Sweden’s IFS to expand staff to over 1,000 as Lanka operations near 2 decade milestone

Global enterprise application specialist IFS is planning to increase its staff in Sri Lanka to over 1,000 from the current 700 whilst steadily increasing its investment in tandem with growth in its international business.

The Swedish based IFS has its biggest Research and Development Centre as well as the 24x7 Global Support Centre in Sri Lanka where it marked 19 years of successful operations last week.

“We are steadily increasing our investments in Sri Lanka and we will soon grow to 1,000 people. Sri Lanka is a great success for us as evidenced by our large presence. Sri Lanka is a great country to be part of,” IFS President and CEO Alastair Sorbie told journalists in Colombo.

IFS is a globally recognised leader in developing and delivering enterprise software for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Enterprise Service Management (ESM). IFS’s 2,800 employees support over one million users worldwide from its network of local offices and through a growing ecosystem of partners.

Sorbie emphasised that though IFS has operations in India and the Philippines among other locations, Sri Lanka was by far the best and fastest growing.

IFS Head Global Operations R&D Thomas Sald said operations in Sri Lanka were the biggest for product development for IFS with the country accounting for over 60%. IFS MEASA Region Managing Director Luis Ortega said Sri Lanka plays a key role in serving and supporting IFS businesses and clients in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. He said apart from the R&D excellence, the consulting team in Sri Lanka was also world class. 

IFS Sri Lanka President and CEO Jayantha de Silva said it has been a difficult yet dynamic journey for the past 19 years. He said the 24x7 Global Support Centre for IFS was only of its kind in Sri Lanka whilst the R&D arm IFS Labs saw its birth from Sri Lanka. “We have evolved over the years and have become successful with significant achievements,” he added. It was stressed that Sri Lanka operations play a very significant role for IFS’ worldwide expansion drive.

IFS Sri Lanka Head of R&D Operations Ranil Rajapakse said the company was looking at aggressive growth in the coming years. In that context, IFS is stepping up its collaborations with universities and the academia in Sri Lanka.

Sorbie also said globally it was exciting times for IFS with the company helping companies worldwide in their critical digital transformation strategy. 

Pix by Lasantha Kumara