ICT

SLIIT increases student intake

Anjana Samarasinghe

The Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) will invest Rs 100 million to increase their annual student intake by 40 per cent this year.

Managing Director/ CEO Chief Academic Officer Professor Lalith Gamage told Daily News Business they have increased the student intake this year by 40 per cent to produce more IT graduates to the IT industry. "This year SLIIT expects to take 1500 students and last year it was 1100", he said.

SLIIT will invest Rs 100 million this year to develop infrastructure and increase the capacity to accommodate additional students. The campus will also focus on attracting more qualified lecturers to their lecture panel, he said.

SLIIT expects to introduce new degree programmes too. Under this the campus will introduce a Business Management degree programme and this will be an IT related degree programme.

The campus will also introduce other engineering degree programmes such as electronic engineering in the near future. Meanwhile the SLIIT Convocation 2008 was held in last week and 750 SLIIT students obtain their BSc. degrees, Post Graduate Diplomas and Masters degrees in the fields of information technology, information systems and computer systems and networking.

Next year the institute together with the government will award 100 scholarships for students from Samurdhi families to make available higher education in IT to the children of Samurdhi recipients, he said.

The SLIIT has Malabe campus, Metropolitan campus and study centres in Matara and Kandy.

Sri Lanka, exciting market for Nokia

Sri Lanka is an exciting market for Nokia said Head of Go- To - Market Cluster, SEAP Go- To- Market, Sales of Nokia Gautam Advani.

He was speaking to the press at the Showcase Nokia 2008 held in Sydney where Nokia unveiled new converged devices and Internet services that encourage collaboration, creativity and sharing recently.

Sri Lanka is a developed market comparing with other countries in the region and is equipped with high technology. Nokia expects to have exciting projects in Sri Lanka in the near future he said.

The grey market is a major problem in these markets and company is trying to educate consumers on purchasing genuine devices with a warranty and mitigate the impact of the grey market he said.

Nokia also unveiled the Beta version of Nokia Maps 2.0 at the Showcase Nokia 2008.

Nokia Maps is taking its mapping and navigation experiences to the next level by enhancing its pedestrian navigation, adding multimedia city guides, offering satellite images and sporting a redesigned user interface.

Nokia Maps 2.0 adds Walk a pedestrian focused navigation component to the application, while still offering Drive, a world class navigation system. The pedestrian navigation efficiently walks you from A to B with visual turn - by - turn guidance.

To build upon the previously announced Ovi Internet services environment, Nokia announced Share on Ovi, a new free personal media sharing community that makes it easy to upload, manage and share personal media through a mobile, desktop or other connected devices.

Share on Ovi offers communities where consumers can socialize, interact and collaborate and is designed for more than 100 different media types with unlimited storage and unlimited monthly uploads.

AS

eSenze hr software solutions to expand into international markets

eSenze, business applications and HR solutions provider in Sri Lanka, has expedited and expanded their market penetration with more focus on their contemporary E-HRM software system.

eSenze Private Limited, has a complete range of HR software solutions and applications which caters to every aspect of HRM in an organization. With its global operations, their service is now reaching the international markets.

eSenzes' performance-based, customer friendly business model stands out in today's E- HRM environment and has found favour with over two hundred local and foreign clients.

So far, eSenze has created a strong buzz in the Asia Pacific region, especially in the Indian, Taiwanese and Bangladeshi markets.

Plans are underway to enter into Pakistani, Maldivian, and Middle Eastern markets as well to enter into European and African regions, by offering a virtual HR division with proven records in cost saving and efficiency in maintaining the dynamic resource of Man Power.

Backed by ISO quality certification, eSenze applies well-established Quality Management Systems in their work processes that guarantees a hassle free and convenient pre and post sales service to the client.

Talking about this innovative software solution CEO of eSenze, Thariq Sanoon said, "We find a steady and a continuous shift in companies from manual operating systems to computerized automated systems in Sri Lanka as well as in the region.

