BCSSL inaugurates National Best Quality ICT Awards 2011

BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT Sri Lanka Section (BCSSL), announced the inauguration of the 13th anniversary of the NBQSA competition.

NBQSA is credited as the only national competition of its type in Sri Lanka that recognises exceptional local ICT achievements and honours significant technological advancements in the country.

BCSSL is supported by BCS the Chartered Institute for IT (UK), ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, SLASI, SLASSCOM, Infotel Society and some of the largest ICT companies in the country in this national endeavour. Applications are called for the event which is to be held on 7 October 2011.

Since 1998 NBQSA has awarded opportunities to individuals and organisations, having made outstanding contribution to the development of the ICT industry in Sri Lanka, to display and benchmark their products.  Over the years the event itself has grown in recognition and prestige, both locally and internationally. Today, the NBQSA ‘Seal of Excellence’ is regarded as acknowledged symbol of achievement. For locally-developed ICT products, it is a means to gain international recognition and to compete in the global market.

The core objectives of the NBQSA competition are to provide recognition to outstanding achievements of individuals and organisations in Sri Lanka who/which have contributed to the development of ICT, create a window to gain international recognition for locally developed ICT products and improve standards and the quality of local ICT products and services to be able to compete in the international market place.

This year NBQSA 2011 competition will cover around 19 categories of ICT products and projects ranging from application and infrastructure tools to in-house applications. BCSSL has also taken the initiative to honour the best products developed using Microsoft products and open source products as special awards.

The Tertiary category is open to students from Sri Lankan tertiary educational institutions. Gold, Silver and Bronze awards will be presented in all categories, provided the relevant threshold marks are obtained by competing products.

The distinguished judging panel comprises of industry experts selected based on their ICT knowledge and experience from diverse disciplines such as IT, engineering, management, accounting, and marketing, etc., representing both the private sector and academia. Appointment of judges is done according to rigorous criteria to ensure objective and unbiased evaluation as well as strict confidentiality.

The NBQSA Overall Gold winners for the three consecutive years 2010-2008 were respectively WSO2 Inc., for Enterprise Service Bus; Scienter Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. for ‘Destiny’; and Microimage Mobile Media (Private) Ltd for ‘Microimage for vStation’.

NBQSA winners are automatically eligible to participate in the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards (APICTA), prestigious regional awards programme initiated to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the digital divide.

The NBQSA competition is open to organisations, groups and individuals in Sri Lanka for locally designed and developed ICT products.  Applications can be obtained from The Coordinator, BCS The Chartered Institute for IT Secretariat, No. 51, Sir Marcus Fernando Mawatha, Colombo 7 (Tel: 0112665261/2), or downloaded from http://www.nbqsasrilanka.org.