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Mr. Dammika Ganegama, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Mitra Innovation, recently spoke at the Malaysia Social Media Week 2019 which took place last week at MITEC, Kuala Lumpur. The event consisted of conversations on new trends in social and mobile media. Minister Dr. Anwar Ibrahim, and Steven Sim Chee Keong, the current Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports in the Cabinet of Malaysia were some of the notable attendees at this event, amongst many international guest speakers and panelists.

Communications and Multimedia Minister of Malaysia, Gobind Singh Deo introduced Mitra Innovation as one of the five UK technology firms to invest in Malaysia this year. Mitra has made its investments, and are looking at building solid partnerships in Malaysia and Singapore, and have recently opened a new regional office in Singapore to serve the APAC region while continuing to grow their established ANZ Business.

“With signing new contracts with large Telcos and banks in the region, our expansion shall be a strategic hub that fuels talent and employment in the region, bring new opportunities for business partnerships, bring new revenue into the region, and provide the best practices and tools, and thereby elevating their innovation efficiencies to its next levels,” said Dammika Ganegama, in regards to this expansion.

At the MSMW 2019 event, Dammika Ganegama drove the discussion around integrations and effective use of data streaming and insights with unified user experience to bring powerful efficiencies through digital media. He covered how some of the Open source integrations, middleware capabilities, and evolution of APIs with powerful data insights and analytics can create a positive impact on businesses. Successful companies of today delight and connect with their customers through powerful apps, and convenient, super fast digital experiences. —APIs are the standard.

(MENAFN – Colombo Gazette) ‘Drifting the curve’ is the SLASSCOM industry strategy for building momentum to come out of the ‘corner’ (current situation) stronger. When race car drivers approach a bend on the track, unlike ordinary drivers who slow down, they accelerate. This is known as ‘drifting the curve.’ It’s all about how much momentum you have when you come out of the corner. ‘Companies that continue to make wise investments in upskilling talent, IT modernization and digital transformation during the period of inevitable demand deceleration will emerge stronger and better positioned for growth and to serve their customers better in a post COVID-19 new norm’ said Ranil Rajapakse, Chairman of SLASSCOM and Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of IFS.

Over the past decade, Sri Lanka has grown into a premier destination for IT and BPM businesses. Both start-ups and larger companies of foreign and local origin have set up shop in Sri Lanka to cater to growing global demand.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Country’s IT-BPM sector has emerged as a shining beacon of resilience and hope. Various companies in this sector have risen to the occasion and adapted their business and work models to cope with the global disruptions caused by the pandemic. Approximately 90% of IT-BPM companies in Sri Lanka were ready to act to ensure zero or very minimal interruptions to their regular operations.

The Expectation of the Unexpected

As a result of its tumultuous past and recent catastrophic events such as the Easter Sunday Attacks, Sri Lanka and its people are naturally geared to operate from an ‘expect the unexpected’ mindset. This mindset is responsible for the resilience witnessed within the ICT/BPM sector, and many other sectors in the country, when responding to the COVID-19 crisis. These events have also shaped it’s people and business community to be flexible and ready to accept a ‘new normal’ with agility.

Companies like Mitra Innovation, a digital advancement company, alongside moving 100% of its staff to WFH, used the crisis as an inspiration to develop new products such as their Dynamedics platform, which allows for remote and accessible healthcare services to be provided by connecting patients and healthcare professions digitally.

A Concerted Effort

No one could have predicted the COVID-19 crisis or the measures that would be necessary to effectively combat such a threat. Fortunately, due to its very nature, the IT-BPM sector already had some WFH protocols in place and this made it somewhat easier for the sector to adapt. However, these WFH protocols were nowhere near universal and having every employee work remotely has been extremely challenging for all stakeholders.

Understanding that adapting to this new and unfamiliar landscape would need a coordinated and concerted approach, the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) took leadership and appealed to the Government of Sri Lanka to provide necessary assistance to the IT-BPM sector; in the form of allowing for essential operations to continue such as access to servers and movement of essential personnel for troubleshooting and mission critical systems maintenance.

Sri Lanka’s telecommunications companies also stepped-in to assist companies by boosting bandwidth and enabling VPNs and other required services for sensitive businesses to remain operational, remotely. SLASSCOM also liaised with companies across the board within the sector to provide and connect them with all support that they needed to keep their operations ongoing without interruptions.

Sri Lanka’s IT-BPM workforce must also be commended for their receptiveness and readiness to accept the challenge of transforming the work environment, literally overnight in many cases. Sri Lankans across industries have proven that they are highly resilient and resourceful, with most having quickly adapted to the changing business landscape in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.

Notable Transformations

In addition to the companies already discussed, it is important to mention companies such as Calcey Technologies, a software product engineering company that quickly adapted the new paradigm. This is a company that, as part of one of its many operations, supports Britain’s NHS and food delivery to frontline healthcare workers in the UK.

Stax Inc, a global management consulting firm in Colombo, switched to the remote working model over the span of just a single weekend. The Company supported the digital transformation of its local clients by drawing on support from its cross-functional teams of consultant and technical specialists.

Other highly notable examples include companies such as CMS, who provide bespoke remote IT teams to SME clients globally. They were able to provide absolute and seamless business continuity for their clients; even being able to achieve increased productivity in countries that have been hardest hit by the crisis.

Demonstrating the value of comprehensive Business Continuity Planning (BCP), Acuity Knowledge Partners was able to leverage its BCP to transition to WFH completely without any lags, with minimal disruption to their global client-dependent operations.

