Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) at the Bottom of Pyramid (BOP) level is still not too common. Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala accompanied by a LIRNEasia team made a visit to Mahawilachchiya to have a close look at the first (still emerging) rural BPO there recently. On the same day, The Economic Times of India quoted Prof. Jhunjhunwala saying: ““Like manufacturing grew in China, services and manufacturing should grow in rural India. The sourcing and design can happen here (metros like Chennai) but the manufacturing should be taken to the rural areas and be managed through IT.”
Professor Jhunjhunwala has added that eventually people will set up their own enterprises in rural areas, thus mitigating widespread migration.Read the full story: http://tinyurl.com/2qugz2
Addendum by Rohan Samarajiva:
I happened upon an early account by Chulie de Silva of how it all began at Mahavilachchiya and Nivaththakachethiya that may be of interest to the readers of this thread (since it was, for a long time available on the web, I am assuming it is in the public domain): chulie_onwanni.doc
I am not sure whether you understand the crux of the matter. These BPOs call centers etc good to dream, but what we should understand the overly expansion of the service sector will always end in a bubble. This is what happened at USA in 2001-2 period and it is going to happen in India soon. The IT/BPO/Call center expansion in India and elsewhere in South Asia is often presented with big hype and it is unfortunate that we cannot follow what really happens. Rapid growth is a salient feature of any bubble. All will be celebrating till it eventually bursts. The real growth of a country, on the other hand, is marked by the expansion of agriculture and industry. That is the sectors which can offer tangible results, not the service sector. No country in South Asia could grow neglecting the industry and the agriculture sector. Wait and see what will happen with the next global recession.
M. Faizul Bari
Khulna, Bangladesh
Thank you Faizul for true comments
Everything should be balanced. We need food to eat
First ten companies of a country should be Agri and Industry — not service sector
Use IT as a tool to manage the agriculture and Industry. Maintain the balance
farmer could be named as = Cultivating Engineer
Likewise you rename the whole process to suit the IT sector, Then the young will join the team
Donald Gaminitillake
Donald uncle,
Please do not talk nonsense.
Let us take your BMW for example. Do you know the price of a BMW? I am not good at car prices, but I guess it might be around $ 100,000. So when it comes to Sri Lanka with taxes etc the price would be $ 200,000.
Do you know how much a farmer in Sri Lanka earns? The average household income in North Central province is Rs. 14, 500 pm. That is $ 130.
So even if we assume even a farmer and his family not only eat nothing, spend zero amount in shelter, clothes, education, healthcare but also make no investments in his agri-business and save the entire amount it takes him more than 1,500 months or 125 years to save enough money to purchase a BMW!
You remind me that old Chinese yarn Chairman Mao was fond of repeating.
There was this poor Chinese farmer who tried to flatten a mountain (which he had to cross every time to reach the town). When somebody pointed out that he would never complete in his life time, the old farmer responded saying if I cannot finish it, my sons, grandsons and great grandsons would complete it one day.
Chairman Mao exploited that stupid example to push millions of Chinese youth to agriculture, where obviously many did not see any future prospects. We know the grave results of the agriculture mania in China. It led to famines and millions and millions died as a result.
Fortunately for us the Sri Lankan rural youth are no more ‘konde bandapu cheenas’ They are not going to buy your BMW dreams.
Mahavilachchiya came to todays level with a single used 486 computer. $200,000 BMW is not that far for MV.
Commence a project with IT and farming
eg
have a – cultivating Engineers – Horizon co-operative
Collect the agri products
Grade – Sort – and pack them
Have non refrigerated Van and a refrigerated van for perishables
Sell them to whole sale market directly — part could be sold on Direct marketing or to the retail chain like Keels or cargills
Still you can export products to Middle east and Maldives
Use IT for on demand delivery
$200,000 is not that far
Donald Gaminitillake
Dear Faizul (Post 51),
I cannot understand as to why you are this pessimistic about the future of ICT related business. Read World is Flat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_is_Flat by Thomas Friedman. He talks about the “dot com bubble” burst which you talk about during 2001-2 period and how the Americans faced it positively and changed the negative aspects to positive. It is same with the Millennium Bug phenomena. Though it created a big problem initially the aftermath was positive as it created a need of thousands of software Engineers which became a great human resource pool for ICT development of late. Outsourcing services to the Third World is one stage of the chain. (I am not going to explain the whole chain here because it is absurd to reproduce what Friedman said again here. Better read him.)
