The Sri Lanka Association of Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM), held its momentous finale of the National Ingenuity Awards recently , celebrating some outstanding innovations of 35 Provincial and 24 National winners from across the island.
This year’s national winners were selected from across many verticals that included the Best Global Services/ BPM Transformation category that was won by HSBC, while CDB took home the award for Most Innovative Global Business Service/ BPM. OREL IT won the awards for both Best Global Business Service/ BPM Entrepreneur and Best Global Business Services / BPM on Regional Expansion. The Best UN17 SDG Initiative/Software Solution in the IT/BPM Sector title was awarded to ExamHUB Sri Lanka. The Best Disruptive Product Innovation and the Best Client Delivery Innovation categories were both won by CICRA. The Best Innovation in Internal Processes, Technology or Framework was won by VizuaMatrix, while Magicbit won the award and recognized for being this year’s Best Start Up.
The title of Emerging Woman Technopreneur of the Year went to Anjana Kulasekara for CareerMe, whilst IIT carried away the Best Innovative Product / Project – University, along with the Best Innovative Product / Project – School being won by Musaeus College.
Chief guest at the event Ali Ezzatyar, the Acting Deputy Mission Director for USAID Sri Lanka & Maldives, commending SLASSCOM on the initiative of the Ingenuity Awards stated “USA sees Sri Lanka as a country with much potential, where we have partnered through You Lead with projects initiated by SLASSCOM, such the Future Careers Bridge. Sri Lanka needs to develop its home-grown innovation to drive it’s economy forward and events such as the national ingenuity awards will pave the way to make this happen. We congratulate all the award winners that represents Sri Lanka’s bright sparks”.
Addressing the evening’s winners, Chairperson of SLASSCOM Sandra De Zoysa said, “SLASSCOM has always fostered innovation and entrepreneurship which has been key drivers of the IT/ BPM industry. This event therefore is all about honouring the hard work done by the innovators and entrepreneurs of our nation. This recognition is one that you can be proud of and showcase to your clients and investors as a testament of your achievements.”
Adding to these thoughts, Sampath Jayasundara, Director of the SLASSCOM Entrepreneurship and Innovation Forum explained that “the SLASSCOM National Ingenuity Awards is a platform to recognize all schools, University level and industry innovations and is one of the most significant events in the SLASSCOM calendar. While congratulating the winners, we encourage these innovators to take their innovations to a global level so that the country will benefit in the long run.”
These comments were further endorsed by Dilan Rajapakse, SLASSCOM Director of the Regional Development Forum who added that he is delighted to witness an increased participation from all the provinces of the county, further stating that the SLASSCOM National Ingenuity Awards is the only such competition where the innovation is recognized and celebrated in both Provincial and National levels
Lending a strong support to the event was the Export Development Board (EDB), the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) and the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) as the National Partners of the event, Wiley Global as the Innovation Sponsor, Axiata Digital Labs, Pearsons and EYGDS as the Platinum sponsors, London Stock Exchange Group and Hayleys Advantis as the Gold sponsors and RR Donnelly as the Silver Sponsor. Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) as the Process Governance Sponsor and International Finance Corporation (IFC) as the technical partner also came on board to partner the event.
SLASSCOM, the initiator of value driven programs such as Techkids, that teaches kids to code, Hack like a girl, the country‘s first and only women’s only hackathon and the Microsoft Imagine Cup, through this year’s National Ingenuity awards, showcased the key role they have played in harnessing the talents of Sri Lanka’s most innovative entities and individuals.