revenue Department is Singaporean.” De Silva pointed out that this is a huge loss of revenue to the country.

De Silva heads three companies, one of which caters to three Australian organisations. The company that employs 27 generates AUD 60,000 per month. “But to every 60,000 like this, we lose a thousand-fold to imports.” This begs the question, if our products are good enough for foreign companies, why are they not good enough for local companies. De Silva observed that the major problem is that the Sri Lankan IT field does not have a regulatory body to monitor the quality of product. “Anyone can create a software and release it isthe market without being subjected to a monitoring process, quality control or rules and regulations to bind them,” pointed out De Siva.

He explained that most start-ups that create and sell software for a pittance frequently go bankrupt leaving their customers in the lurch. “Sixty to 70 percent of potential clients I meet have confessed to falling for such fraud.” De Silva opined that this gives software developers a bad name. “This is exactly why most local consumers depend on foreign software. But the truth is that when a company or department sources foreign software they are not at liberty to use the software the way they want, instead they are forced to comply with the software.” De Silva pointed out that locally made software can be customized. “This is why a government introduced standardization is vital to the development of the industry,” emphasized De Silva.

De Silva has over 45 employees working under him, all of whom have their roots in Colombo. But he pointed out that there are talented young individuals out there in remote villages whose development has been hampered by lack of English language skills. “English language skills and IT are not mutually exclusive. One cannot make it in the IT field if he or she does not have the required English language skills,” reiterated De Silva.

The advantage of the IT field is that these young talents from remote parts of Sri Lanka do not necessarily need to be physically present at a Colombo based office. “They can work from home. But they have to be trained for this field. For example a one year training programme that employs one to two instructors for each district will cost only five million per month.” That’s surely not wholly unrealistic. “What’s required is the instructor fees, transport expenditure and venue.”

De Silva estimates that such a training programme could produce 15,000 to 20,000 skilled labour. Since the private sector is unlikely to invest in such a venture De Silva suggests that the government leads the way. “Specially since a certain percentage will opt to work for foreign companies and in turn generate huge sums foreign exchange.” De Silva is of the view this could be a long term investment for the government.

All currently existing training centres focus on the requirements of that locality and does not address the general requirement, pointed out De Silva. “Any certification is also recognised only regionally. The students do not know that such training does not qualify them as skilled labour. For example we don’t hire such people,” said De Silva, reiterating the significance of regulating such endeavours. People like De Silva have to face the dilemma of finding skilled recruits. “We are hard put to find qualified individuals in quality assurance and software development fields.”

De Silva explained that the average salary in one of his companies is over Rs 200,000. “Yet we have to resort to head-hunting to hire qualified people.” In the event the company opts to outsource the head-hunting process to an external company, De Silva’s company is forced to pay as much as 50 percent of the recruit’s salary to the recruiters. Moreover, according to De Silva, sorting through applicants for paper vacancy adverts take hours. Man hours that companies like De Silva’s cannot afford. “It would be far more desirable to recruit through training centres,” opined De Silva. He points out that software development, architecture, quality assurance, User Experience and User Interface design, system analysis and design vacancies can easily be filled by young talent from outside Colombo.

Another major obstacle to providing IT access to students of remote areas is the taboo prevailing with regards to internet access. Parents are under the impression that such access corrupts kids, which De Silva pointed out is not wholly unfounded. “Specially in remote parts of the country, parents must be made aware of the adverse repercussions of unsupervised internet access.” De Silva explained that the young generation is attracted to the field because they see it as a gateway to gaming. “To reap the true benefits, awareness must be raised among parents as well.”

(SP)