I personally don’t see as to why we should be so pessimistic about ICT related industries. Remember when we were schoolboys in 80’s all the science fictions and futurists had predicted a world with thousands of household robots which will rule the world by year 2000 but this didn’t happen. Instead, even I who live in a very remote village in Sri Lanka had a desktop computer on my table! It is more or less the same everywhere else. Robots will take another 50 years to come to households and still ICT will be ruling the world till the next 50 to 100 years. (Robots also will have to depend on ICT for their operations like new OS downloads, new updates, etc.) So, when one opportunity fades, say BPO, thousands of other opportunities will emerge.
Agriculture will be profitable for the countries which make it a huge business with thousands of acres is allocated to one farmer or company. What we do in our countries with less than 2 acres of plots of land for an individual is very difficult to make profits due to the reasons everyone is already aware. So, it is high time you thought outside the box. We, in the subcontinent have to change our thinking patterns for the future generations to prosper. We haven’t done nothing much than boasting about our age-old cultures and histories, have we?
Mr Faizul is supplying misinformation.
BPO cannot be equated to the Internet bubble. The BPO industry is a service industry. It is not driven by speculative investment. If the BPO industry in India goes down, it will be for reasons like protectionist policies in the US or the main markets; or the Indian companies being priced out because of inability to control high wages. But the same can be said for agricultural export and industrial export industries. There is no inherent special vulnerability of service industries.
There is a legitimate debate about whether a country can rely on the service industry to drive its economy. In a globalized market, the answer is yes. Singapore has proven it. Some people keep insisting the opposite. That is okay. But there is no need to bring misinformation about the Internet bubble into the discussion.
Dear Donald,
It was not very long ago I heard few Americans called their video man a “Video Engineer” at a conference in New Delhi. But we all knew that he was nothing more than a video man but the American organizers of the conference wanted to promote their American video man.
So, your nomenclature won’t help here. Calling a farmer a “Cultivating Engineer” won’t take him anywhere higher than where he already is. A farmer in this part of the world remain the same place in the society despite a name change. Hope you will understand my point. The problem is not with the name, it is with the sorry state of the farmers in this part of the world.
Dear Mr. Donald Gaminitillake (hope I spelled your name correctly),
I am the CEO of BMW. While doing a casual surf at the VIP longue at Heathrow, I find these posts of yours which naturally interest me a lot. It was not the type of the information that I get every day.
Donald, you know, we at BMW have been making cars since 1920s, but all those years we never thought of making a model customised for farmers. As far as we were concerned they did not exist. We never thought farmers, plumbers or carpenters would not be within our customer base for all these days. How blind we were! The world is changing and your post was a real eye opener for everyone at BMW. (I have already circulated your post among all my Vice Presidents)
From your post I understand there is a huge potential for us to exploit this farmer market for our new products. We can start from Sri Lanka, then move to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. By the time we reach the Chinese farmers, I am sure we would have beaten both GM and Toyota bu volumes, let alone ROI.
What a great idea, Donald. We can call the new model BMW ‘Farmer series’. We can have them in different shades of green to give them a real agri look. We can also think of adding some new features like a separate space to keep their agricultural equipment etc, whatever they are. The potential is endless.
Donald, I do not know how to thank you for giving us this wonderful idea. If you happen to be in this part of the world, please do not hesitate to give me a buzz and I will drop anything to have a working lunch with such a brilliant guy like you. I have already instructed to my secretary to reserve you a VIP ticket for next Bimmerfest at Santa Barbara, CA.
I have asked my Vice President marketing to get in touch with you to further discuss your idea and he will be in touch with you sometime within this week.
Thanks again, Donald and Best Wishes from BMW.
Dear Dr. Donald Gaminitillake,
I will call you “Dr.” because the team which gave me my doctorate will give one to you soon. Apart from me, you are the only other one in Sri Lanka suitable to be honored with such a title due to your brilliant brain. Hope everyone else calls you a doctor too. I will get Dr Geethanjana Mendis to propose your name soon.
