Global research and education leader Wiley announces expansion plans in Sri Lanka

By Sandun Tissa Samaratunga 

John Wiley and Sons Inc., a global leader in research and education, last week announced its plans for 2020 and upcoming first anniversary of its operations in Sri Lanka. 

For over 200 years Wiley has been driving the world forward with research and education. Through publishing, platforms and services, it helps students, researchers, universities, and corporations to achieve their goals in an ever-changing world. 

Lankan venture Wiley Global Technology (WGT) began operations on 18 March 2019 and has since attracted some of the finest minds in the field of technology with over 215 professionals within its first 10 months of operations in Sri Lanka. 

John Wiley and Sons Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Aref Matin and WGT Sri Lanka General Manager Bimal Gunapala last week spoke to the media about the company’s success in Sri Lanka so far as well as future plans.

The company’s base workforce is in the United States and WGT currently has 350 professionals in Russia alone, the largest technology workforce, and in Sri Lanka, it has the second largest professional group.

Having invested over $ 5 million in Sri Lanka, WGT is currently operating in MAGA ONE building in Narahenpita, Colombo. 

WGT is planning to recruit up to 350 professionals this year and 500 in another two years from Sri Lanka. 

According to Matin, Wiley was drawn to Sri Lanka for several reasons. They included talent pool, which is unrivaled, with highly skilled and experienced engineering professionals. “Prospects are highly educated and have a strong focus on innovation and a desire to learn the latest technology trends. Some of our other reasons include the strong work ethic, collaborative teams, great English speakers, and commitment to careers rather than job hopping for competitive market situations; and perhaps my own personal favorite, everyone always has a great friendly Sri Lankan smile,” Matin added.

To reiterate the trust in Wiley’s Sri Lankan teams, he said: “After only three months, the team had started full delivery of advanced functionality to support one of our education platforms.  This gives us comfort that we have already established a highly competent team in Sri Lanka.”

The company has integrated the latest technological trends and tools of the industry into its workflow. It continues to explore new projects that would greatly contribute to the industry through innovation. Wiley and Sons is currently undergoing a revolutionary transformation, in that technology is playing a critical role in steering the company from its traditional publisher role to a distinguished, world-class technology company. This vision could only be accomplished by strengthening the technology teams at three selected Wiley’s technology centres, the newest being Sri Lanka.

Besides Sri Lanka, this operation is currently running in 18 countries, and four of them are Asian countries.  WGT consists of four million society members and 3.2 billion visits to the website in 2019. WGT has conducted online programs through 60 plus universities and is cooperating with more than 1,000 companies around the world. WGT also has a facility to access many research papers around the world.  Most of the graduates passed out from universities are general domain experts whose knowledge is limited to a specific area; they largely miss human interaction and business skills. Having recruited students, WGT introduces them to the online program. Then they will work through the content help scheme, enabling those graduates to acquire the necessary skills for a job, which is the ultimate goal of the program, said Matin. Data shows that there are approximately 7,500 technology graduates coming out of Sri Lanka’s public and private universities annually, while this number would certainly be increased as per the current plans of the Government.  WGT is optimistic in transforming the diverse talents in Sri Lanka, from fresh graduates to experts. The company is planning to connect local organisations, such as SLASSCOM and ICTA, to further contribute to building Sri Lanka’s technology talent pool, said Gunapala.  The company is fully dedicated towards cementing strong roots in Sri Lanka and aims to build many more teams in Sri Lanka that will greatly contribute and redefine the future of Wiley in the time to come. The company shows keen interest in growing its expertise in critical areas, such as machine learning, data and analytics.

Wiley empowers researchers, learners, universities and operations to achieve their goals in an ever-changing world. For over 200 years, the company has been helping people and organisations to develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. It develops digital education, learning, assessments and certification solutions to help universities, businesses and individuals alike, to move between education and employment, enabling them to fulfil their ambitions. 

By partnering with learned societies, the company supports researchers to communicate discoveries that make a difference. Wiley is proud to possesses online scientific, technical, medical and scholarly books and other digital content built on a 200-year heritage of quality publishing.