The Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) successfully hosted the first-ever Virtual Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Conference and Hackathon Awards recently 2019 at the Galle Face Hotel, with over 300 attendees. Organized by the SLASSCOM Business Process Management (BPM) Forum, the event also recognized case studies of companies who have adopted RPA or have implemented RPA solutions for their clients. The IT/BPM industry is recognized as a thrust industry within the National Export Strategy (NES) as is promoted globally as the “Island of Ingenuity” for world-class knowledge solutions. Please visit www.islandofingenuity.com for more information.
Dinesh Wickremanayake, Managing Director – WNS Global Services, Board Director SLASSCOM, and Head of the SLASSCOM Business Process Management (BPM) Forum, welcomed the gathering. He spoke of the challenges that RPA will bring to the industry and the opportunity ahead. He also commented on the high level of interest from the industry and corporates on RPA adoption.
Anshuman Rai, Global Sales Lead, UiPath, delivered the keynote address. He spoke on current demands in businesses that can be mapped with RPA Journey and its benefits across various processes and platforms. This was followed by Hon. Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution, Dr. Harsha De Silva addressing the attendees. He spoke on the potential of the knowledge solutions industry to transform the economy. He also commended the industry for its contribution towards export revenues. He reiterated the government’s support to enable the industry to reach the Vision 2022 goal of US$ 5 billion export revenue and 200,000 highly-skilled jobs.
The judges of the Hackathon included Dr. Arul Sivagananathan, Managing Director – Hayleys BPO and Past-Chairman SLASSCOM, Ruwindhu Peiris, Managing Director – Stax and Past-Chairman SLASSCOM, and Dinesh Wickremanayake. They briefed the attendees on the evaluation process, the nature of business problems addressed and commended the quality of case studies received.
Other speakers included Raveendra Jepegnanam, Head of Service Delivery Automation – RRD, Buddhi Chandrasena, Head of Quality and Process Excellence at WNS Global Services and Rakesh Rajora, Global Lead for Driving Transformation & ProcessExcellence – HSBC.
This was followed by a panel discussion on RPA Adoption moderated by Srikanthan Jayarajah, Operations Manager – Global Outsourcing at RRD and SLASSCOM General Council Member. The panel comprised of Madu Ratnayake, EVP, CIO and General Manager at Virtusa, Michelle Stanley, AVP Business Process Improvement at RRD, Priyam Mandal, IT & Process Automation Evangelist at UiPath, and Beadle Navraj, Senior General Manager and Head of Operations at WNS Global Services, andGeneral Council Member, SLASSCOM.
The winners of the Hackathon were recognized under three categories – Large Corporate, SME and Individual. The winner in the Large Corporate category was Virtusa and the first runner-upwas Dialog Axiata. Millennium Information Technologies was the winner in the SME category with LinearSix being recognized the first runner-up. The solution presented by Charith Wickramasinghe was selected as the winning case study in the Individual Category.
Proposing the vote of thanks, Rohith Pradeep, CEO SAKS and SLASSCOM General Council Member, appreciated the commitment of the SLASSCOM BPM Forum in organizing the event. He also thanked the competing companies and challenged the audience to be bold and adopt RPA in their organizations.
The sponsors of the event included Platinum Sponsor UiPath, Gold sponsors Novigo Solutions, HSBC, RRD and WNS Global Services. The event was also supported by SLASSCOM’s Corporate Sponsors Dialog Axiata, the Exclusive Enterprise Communications Partner and Hatch, Startup Sri Lanka Ecosystem Partner.