I see your following statement and it is hardly less funnier than what I talk in public.
“Why not a pair of shorts and go to work in a BMW. Park your BMW near the field and do the work.”
I also saw this link from from this village website. http://www.horizonlanka.org/news/broken_road/ See the roads there. Despite my “machang’s” presence in the picture, the roads look too good for a BMW.
Donald,
You live in Colombo and has no idea about the hardships undergone by the poor farmers. Many of them are ‘anda goviyas’ who do not have their own lands and depend on others. Then in some years the harvest drops drastically because of the droughts. When they produce the vendors and middlemen exploit them and hardly get good prices for the produce. Agriculture is a job which has the least means of security. You cannot blame people leaving agriculture to do something else, specially the youth.
Even in the developed countries the prices of agriculture products are kept artificially low by giving various types of subsidies. There is no strong economic reason for any country to protect agriculture. They do only because (a) it takes time to convert traditional farmers to other occupations and (b) by leaving agriculture you make a country vulnerable. (Singapore does not face that issue because it has no strong enemies)
If you have any sense, please help MV by finding enough BPO work for them. Don’t try to stop that and chase off these kids back to agriculture. Service sector is the only sector that allows them to come up. (Even industries require a significant investment) Don’t close that door for them.
I never chased the youth in MV to agriculture
I always advise that IT should use as a tool to manage agriculture
MV is under ‘Swarana bumi” not under ada Goviya
Even under ada goviya project the farmer has all the power not the owner of that land.
We need IT as well as agriculture.
In hotel industry we have a “CHEF” whether it is the ‘Cook” or “Kussi Amma” all three does the same job – cooking food
Likewise if people think the agriculture is a job that is underpaid or low status we got to change the image. Not all the farmers in this world where an “amude” they do he same job wearing other cloths
Think different
enjoy reading the comments about the BMW!!
Donald Gaminitillake
Coming back to the topic, I was at MV on Saturday and was glad to observe the progress of the MV BPO.
The challenge for MV BPO now is not the demand, but capacity building. If they cannot supply the skilled manpower in short notice, the prospects will surely explore other options. In my opinion, MV BPO should expand their HR capacity quickly to meet the growing demand. Perhaps it is the time for them to look HR from nearby villages, if not from Anuradhapura. This is the time to think BIG.
http://ontimetechnologies.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/mahavilachchiya-bpos-progress/
Mahavilachchiya BPO’s progress
The Horizon Academy in Mahavilachchiya is a truly visionary project set up with an objective of providing the children and youth of the village with a knowledge of English and ICT. The advent of Horizon Academy brought great improvements to the little hamlet and Mahavilachchiya is today famed as an E-village and has produced several outstanding young men and women equipped with good English and computing skills.
The concept of carrying out work for Colombo based and overseas companies from the precincts of Mahavilachchiya was envisioned by Horizon Lanka’s charismatic founder Mr. Nandasiri Wanninayaka, even before the term “BPO” was widely known. John Keells was introduced to Horizon Lanka by the Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunity (FARO) and the idea of carrying out outsourced accounting work from Mahavilachchiya was mooted. A new BPO Company, On-Time Ltd, was incorporated and it was envisaged that it would operate out of Mahavilachchiya, renting out the facility and IT infrastructure of Horizon Lanka academy. Nirosh Ranathunge, a Kelaniya university graduate, functions as the CEO of the Company and Isuru Senevirathna, functions as a Director and trusted deputy to Nirosh. John Keells chose one of its subsidiaries, InfoMate Ltd, to pioneer the outsourcing of Transaction processing to On-Time Ltd. InfoMate Ltd, which is itself in the business of providing outsourced accounting services, was the natural candidate for this initiative owing to the availability of a high volume of data intensive transactions and the familiarity with the outsourcing model.
The John Keells Strategic Group IT division facilitated the set up of remote connectivity to JKH systems from Mahavilachchiya and On-Time Ltd’s high speed internet links facilitate data access and transaction processing. With the establishing of secure connectivity, a tripartite agreement between John Keells Holdings, FARO and On-Time Ltd was signed in May 2007 and commercial operations between InfoMate and On-Time commenced in the same month. Digitised images are electronically transmitted to On-Time Ltd and the On-Time team carries out Invoices processing and Document indexing based on the images.
