The SLASSCOM Women Technoprenuers (W-Tech) forum, committed to the empowerment of women in IT are dedicated to a number of educational and developmental initiatives through their Skills Development Pillar. The W-Tech forum has inspired and engaged many female IT/ BPM professionals as well as Tech Entrepreneurs in their career journeys, including the head of the Skills Development Pillar.
Ms. Pulani Ranasinghe, now an accomplished technopreneur the Founder and CEO of Loons Lab, took her first steps into the IT/ BPM industry just within few months after being in the industry after graduation. Looking back she had got her initial spark of becoming an entrepreneur after attending SLASSCOM hosted women only hackathon, which gave her the “women can” attitude at the early stages of university. Pulani Ranasinghe established her very own tech start-up, Loons Lab offering a diverse portfolio of services ranging across education, health, occupational safety, collaborative games, Covid safety and much more, serving both local and global markets. Loons Lab that is also into digitization has worked with around 10 Sri Lankan government organisations in helping to digitize their processors. Very recently Loons Lab has delivered digitizing the end to end process of human rights commission of Sri Lanka. Loons Lab is also credited with the creation of the SUPARIKSHA PCR/ Antigen/ Antibody Test management System, which was used by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health in order to monitor and manage their battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. This system was conceptualized as a breakthrough solution to replace traditional paper-based manual methods
Now heading the Skills Development Pillar at the SLASSCOM W-Tech Forum, Pulani will look to drive more initiatives aimed at inspiring more women to take up the technopreneur mantle, as she was inspired at the beginning of her journey.
The W-Tech Forum aims to create a positive change across the tech ecosystem in Sri Lanka through the facilitation of entrepreneurship development initiatives specifically tailored to support existing and potential female tech entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurs using digital platforms at every stage of their entrepreneurial journey. As such, The Skills Development Pillar is set to initiate a number of programs to uplift and empower women through three defined segments; women who are potential entrepreneurs, women who have initiated tech start-ups and women who rely on technology to scale their businesses.
Speaking on her appointment as the Head of W-Tech’s Skills Development Pillar, Pulani shared her message to all women in technology stating, “There is so much ecosystem built around female technopreneurs and we should try to make the most use of it and support in improving the number of Female Founders within the tech industry, removing cultural barriers and encouraging more women to be proactive in seeking out leadership roles.” As such, The W-Tech Skills Development Pillar is set to press forward in their mission to educate, develop and encourage women entrepreneurs and women in technology with a number of programs including a hackathons for women in collaboration with IFC that was aimed at potential future tech entrepreneurs, monthly webinars and quarterly workshops to educate people on the pain points faced by the technopreneures. Steps also have been taken to organize a boot-camp program in collaboration with IFC to help businesses scale, which will involve its participants enacting real-life practical actions within their businesses that would be guided and evaluated with time. Additionally will be other customized programmes which will help women entrepreneurs to get the best use of technology and digital platforms in order to step up their game as an entrepreneur in scaling up the business.
As the country marches towards sustained development, SLASSCOM and the W-Tech Forum strongly believe that the development and empowerment of women will be crucial. The initiatives and programs set to be conducted by the Skills Development Pillar under Pulani’s leadership will be a key driving factor in this regard.