Monday, 12 August 2013 00:04
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Public sector ICT achievement award included for the first time
By David Ebert
The launch of the National Best Quality Awards for 2013 was announced recently at a press briefing held at the Galadari, Colombo. The competition is open to organisations, groups and individuals in Sri Lanka for locally designed and developed ICT products and will be held on 17 October 2013.
The primary objectives of the competition as revealed at the briefing are to provide recognition for outstanding achievements of individuals and organisations in Sri Lanka that have contributed to the development of ICT, to create a window to gain international recognition for locally developed ICT products and to improve the standards and quality of local ICT products and services to be able to compete in the international marketplace.
The competition is open in 21 categories, and will for the first time, include a public sector ICT achievement award that will look to recognise State entities that have effectively improved their services with the use of ICT over the last few years.
In addition, BCS has taken the initiative to honour the best products developed using open source products as a special award.
The tertiary category is open to students from Sri Lankan tertiary education institutions and this year the award for the best tertiary project will be awarded to two students who have shown exceptional achievements in technology usage and business potential. Gold, silver and bronze awards will be presented in all categories.
BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, United Kingdom, has come forward as the competition’s main sponsor and chief organiser, while ICTA, the competition’s national partner since 2009, will once again provide its support. In addition, IFS and Hatton National Bank have joined in as silver sponsors, along with 3M and Fentons as bronze sponsors. Individual award categories have been sponsored as well, with open source application development software company WSO2 sponsoring the open source awards category, independent non-profit organisation Domain LK Registry sponsoring the special award for the best application with local content and IT industry body SLASSCOM sponsoring a special award for ICT entrepreneurship.
NBQSA winners will also become automatically eligible for the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA), an international awards program initiated to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the digital divide.
The awards categories are as follows: Tools and application infrastructure, security, financial, industrial, healthcare, communications, media and entertainment, tourism and hospitality, general, research and development, tertiary student project (business), tertiary student project (technology), education and training, e-government and services, start-up, in-house, e-inclusion and e-community, e-logistics and supply chain management, green it, post graduate student project and media and entertainment.
Applications and further information can be obtained from the National Best Quality ICT Awards, BCS Secretariat, located at No. 410/35, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7, by calling 1124422490 or can be downloaded from www.nbqsasrilanka.org.
Pix by Lasantha Kumara