InfoMate Ltd provides staff of On-Time with training in the BPO centre in Colombo and trainees they are taken through an induction programme as well as a structured training programme in the processing of accounting transactions. The John Keells CSR foundation provides accommodation in Colombo during the duration of the training. The third batch of trainees from On-Time is currently undergoing training in our facility and they will swell the number of dedicated On-Time resources to six.
We have found the employees of On-Time Ltd to be very committed, eager to learn, hard working and their processing quality is of a high standard. We are very impressed with their English, knowledge of ICT and professionalism. The On-Time team is also very popular with the staff of InfoMate Ltd, all of whom are delighted to have the opportunity to interact with the bright and pleasant young men and women of Mahavilachchiya and also to contribute towards a worthy CSR initiative. This project is an outstanding example of sustainable business, reaching across boundaries to provide equal opportunities and employment. It is also an important step towards creating BPO capacity in anticipation of the much hyped BPO boom which is much touted as a major growth area for the country.
Visit http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2007/10/21/fin21.asp for the source.
Mahavilachchiya – first village to have BPO operation – Sunday Observer
by Surekha Galagoda – Visit http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2007/10/21/fin21.asp
Mahavilachchiya, a village 245 kms from colombo is well known among locals and the international community as the first evillage and the village with the highest density of computers compared to any other village in Sri Lanka. Most parts of the village have broadband internet connectivity thanks to the hard work of the CEO of Horizon Lanka Foundation (HLF) T. B. Nandasiri Wanninayaka.
Today it is the first village to have a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) operation, which is totally handled by youngsters who are not only fluent in English and Computer knowledge but also play squash and rugger.
Wanni as he is popularly known has brought a smile to the youth of the village due to years of hard work and not accepting “No” for an answer. The concept of carrying out work for Colombo based and international companies from Mahavilachchiya was contemplated by Wanni even before the term BPO was widely known. Kapila Gunawardena based in the USA visited the HLF and seeing the potential of the youth wanted us to start a BPO operation, said Wanni.
John Keells was introduced to HLF by the Foundation for Advancing Rural Poverty (FARO). This saw the birth of the first BPO operation from rural Mahavilachchiya. The company On-Time Technologies (Pvt) Ltd., the BPO Company based in Mahavilachchiya rents the facility and the IT infrastructure of Horizon Lanka Academy.
Nirosh Ranatunga, a graduate from the University of Kelaniya functions as the CEO while Isuru Seneviratne is a director. John Keells selected one of its subsidiaries Infomate Ltd. to pioneer the outsourcing of transaction processing to On-Time Ltd. John Keells selected Infomate Ltd as they are in the business of providing outsourced accounting service owing to the availability of a high volume of data intensive transactions and the familiarity with the outsourcing model.
Tripartite agreement
The JK strategic group IT division facilitated the setting up of the remote connectivity to JKH systems from Mahavilachchiya and the high internet links of On-Time facilitate data access and transaction processing. Once the secure connectivity was set up a tripartite agreement was signed between John Keells, On-Time Ltd and FARO in May 2007 and there has been no turning back since then.
Infomate transfers digitised images electronically to On-Time and they carry out the processing of invoices and document indexing based on the images. The outsourcing work for Infomate (Pvt) Ltd. is done from Mahavilachchiya using advanced communication technology. At present the operation is handled by four youth of Horizon Lanka Foundation while two are undergoing training at Infomate Ltd.
The staffers of On-Time said that they could break even when the two students join them after the training. At present each operator processes 150 invoices per day.
Nirosh Ranatunga said that a separate data link provided free by LankaCom, is used to connect Mahavilachchiya and JKH avoiding internet for a secured connectivity. Security tokens are being used to make the connectivity more secure but it creates high overheads since we have to pay a monthly rental for each token.
We use two software systems for the BPO operation which is SAP and BPO Mate. SAP is a client server software of which the client is installed at our site and our operators give user names and passwords to connect to the server at JKH.
