The Sri Lanka Association for Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM) concluded its National Ingenuity Awards 2021 – formerly SLASSCOM Innovation Awards – at a gala event held at the Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo on 30 March.
“In our journey towards our Vision 2024 of achieving US$ 5 billion in revenue, 200,000 jobs and 1,000 start-ups, recognizing and rewarding innovations that fuel ingenuity is crucial to identify, support and empower Sri Lanka’s next generation of innovators,” shares SLASSCOM Chairman Channa Manoharan, as he congratulates all winners of the awards, as well as the organizing team behind it – SLASSCOM’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Forum, the Regional Development Forum and the Woman Technopreneurs Forum.
Held for the third consecutive year, this year’s awards ceremony outshines its predecessors with its decentralized and island-wide approach. “This year, we covered all nine provinces, where applications were called at provincial level with the final competition taking place on a national platform recognizing both Provincial and National Winners,” says SLASSCOM Board Director for Regional Development Haridhu Abeygoonaratne, adding that the underlying objective was to ensure that local talent was identified from the grassroots level while providing equal opportunities for all Sri Lankans.
SLASSCOM Ingenuity Awards 2021 called applications from around the country from January to early March this year, where applicants from schools, universities, start-ups, corporates and individuals were all invited to compete in their respective levels and showcase their innovations.
Awards were handed out to winners from multiple categories that included Best product Innovation, Best Disruptor Award, Best Client Delivery Innovation, Best Process Management, Best Start Up , Technoprenuer of the year ,Best Project at University Level and Best Project a School Level.
The overall National Winners included Best Product Innovation – MillionSpaces (Pvt) Ltd, Best Technology or Framework Innovation – Digital Mobility Solutions Lanka (PVT) Ltd, Best Client Delivery Innovation – The A.I. Team (Private) Limited, Best Startup – Nanosoft Global (Pvt) Limited, Best Innovation in Business Process Management – Commercial Technologies Plus (Private) Limited, Best Innovation in Internal Processes – MillenniumIT ESP and Best Disruptor Award – DirectPay (Pvt) Ltd.
The event also saw Yathusha Kulenthiran from Olai Shop Pvt Ltd. bagging the award for the Emerging Woman Technopreneur of the Year – in an effort to recognize Sri Lanka’s next generation of female innovators.
Mohammed Jasny Yusuf from Zahira College, Colombo won the award for the Best Innovative Product/Project – School while Stelan Briyan Simonsz from Informatics Institute of Technology won the award for the Best Innovative Product/Project – University.
This endeavour was carried out to groom Sri Lanka’s next generation of IT professionals with skills, expertise and career opportunities in order to usher in the next growth phase of the island.
The applications were judged by an esteemed panel of local and international judges comprising distinguished and eminent personalities with extensive experience in IT/BPM sector.
Haridhu Abeygoonaratne, further explained: “The panel looked at the three levels – schools, universities and commercial operations – whilst ensuring fairness, equity and full inclusion. While the provincial competitions were judged by a panel of local judges comprising technical and managerial experts from the public and private sectors, the national competition was judged by an expert panel comprising those with experience in enterprise top management.”
SLASSCOM National Ingenuity Awards 2021 was sponsored by Strategic Sponsor MilleniumIT ESP, Technology Sponsor Axiata Digital Labs, Principal Sponsor Wiley, Innovation Partner London Stock Exchange Group, Platinum Sponsor HCL, Gold Sponsors BCS, OrelIT and DFCC Bank, Corporate Sponsor Dialog Enterprise and Startup Eco-system Partner Hatch.