Financial Times

Asia has become the feeding ground for several multinational IT companies. Many companies have set up their engineering units in the Asian region as opposed to the west. The main reason for this is that in Asia there is access to more talent both in quantity and quality. Further Asia offers more talent at a lower cost this creates more productivity efficiency and cost efficiency for the companies.

One of the main reasons for this is that some of the Asian countries produce large numbers of IT graduates every year; thus the trend of shifting the development units to Asia is not going to stop, the Executive Vice President of Virtusa, Tushara Canekeratne told The Sunday Times FT in a recent interview. Further the companies try to take the advantage of working in two different time zones, she said.

“The businesses are looking into new areas a lot sooner and the time to market our product is becoming shorter so we need more talent more creativity more capability and Asia has been able to come in and fulfill that,” said Canekeratne.

Virtusa is one of the largest IT companies that are operating in Sri Lanka that has grown tremendously in the last 10 years. Virtusa operates its business in the US and UK markets serving Fortune 1000 clients in providing system software.

The company has set up its engineering centres in both India and Sri Lanka. Both centres have seen continuous growth over the years. However Canekeratne said that at present Sri Lanka does not have the capacity to supply the IT professionals needed for the expansions of the company. “We are the largest IT company in Sri Lanka but at the scale we are at Sri Lanka cannot provide all the professionals we need so having India has benefited us tremendously.”

Sri Lanka needs to prepare more IT professionals whereever possible as there is a need and a demand for the profession in the country, said Canekeratne.

However she admits it’s not simple as it seems as the institutions can supply only a limited number. Further she said that the institutions need to work towards not only developing the technical skills but towards expanding the training and preparation soft skills development as well.

She added that that this is not only the responsibility of the government’s and institutions alone but as corporate citizens it is the responsibility of the IT companies as well. Virtusa as a corporate citizen has been able to live up to its responsibilities, said Canekeratne, adding that over the last 10 years the company has worked with the universities and the IT institutions in developing the skills of the professionals in the country.

Canekeratne who founded Virtusa with her husband 10 years ago was honoured with The Woman Entrepreneur of The Year Award by the Women’s Chamber of Commerce (WCIC).

She also won the gold medal in the Large Business category. Reflecting on her experience in the past decade as one of the founders she said that it has been rewarding in multiple ways and speaks proudly of the company’s achievements. “Ten years ago IT graduates in Sri Lanka did not know where they were going; today they actually come with a career plan to work with multi national companies and they have more opportunities. To have created such a demand for the IT profession in Sri Lanka and to be able to contribute to the country in this manner has been a very rewarding experience,” said Canekeratne.