A quarter century is worth celebrating for most people. Certainly, we know that royal families have been marking silver jubilees for at least 250 years if not longer. But for commercial organizations, this milestone is not always heralded in such celebratory tones.
Justifiably making note of its 25th anniversary is IFS Sri Lanka, the software application development office the company established back in 1997 that is still going strong.
As a global enterprise cloud company, IFS established its Columbo operation to extend its platform innovation initiatives at a level that competes with (if not surpasses) any similar R&D operations in Silicon Valley or Europe. During these past 25-years, IFS has made major investments into the Sri Lankan workforce and community, becoming the second largest technology employer in the country.
At a time when Sri Lanka’s ICT industry was first developing before the turn of the millennium, IFS saw an opportunity to set up its innovation hub in the Asian region due to the country’s burgeoning (and now significantly expanded) technology talent.
Today, IFS Sri Lanka boats more than 2,200 employees, accounting for approximately 40 percent of IFS’s global staff.
“It goes without saying that our Sri Lankan team has played a critical role in providing us with the organizational support and agility we needed to achieve the growth that we have,” said IFS Chief Executive Officer Darren Roos. “The team’s contribution to our success and company culture is felt throughout the organization because it supports so many of IFS’s working processes from R&D to HR, marketing, support and more.”
R&D, if you please
IFS Sri Lanka has strong business units overseeing the company’s most extensive R&D center outside of Sweden in addition to finance, procurement, marketing, global customer support, cloud operations, consulting, IFS Labs and the South Asia customer organization.
IFS executive vice president & chief operating officer Ranil Rajapakse, who is also one of the original IFS Sri Lanka employees, commented, “It is a surreal moment to reflect upon our humble start with 26 people in our Colombo office and compare it to where we are now. 25 years ago, IFS was virtually unknown in Sri Lanka, but today people recognize it as a well-respected technology big-hitter and a force to be reckoned with in the industry.”
Additional highlights of 25 Years in Sri Lanka for IFS include the fact that over the last 25 years, the company has generated more than 5,000 employment opportunities for Sri Lankans.
Close to 80 percent of global product support services and 60 percent of the global product development of IFS is facilitated out of Colombo. In 2022, IFS partnered with Hatch to launch Challenger X, a tech incubation program in Sri Lanka, to foster innovation in the country’s growing tech sector.
“It has been a rich and rewarding experience to witness the company’s ascent and transformation over the last 25 years. Especially seeing the extensive growth of our employee network entering IFS as graduates, I am honored to work alongside such an intelligent, hardworking, and driven team of professionals. I cannot wait to see what the next 25 years bring for IFS Sri Lanka,” concluded Rajapakse.
Personal impression: proficiency & impact
Having witnessed the team’s proficiency and impact first-hand, it’s easy to confirm the technical competencies that exist in the IFS Columbo office. The team’s work with remote field service Augmented Reality (AR) technologies is particularly impressive, as is its wider approach to cloud-native infrastructure development that runs parallel with developments being executed in the west and throughout all developed economies. The warm welcome, technical know-how and professionalism of the IFS Sri Lankan team is matched only by the quality of its tea and the tastiness of its samosas. With local Sri Lankan government, schools and international businesses all working closely with IFS in-country, the operation has clearly grown and flourished over the last quarter century.
The IFS Foundation continues to invest in a series of projects in partnership with local Sri Lankan communities to alleviate poverty.
