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Monday, 31 October 2022 00:21 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Nisthar Cassim
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| IFS Chief Digital and Information Officer and Executive Vice President Global Procurement and Facilities Saleh (Sal) Laher
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For the global cloud enterprise software company IFS, Sri Lanka is key, prompting continuous investments and doubling of staff in the past five years, a top official revealed.
“Sri Lanka is very important to IFS. The country is a little gem with amazing talent and the employees are our family,” IFS’ Chief Digital and Information Officer and Executive Vice President Global Procurement and Facilities Saleh (Sal) Laher told the Daily FT on the side-lines of the Company’s global gathering in Miami, Florida recently.
“Sri Lanka is one of the beautiful and successful stories for us and it has been a great investment us so far,” said the top executive of IFS which develops and delivers cloud enterprise software for over 10,000 companies around the world predominately in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East engaged in manufacture and distribute goods, build and maintain assets, and manage service-focused operations.
With 40% of IFS global staff based in Sri Lanka, the country handles IFS’s research and development, IT, shared services for finance, procurement, marketing, global customer support, cloud operations and consulting.
“Since Sri Lanka is key, IFS will continue to invest. Our staff has more than doubled to over 2,000 in Sri Lanka over the past five years from about 900 in 2017,” added Sal, who is also the Chairman of Sri Lankan entity and credited for successfully overseen the largest technology transformation program in IFS’ history – the move to IFS own enterprise ERP software platform, IFS Applications 10, along with major other components like a single new Intranet; Payroll standardised on a single platform; and many other solutions in the cloud that addresses the end-to-end processes of IFS.
The Sweden-headquartered IFS specialises in solutions to five core industries – Aerospace and Defence; Energy Utilities and Resources; Construction and Engineering; Manufacturing; Service Industries and Telecommunications. It is a leader for the sixth consecutive time in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management 2021.
With over 5,000 employees in over 50 countries IFS also has over 500 partners. After Darren Ross took over as CEO in 2018, IFS has had four consecutive years of double-digit growth amidst challenging circumstances. In 2021, IFS global revenue amounted $ 1 billion and its 2020/2021 CAGR (compound annual growth rate) was 22% in software revenue and 36% in recurring revenue. In FY2021 cloud revenue rose by 105% versus 2020.
Performance in FY22 has been impressive too with annual recurring revenue of nearly $ 500 million in the first nine month, up 38% year on year. Software revenue up 26% and Cloud revenue by 104%.
Focusing on IFS’ core value proposition, its Chief Digital and Information Officer said: “Embracing technology, automation and digitisation is key for survival for all enterprises both at present and the future.”
Though IFS is setting up an offshore operation in Kolkata where a staff of around 700 planned over three years to buttress business continuity, Sal said Sri Lanka’s critical importance and relevance will not only remain intact but grow with November 2022 heralding the 25th anniversary of IFS in Sri Lanka.
Sal, who oversees IFS facilities covering the Asia and Pacific, forecasts Sri Lankan operations to expand with 3,000 staff by 2025.
“Yes, Sri Lanka has gone through one of its most challenging periods just after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the team in Sri Lanka was very resilient with zero impact on productivity or output for IFS,” added Sal.
Apart from flexible and hybrid working arrangements on its part IFS demonstrated extraordinary support to the team in Sri Lanka amidst shortage of essentials and rising costs. In April this year, IFS introduced an “Economic Relief Allowance” linked to the Colombo Consumer Price Index with a promise to review it quarterly.
In April, employees got a 24% increase in remuneration and in July the allowance was revised upwards offering a 40% raise with greater benefit to those in the middle and low income tiers.
“The Sri Lanka staff is our family and in times of distress we need to step up our care,” added Sal, a technology leader with over 38 years’ experience, and previously SAP’s Chief Operating Officer on S/4HANA Cloud and SMB. He has also held senior technology and CIO roles at Eskom, ABSA Bank, ICL Fujitsu, Capita Group, CSC and Rolls-Royce.
Sal also expressed the belief that given its inherent resilience Sri Lanka will come out of adversity better and stronger.
Demonstrating commitment to Sri Lanka further, Sal said IFS recently partnered with Hatch to enable the six-month ChallengerX Incubator program – Sri Lanka’s first AI-Machine learning Incubator.
IFS has the leading tech stack for Scheduling and Service Management and as experts in the industry, it is continuously looking to innovate and improve its platform's service experience. The incubation program aims to drive innovation within Sri Lanka’s growing technology industry by providing a new opportunity for entrepreneurial talent.
Taking advantage of the exceptional network in Sri Lanka, the ChallengerX Program looks at enhancing IFS’s Field Service Management Tool (WISE) capabilities. The What If Scenario Explorer (WISE) is used for forecasting resource requirements or KPIs for different business scenarios for organisations with a service-oriented mobile workforce.
The Incubator will focus on improving Predictive Modelling systems capable of minimising supply chain damage in the service industry caused by unforeseen circumstances, such as natural disasters.
The ChallengerX teams with the best solutions will stand to win from a stipend and prize pool of Rs. 3,000,000 along with other exciting benefits. As one of the largest IT companies in Sri Lanka IFS invested in the initiative to support the thriving tech ecosystem.
Sal also said via IFS Foundation, a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation in England and Wales, the Company is improving living standards in remote and rural Sri Lanka through projects such as the provision of tube wells, school buildings, livelihood and maintaining vital infrastructure. In May this year, a computer lab within Welasiya Government School was opened.