Going Above & Beyond

In addition to simply adapting to the new work paradigm, some companies understood that there was also a moral obligation to be a responsible member of the business community. Companies like BISTEC Global went the extra mile and offered free IT support and consultancy to any business that required it to set up their own WFH operations. Others like Sixer Video pledged to allow companies to use their platform free of charge to continue with virtual interviews and keep their recruitment processes running. Mitra Innovation has begun to provide a free service to help staff of various companies adjust to new WFH arrangements.

A Shining Beacon of Resilience

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Sri Lanka’s IT-BPM sector has emerged as a beacon of resilience, inspiring and helping other sectors and countries to adapt to the new post-pandemic business reality. The partnerships, commitment and dedication displayed by the sector is a testament to the fact that Sri Lanka is a premier global destination for IT-BPM businesses with a resilient talent pool, infrastructure, government support, and social environment.

Mitra has invested to create a solution that helps organisations meet their Health and Safety obligations and fulfill their duty of care to their employees during these difficult times. The latest of these is a digital COVID-19 assessment tool

As global lockdowns are eased and employees are encouraged to go to work companies are facing a series of thorny challenges. The virus has not gone away and according to the WHO, it may be with us for years to come.

Managers have a duty of care to ensure their employees are as safe as they possibly can be in the workplace.

The Dynamedics COVID-19 assessment helps to answer all of these questions. It pre-screens employees for corona virus infection as they return to work and provides a continual daily assessment. Employees that display symptoms can be identified quickly and supported appropriately reducing the risk of further infections amongst their colleagues. Managers can create and modify workflows that fit with their operating procedures. Realtime dashboards (desktop and mobile) provide oversight for line managers and senior leaders. All interactions and data are captured by the platform for compliance and audit purposes.

Dammika Ganegama, Co-Founder and Managing Director Mitra Innovation Group said “COVID-19 assessment is just one of the early use cases that Dynamedics supports. The platform is designed for rapid innovation and easy Integration with HR systems and employee record. New scalable applications and associated workflows can be created in days not months supporting use cases such as mental health monitoring and awareness or DSE assessment and compliance.”

“Dynamedics is already being sold around the world with diverse industries with new customers including a hospital in Australia and a construction company in Boston, US. Mitra have kept license costs low and provides consultancy services and integration support to get companies up and running quickly.” said Chinthi Weerasinghe, CEO Mitra Digital. Ashok Suppiah, CEO of Mitra Innovation Group said, “At Mitra we have always had passion towards ‘innovation that matters’ and leveraging technology to make a positive impact on our lives. We are in uncharted waters and having worked with numerous health care businesses in the UK, Europe and Australia over the last 5 years we decided to share our experiences to create a positive impact in this ever changing world” Mitra Innovation is a fast-growing UK based end-to-end technology solutions provider with expertise in digital transformation, cloud enablement, and software development for ISVs, Enterprises, and Entrepreneurs.

“Mitra Innovation is delighted to announce its partnership with Creatio (formerly bpm’online), a leading low-code, process automation and CRM company,” said Mitra Innovation Founder and CEO Dr. Ashok Suppiah. “We chose Creatio because they are market leaders in CRM with low-code and Business Process Management. The Creatio partner program complements Mitra’s offerings by providing rapid innovative service to our customers.”

“Mitra Innovation is delighted to announce its partnership with Creatio (formerly bpm’online), a leading low-code, process automation and CRM company,” said Mitra Innovation Founder and CEO Dr. Ashok Suppiah. “We chose Creatio because they are market leaders in CRM with low-code and Business Process Management. The Creatio partner program complements Mitra’s offerings by providing rapid innovative service to our customers.”

Mitra Innovation is a digital advancement company that helps its customers stay ahead by harnessing the power of digital and cloud technologies. “We guide them through the rapidly evolving technology landscape and exploit the latest tech to deliver an outstanding customer experience. We unlock the potential in their data and help securely manage, control and exploit it. We enable our customers to innovate, scale and grow their business. In short we’d love to explore the challenges and opportunities your business faces and how Mitra could assist,” said Mitra Digital CEO Chinthi Weerasinghe.

“Sharing common values of excellence, expertise and innovation; Mitra Innovation and Creatio are committed to empowering clients with intelligent platforms such as CRMs and business process management,” said Dr. Suppiah. These help businesses manage the complete customer journey and accelerate sales, marketing, services and operations. “With the SaaS market to surpass $ 278 billion by 2021, intelligent business process management and CRM solutions will accelerate the digital transformation of companies. This provides them with the needed level of agility and flexibility to constantly reinvent their organisations in order to meet the needs of the ever-demanding digitally native customers.”

Creatio envisions the world where any business idea can be automated in minutes. To embrace this concept, the company provides top-notch, low-code process management and CRM platforms for organisations to grow and scale. Unlike traditional CRM systems, Creatio allows businesses to accelerate key processes quickly and easily, equipping companies with the agility needed to constantly test different approaches and define the most efficient ways of communicating with clients.

“In today’s highly competitive business environment, more and more companies demand for intelligent solutions for CRM and business process management to help them streamline customer-facing processes and gain a genuine competitive advantage to boost profits and more effectively engage their customers. With a strategic alliance of Mitra Innovation and Creatio, more businesses worldwide will have an opportunity to benefit from the top-notch intelligent tools designed to streamline, orchestrate and accelerate key business processes,” said Creatio Global Channel Director Alex Donchuk.