As a large-scale systems integrator and a software developer, eSenze has an unmatched reputation for providing customized solutions in HR Software category.

With the objective of bringing software solutions to HR sector, we have combined the experience and the technical know-how that we accumulated during the past five years in designing this eHRM package," he said.

"In an era where every possible business operation is expected to be fast and accurate, it is important that companies, which are planning to increase their business parameters, be supported by accurate and up to date solutions such as eHRM.

Through our geographical expansion strategy we will be able to create more jobs for Sri Lankans, bring in foreign revenue to the country and exchange technical expertise between partner nations which inevitably up-grade our local knowledge base," he added.

Beira Group partners with IFS South Asia

IFS, the Global Enterprise Applications Company partnered to integrate all functionalities of Beira Group with IFS Applications.

Manager Sales and Marketing IFS South Asia Shiraz Lye said "When it comes to selecting prospects, IFS scrutinize the industry of our client so that it comes within our area of expertise, the user readiness, if the required solution caters to solving the issues faced, whilst enhancing business development and most importantly the collaboration within the infrastructure available to support our solution.

We were able to clearly identify these positives with The Beira Group which made us to become the business solutions partner to them. Moreover the enthusiasm and professionalism displayed by The Beira Group management in joining hands with IFS South Asia to implement a business solution based ERP was very much the key to our tie up.

IFS in South Asia have proven its clientele in the manufacturing sector winning over customers such as DSI, D. Samson & Sons and Elastomeric Engineering and Millat Tractors in Pakistan.

However due to lack of knowledge and product awareness in the Sri Lankan manufacturing industry not many organisations opt for ERP solutions. But we have witnessed substantial growth in the past four years in implementing ERP solutions in many organisations in Sri Lanka and within the region, he said.

Director Beira Group V. Selvaraj said, 'We had a detailed selection process and criteria for selecting an ERP Solution that could compliment us in our growth, IFS stood out tall, given their expertise in manufacturing and module based ERP solution along with keen and committed personnel.

The fact that IFS is based out of Sri Lanka and most of the Software Engineers sit in Colombo, gave us the re-assurance that there is no other ERP provider that could match the level of commitment and skill offered by IFS.

The ERP Solution provided by IFS South Asia consists of IFS Financials, Distribution, Manufacturing, Document Management and Human Resources. These solutions would enable Beira Group to effectively manage their resources in an efficient manner, cater to the demand in-hand in manufacture, whilst maintain proper records of all data available and targeting on employee skill development and enhancement.

World's thinnest Notebook:

EPSI launches 'MacBook Air'

Apple recently unveiled MacBook Air, the world's thinnest notebook. The MacBook Air measures an unprecedented 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, while its maximum height of 0.76-inches is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks.

Head of Marketing EPSI computers, authorized re- seller for Apple in Sri Lanka Rukshan Jayawardena said that the MacBook Air has a stunning 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, a full-size and backlit keyboard, a built-in Sight video camera for video conferencing, and a spacious track pad with multi-touch gesture support so users can pinch, rotate and swipe.

He also said the MacBook Air is powered by a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, and includes as standard features 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive, and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology and Bluetooth 2.1. Jayawardena further said that the MacBook Air is now available at all EPSI iStores.

We built the world's thinnest notebook without sacrificing a full-size keyboard or a full-size 13-inch display, said, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs. When you first see MacBook Air, it's hard to believe it's a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display. But it is.

The backlit keyboard makes it ideal for dimly lit environments such as airplanes, studios or conference halls, and a built-in ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the brightness of the keys as well as the display brightness for optimal visibility.

Every MacBook Air includes a micro-DVI port so users can connect to Apple's gorgeous 20-inch or 23-inch Cinema Displays to extend their desktop or connect to projectors and other displays via DVI, VGA, Composite and S-video adapters.

MacBook Air includes USB 2.0 for plugging in peripherals or charging an iPod<... or iPhone, a headphone jack and Apple's acclaimed MagSafe Power Adapter designed especially for mobile users.