The BPO Mate a web based system that we access via a web browser giving its URL. Separate user names and passwords are given to our operators for BPO Mate. This is used to retrieve images. The Speed of the datalink is 128 kbps.
Customer data
Wanni said that they have also signed a contract with Dialog Telekom to process customer data while FARO is in discussion with Singer as well.
He said that since JKH was their first client it was easy to get recognition and secure a client as JKH is well recognised.
Wanni said that creating jobs in the village has opened many opportunities for the youngsters, which were hitherto shut. Without the support and help of JKH and FARO we would not have achieved so much in such a short period of time, said a grateful Wanni.
He said that they would showcase this village as a model for teaching English and IT using modern technology. He said that technology should be accessible to all children be they in the village or city as all children are talented.
He said prior to this project being introduced girls joined garment factories while the boys joined the Armed Forces after completing their education. English and IT has opened a host of opportunities to these youngsters and expanded their horizon as the name implies.
Dr. Ashok Junjunwala of IIT India during his visit had suggested that Anuradhapura be made a BPO district with Mahavilachchiya as the base.
We as Sri Lankans should hope and pray that this becomes a reality sooner than later where every citizen can be proud of the youth of this country. During the training period Infomate takes the trainees through an induction program as well as a structured program in the processing of accounting transactions.
The Social Responsibility Foundation of John Keells also provides the trainees with accommodation during the training period.
The horizon Lanka Academy trains the students in Computers and English and now most of them are so tech savvy that they even have their own blogs, which has helped them, win laptops from donors.
The first lucky blogger to receive a laptop from Dr Ing. E. Leuthold of Switzerland was Tharanga Sampath. Among the other lucky winners are Ranuka Udayanga an 18-year-old Advanced Level student while the other was Hansi Sumedha (16), an O/L student.
Internet connections
The village of Mahavilachchiya got Internet connections before the village got telephone connections thanks to Mesh technology, a project, donated by UNDP. Mahavilachchiya was selected as the testing ground for Mesh technology as it was the village with the highest density of computers.
Hansi Sumedha said that her ambition is to become a doctor. She said, “Before I joined HLF I didn’t have any knowledge of English or computers. Thanks to the teachers of HLF now I have my own blog to which I write often. Most importantly I perform better than my classmates in school. She said that she could use her laptop to do presentations.
Her parents are farmers and she has two sisters.
Isuru Seneviratna, now a director of On-Time studied up to the GCE (O/L) in Mahavilachchiya and has been groomed by Wanni from grade four. He sat for his A/L examination in the Science stream from Nivaththaka Chethiya Vidyalaya Anuradhapura. Speaking of Wanni’s teaching methods, he said that he used innovative methods, which made them like the subject.
He was a lucky recipient of a BPO training program, which he underwent in Laos and India for three months. We were fortunate to be trained by David Paulson in Laos. “I got a whole new experience and thanks to that I am very much changed. He also gave us a good training in management.
“I gained a lot of experience at JKH, Laos and India and I don’t know what I would have done if this project was not initiated by Wanninayaka Sir,” said Seneviratne who will be celebrating his 20th birthday this week. His future plans are developing the company and moving to the management side, as that is his pet area.
Nirosh Ranatunga sharing his experience about Laos and India said that Laos is not as developed as our country.
The English knowledge is somewhat good but they have excellent systems while some team members are good in IT. Therefore they follow the systems and do big projects for clients even in the USA.
Ranatunga, a commerce graduate from the University of Kelaniya has done some software projects even while a student and now owns his own software development facility in Anuradhapura. Among his future plans are developing On-Time technologies as well as his private business.
U. B. Seetha, a 54-year-old grandmother of one of the students of Horizon Lanka Academy said that prior to this project nobody knew about computers. Thanks to this project our grandchildren are very knowledgeable and my grandson can even speak in English said the proud grandmother. We even got an opportunity of looking at a computer thanks to HLF and the HLA.
Horizon Lanka Foundation
Horizon Lanka Foundation (HLF) is a non profit organisation registered under the Companies Act of Sri Lanka. It has been operating since 1998 in Mahavilachchiya. The Horizon Lanka Foundation was set up in 1998 due to the determination of a group of children from the rural village of Mahavilachchiya.
