SLASSCOM salutes top winners at first-ever Innovation Awards 2018

The SLASSCOM Innovation Summit & Awards ‘Celebrate Ingenuity!’ concluded on 14 June at the Cinnamon Grand, with a celebration recognising innovators across a range of award categories in the IT/BPM industry. SLASSCOM would like to congratulate the winners and thank all the companies who participated at the event. It was encouraging to see over ninety submissions across seven award categories.

The Best Product Innovation was won by chargeNET, with Paymedia and Synapsys as first and second runners-up respectively. In the Best Start-up Product or Service category, CBA Solutions (www.payable.lk)were winners, with StartupX Foundry (www.maturify.com) and Zeptolytics (www.zepto.io) as first and second runners-up respectively.  The Best Client Delivery Innovation award was also won byCBA Solutions(www.payable.lk), with WNS Global Services FP&A and RR Donnelley Outsource as first and second runners-up respectively. PickMe won the Best Disruptor Award, while CBA Solutions (www.payable.lk) and IgniterSpace as first and second runners-up respectively. 

In the Best Innovation in Internal Process category, Embla Software Innovation were the winners, with Virtusa Accello and RR Donnelley Outsource coming in as the first and second runners-up respectively. The Best Innovation in Business Process Management award was won by MAS Legato, while Strategic Partnership Solutions and Infomate were first and second runners-up respectively. The Best Technology or Framework Innovation was won by iPay (www.ipay.lk), with VirtusaAiris and Route Perfect by Stax awarded first and second runners-up respectively.

Two international judges commended the quality of the submissions. “All the entries were very good, unique ideas with impressive use of technology to solve specific issues. Thank you for allowing me to be a judge in this fantastic venture!” said Bella Pear LLC Co-Founder and CFO Rene Gonzalez.

“After having done a pre-selection, I went in depth for each project to select one, and I have to say it was not an easy exercise. The winning company has great potential, not only in Sri Lanka but also worldwide. It is clearly a great product, and can also be a great tool for social inclusion. Most of all, all the selected projects could have won, as they have their strengths and potential for improvements, and I was really happy to see all of them,” said Prizle CEO Guillaume Alabert.

The keynote speaker of the Innovation Summit was Global Innovation Index Founder/Co-editor and former Dean and current Management Professor at SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, Dr. Soumitra Dutta. Senior Lecturer and Director at the Emerging Markets Institute, SC Johnson School of Business, Cornell University Dr. Lourdes Casanova also addressed the gathering.

The speakers of the panel discussion included CodeGen President and CEO Dr. Harsha Subasinghe, kapruka.com Founder & Chairman Dulith Herath, and Venture Frontier Lanka Co-founder Heminda Jayaweera. The panel was moderated by Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade (MoDSIT)Advisor Anushka Wijesinha.

SLASSCOM also appreciates the event’s Platinum Sponsors Auxenta (www.auxenta.com) and Hatch: Transforming Sri Lanka’s Collaborative Workspace. The event was also supported by SLASSCOM’s Corporate Sponsor Dialog Enterprise, the exclusive enterprise communications partner. Other sponsors and partners include Bronze Sponsor SimCentric Technologies, National Partner the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA),Ecosystem Partner Lankan Angel Network, Official Newspaper Daily FT, Education Learning Partner LearnTV, and Digital Media PartnerReadMe.lk.

Pix by Daminda  Harsha Perera