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Wednesday, 29 June 2011 00:31 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Rising costs are pushing companies to look beyond China and India as their source for goods. Sri Lanka, with a growing infrastructure and expanding resources in industries like apparel and footwear, poses a significant opportunity.
Companies like TradeCard, based in New York, are investing in staff and resources in Sri Lanka to tap into this emerging talent pool to better service customers throughout Asia.
TradeCard is a cloud based platform that connects brands, retailers and trading partners around the world, including companies like Guess, Levi Strauss & Co., MAS and Brandix. Sri Lanka was a perfect fit for TradeCard for several reasons.
TradeCard has found a wealth of talent to support areas of its business. From a technology perspective, TradeCard first began leveraging local talent by partnering with Sri Lanka based Sabre Technologies a fully owned subsidiary of MAS Holdings to develop its products. It soon established a formal presence of 70 full time employees.
The growth of Sri Lanka’s apparel business was another attraction. More of TradeCard’s customers are seeking a low cost alternative to source from and as interest grows in Sri Lanka, TradeCard has been able to hire local staff to engage with new and existing customers and help them get started doing business in the region.
“What I find amazing about Sri Lanka is the huge talent pool of well-educated, loyal people,” said Richard Tan, Vice President, PSO and Technical Support Asia, TradeCard, Inc. “It is truly worthwhile for companies like us to invest in staff here as we continue to break down offshoring barriers of geography, isolation and history. We have a great team of folks with great attitudes who are working hard to make offshoring work.”
Sri Lanka’s geographic location made it an ideal place to add customer support facilities. TradeCard created a support centre here that provides assistance to customers in Asia – a key to TradeCard’s ability to provide 24 hour customer support to its customers in 68 countries. As more of TradeCard’s large brand and retail customers seek suppliers in the “next low cost hot spot,” its presence in Sri Lanka allows TradeCard to bring more regional suppliers onto its system rapidly and to help connect buyers and suppliers.
TradeCard plans to continue its growth in Sri Lanka by expanding its marketing, product development and support staff. A prime goal continues to be finding and adding new talent. The company plans to add 20 new hires in its Sri Lanka office by the end of July.
“Our presence in Sri Lanka has grown and evolved into a significant part of our operations for product development, customer support and new business generation,” said Guy Rey-Herme, President of TradeCard, Inc.
“We’re focused on hiring smart, talented people and providing the necessary training and tools to help them develop and contribute to our New York City team. We see Sri Lanka as a vast pool of talent that still remains relatively untapped by global and multi-national companies for the most part. At TradeCard, we consider ourselves a step ahead with a well-established operation in Sri Lanka that already delivers a significant contribution to our business.”