Their thirst for knowledge and educational advancement led them to the door of Nandasiri Wanninayaka (now CEO of HL Foundation), their former English teacher in the public school.
Thus began an after school club providing children further education in English and computers.
It has become a popular place for many children of the village. Since 1998, the Horizon Lanka Foundation has branched out. As well as providing an all-round education to the village children at Horizon Lanka Academy, they have expanded into the Information Age and now service the entire community with their computer lab, which has 24 Internet access.
In 2001, the website http://www.horizonlanka.org was launched by the children of Horizon Lanka Academy, opening a window to the world. Horizon Lanka Foundation is also responsible for beginning a project, which is bringing PCs to the homes of the villagers of Mahavilachchiya. So far more than 30 homes have been furnished with a computer and this is increasing monthly.
Micro Scholarships is a project of the Horizon Lanka Foundation that aims to help deserving students in their education. Many capable students in rural Sri Lanka are forced to interrupt their schooling because of financial difficulties.
Micro Scholarships ensure that every child covered under the scheme gets a quality education and a happy childhood. Under it, volunteers offer financial assistance that gives the child a small amount of money every month.
Horizon Lanka has fought against all odds to bring the Information Age to the small rural village of Mahavilachchiya.
Our efforts, funded purely by kind donations and sponsorship, are now providing over 100 students of the village with computing skills, access to the Internet, PCs in their homes, an Academy to improve their education specialising in ICT and English and most importantly we are giving the children and community fresh hope for their futures. Nandasiri Wanninayaka, a villager of Mahavilachchiya assumed duties as the English teacher in Saliyamala Public School in 1997.
This visionary thinker taught English to students using very innovative methods and also encouraged the little butterflies to maintain diaries and journals daily.
This made them improve their knowledge of English and win regional competitions as well.
“I am from this village and when I went to the city I had to face many barriers due to the limited knowledge of English. This is the reason I wanted to teach these children so that they not only master it but also become tech savvy and expand their horizons. I am happy about their progress since I groomed them from grade four. Now I want to implement the project in other villages as well, said Wanni.
Courtesy : HLF website
Original Story at http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2007/10/21/fin21.asp
Mahavilachchiya – first village to have BPO operation
by Surekha Galagoda
Mahavilachchiya, a village 245 kms from colombo is well known among locals and the international community as the first evillage and the village with the highest density of computers compared to any other village in Sri Lanka. Most parts of the village have broadband internet connectivity thanks to the hard work of the CEO of Horizon Lanka Foundation (HLF) T. B. Nandasiri Wanninayaka.
Today it is the first village to have a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) operation, which is totally handled by youngsters who are not only fluent in English and Computer knowledge but also play squash and rugger.
Wanni as he is popularly known has brought a smile to the youth of the village due to years of hard work and not accepting “No” for an answer. The concept of carrying out work for Colombo based and international companies from Mahavilachchiya was contemplated by Wanni even before the term BPO was widely known. Kapila Gunawardena based in the USA visited the HLF and seeing the potential of the youth wanted us to start a BPO operation, said Wanni.
John Keells was introduced to HLF by the Foundation for Advancing Rural Poverty (FARO). This saw the birth of the first BPO operation from rural Mahavilachchiya. The company On-Time Technologies (Pvt) Ltd., the BPO Company based in Mahavilachchiya rents the facility and the IT infrastructure of Horizon Lanka Academy.
Nirosh Ranatunga, a graduate from the University of Kelaniya functions as the CEO while Isuru Seneviratne is a director. John Keells selected one of its subsidiaries Infomate Ltd. to pioneer the outsourcing of transaction processing to On-Time Ltd. John Keells selected Infomate Ltd as they are in the business of providing outsourced accounting service owing to the availability of a high volume of data intensive transactions and the familiarity with the outsourcing model.
Tripartite agreement
The JK strategic group IT division facilitated the setting up of the remote connectivity to JKH systems from Mahavilachchiya and the high internet links of On-Time facilitate data access and transaction processing. Once the secure connectivity was set up a tripartite agreement was signed between John Keells, On-Time Ltd and FARO in May 2007 and there has been no turning back since then.
Infomate transfers digitised images electronically to On-Time and they carry out the processing of invoices and document indexing based on the images. The outsourcing work for Infomate (Pvt) Ltd. is done from Mahavilachchiya using advanced communication technology. At present the operation is handled by four youth of Horizon Lanka Foundation while two are undergoing training at Infomate Ltd.
The staffers of On-Time said that they could break even when the two students join them after the training. At present each operator processes 150 invoices per day.
Nirosh Ranatunga said that a separate data link provided free by LankaCom, is used to connect Mahavilachchiya and JKH avoiding internet for a secured connectivity. Security tokens are being used to make the connectivity more secure but it creates high overheads since we have to pay a monthly rental for each token.
We use two software systems for the BPO operation which is SAP and BPO Mate. SAP is a client server software of which the client is installed at our site and our operators give user names and passwords to connect to the server at JKH.
The BPO Mate a web based system that we access via a web browser giving its URL. Separate user names and passwords are given to our operators for BPO Mate. This is used to retrieve images. The Speed of the datalink is 128 kbps.
Customer data
Wanni said that they have also signed a contract with Dialog Telekom to process customer data while FARO is in discussion with Singer as well.
He said that since JKH was their first client it was easy to get recognition and secure a client as JKH is well recognised.
Wanni said that creating jobs in the village has opened many opportunities for the youngsters, which were hitherto shut. Without the support and help of JKH and FARO we would not have achieved so much in such a short period of time, said a grateful Wanni.
He said that they would showcase this village as a model for teaching English and IT using modern technology. He said that technology should be accessible to all children be they in the village or city as all children are talented.
He said prior to this project being introduced girls joined garment factories while the boys joined the Armed Forces after completing their education. English and IT has opened a host of opportunities to these youngsters and expanded their horizon as the name implies.
Dr. Ashok Junjunwala of IIT India during his visit had suggested that Anuradhapura be made a BPO district with Mahavilachchiya as the base.
We as Sri Lankans should hope and pray that this becomes a reality sooner than later where every citizen can be proud of the youth of this country. During the training period Infomate takes the trainees through an induction program as well as a structured program in the processing of accounting transactions.
The Social Responsibility Foundation of John Keells also provides the trainees with accommodation during the training period.
The horizon Lanka Academy trains the students in Computers and English and now most of them are so tech savvy that they even have their own blogs, which has helped them, win laptops from donors.
The first lucky blogger to receive a laptop from Dr Ing. E. Leuthold of Switzerland was Tharanga Sampath. Among the other lucky winners are Ranuka Udayanga an 18-year-old Advanced Level student while the other was Hansi Sumedha (16), an O/L student.
Internet connections
The village of Mahavilachchiya got Internet connections before the village got telephone connections thanks to Mesh technology, a project, donated by UNDP. Mahavilachchiya was selected as the testing ground for Mesh technology as it was the village with the highest density of computers.
Hansi Sumedha said that her ambition is to become a doctor. She said, “Before I joined HLF I didn’t have any knowledge of English or computers. Thanks to the teachers of HLF now I have my own blog to which I write often. Most importantly I perform better than my classmates in school. She said that she could use her laptop to do presentations.
Her parents are farmers and she has two sisters.
Isuru Seneviratna, now a director of On-Time studied up to the GCE (O/L) in Mahavilachchiya and has been groomed by Wanni from grade four. He sat for his A/L examination in the Science stream from Nivaththaka Chethiya Vidyalaya Anuradhapura. Speaking of Wanni’s teaching methods, he said that he used innovative methods, which made them like the subject.
He was a lucky recipient of a BPO training program, which he underwent in Laos and India for three months. We were fortunate to be trained by David Paulson in Laos. “I got a whole new experience and thanks to that I am very much changed. He also gave us a good training in management.
“I gained a lot of experience at JKH, Laos and India and I don’t know what I would have done if this project was not initiated by Wanninayaka Sir,” said Seneviratne who will be celebrating his 20th birthday this week. His future plans are developing the company and moving to the management side, as that is his pet area.
Nirosh Ranatunga sharing his experience about Laos and India said that Laos is not as developed as our country.
The English knowledge is somewhat good but they have excellent systems while some team members are good in IT. Therefore they follow the systems and do big projects for clients even in the USA.
Ranatunga, a commerce graduate from the University of Kelaniya has done some software projects even while a student and now owns his own software development facility in Anuradhapura. Among his future plans are developing On-Time technologies as well as his private business.
U. B. Seetha, a 54-year-old grandmother of one of the students of Horizon Lanka Academy said that prior to this project nobody knew about computers. Thanks to this project our grandchildren are very knowledgeable and my grandson can even speak in English said the proud grandmother. We even got an opportunity of looking at a computer thanks to HLF and the HLA.
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Horizon Lanka Foundation
Horizon Lanka Foundation (HLF) is a non profit organisation registered under the Companies Act of Sri Lanka. It has been operating since 1998 in Mahavilachchiya. The Horizon Lanka Foundation was set up in 1998 due to the determination of a group of children from the rural village of Mahavilachchiya.
Their thirst for knowledge and educational advancement led them to the door of Nandasiri Wanninayaka (now CEO of HL Foundation), their former English teacher in the public school.
Thus began an after school club providing children further education in English and computers.
It has become a popular place for many children of the village. Since 1998, the Horizon Lanka Foundation has branched out. As well as providing an all-round education to the village children at Horizon Lanka Academy, they have expanded into the Information Age and now service the entire community with their computer lab, which has 24 Internet access.
In 2001, the website http://www.horizonlanka.org was launched by the children of Horizon Lanka Academy, opening a window to the world. Horizon Lanka Foundation is also responsible for beginning a project, which is bringing PCs to the homes of the villagers of Mahavilachchiya. So far more than 30 homes have been furnished with a computer and this is increasing monthly.
Micro Scholarships is a project of the Horizon Lanka Foundation that aims to help deserving students in their education. Many capable students in rural Sri Lanka are forced to interrupt their schooling because of financial difficulties.
Micro Scholarships ensure that every child covered under the scheme gets a quality education and a happy childhood. Under it, volunteers offer financial assistance that gives the child a small amount of money every month.
Horizon Lanka has fought against all odds to bring the Information Age to the small rural village of Mahavilachchiya.
Our efforts, funded purely by kind donations and sponsorship, are now providing over 100 students of the village with computing skills, access to the Internet, PCs in their homes, an Academy to improve their education specialising in ICT and English and most importantly we are giving the children and community fresh hope for their futures. Nandasiri Wanninayaka, a villager of Mahavilachchiya assumed duties as the English teacher in Saliyamala Public School in 1997.
This visionary thinker taught English to students using very innovative methods and also encouraged the little butterflies to maintain diaries and journals daily.
This made them improve their knowledge of English and win regional competitions as well.
“I am from this village and when I went to the city I had to face many barriers due to the limited knowledge of English. This is the reason I wanted to teach these children so that they not only master it but also become tech savvy and expand their horizons. I am happy about their progress since I groomed them from grade four. Now I want to implement the project in other villages as well, said Wanni.
Courtesy : HLF website
See http://www.lakbimanews.lk/feb/feb1.htm
World Bank and Donald (50-52) say the same thing on agriculture. WB discouraged agriculture some time back. Like in JRJ’s case, Donald’s professes take time to be realized and understood. Someday, those who laugh at Donald will say Donald is right like many say bringing IPKF and the 13th amendment by JRJ is right. Will all those who resist Donald will have to eat a humble pie someday?
Thanks for the No 66 comments
I was at a work shop and they specified the functional map for farm mechanization.
The key purpose of the industry was to provide effective and sustainable farm mechanization technologies for increasing productivity of farms and improving quality agricultural products.
Using the computer and internet one group can study and move into farm mechanization.
This is a very wide subject. One has to recognize the skills in the village or at rural level and improve it for the development of the village.
These are the other branches of information communication technology.
“Think different” as steve jobs
Donald Gaminitillake
“I set the Standard”
Hi,
I’m working as a HR EXEC at a Sri lanka No. 01 BPO company and having more than 5 years experience. I have a good knowledge/experience in Data Entry/Processing and also having Touch Typing skills. I have a PC and DSL internet connection at home. Please let me know the possibility of getting a JOB to do at my residence.
WIDW