Captive IT Delivery Centres in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, the Island of Ingenuity located in the Indian Ocean, is one of the most trusted and sought-after ICT and BPM service providers in the region. With a prestigious global client base trusting us to drive their innovation and disruption, we are home to some of the most-talked-about captive delivery centres. Our service delivery centres boast low costs and enhanced talent, a major reason why Sri Lankan captive delivery centres are rapidly becoming a popular choice for global giants.

At the moment, there is a considerable number of captive delivery centres functioning in Sri Lanka. A larger share of them is fully owned by foreign entities while the majority of the BPM service providers cater to unrelated third-party clients. In other words, “75% of the companies offer third-party outsource services whilst a quarter of the companies exclusively operate captive delivery centres.” The largest segment of companies has both businesses and BPM services that they offer to unrelated third-party clients. 25% of the overall BPM providers operate as entirely captive service delivery centres. Out of the fully foreign-owned companies, a larger fraction (around 60%) operates as exclusive client service delivery centres and a smaller proportion of fully locally owned companies (around 14%) operates exclusively as captive delivery centres(1).

Why Sri Lankan captive delivery centres

Remarkable capacity for creativity, innovation, and problem-solving

A driving force behind the popularity of Sri Lankan captive delivery centres is their ability to produce creative and innovative solutions. Sri Lanka is known for being keen on improvement, meaning that we transcend the industry standards and raise the bar higher, always looking for means to improve and enhance existing processes and systems instead of merely maintaining and operating them. According to recent research, several companies with delivery centres in multiple countries (such as HSBC and Copal-Amba) prefer to locate their more complex operations or more complex customers in Sri Lanka, all thanks to our capacity for innovation, creation, and unique problem-solving (2).

A highly skilled talent pool

Simply put, part of what facilitates our superior capacity for creativity and innovation is the one-of-a-kind talent pool that we are blessed with. Thanks to the free education system in Sri Lanka, our employees are highly qualified, skilled, and talented. Most of the entry-level employees are college graduates or diploma holders. In terms of the annual intake to higher educational institutes in Sri Lanka, more than 30,000 students are granted access to state universities that operate free of charge. More than 35,000 students annually enrol in privately-owned non-state higher educational institutes. What distinguishes Sri Lanka from the other regional countries is that our graduates are known to perform better/ on par “in areas of logical reasoning, quantitative skills, and basic IT knowledge,” in comparison to their regional peers (1), thus explaining talented and skilled individuals revolutionising the industry.

Strategic location

Sri Lanka benefits from its geographical location to a great extent. Situated at the Northernmost tip of India, the island nation of Sri Lanka enjoys being at the centre of maritime crossroads. In addition to its proximity to India, it is also situated on the silk road that connects to China, allowing easy access to several global leaders.

Developed infrastructure

Sri Lanka has witnessed a drastic change in domestic infrastructure over the past few decades. Today, the country offers fast and reliable broadband connections and is one of the first countries in South Asia to adopt and commercialise the latest digital technologies such as 3G, 4G, and 5G. Sri Lanka is also developing mid-tier and high-end facilities, plug-and-play co-working facilities and ‘Next Cities.’ Some of the already existing facilities include Orion City and Port City, Mireka Towers where the latest technological infrastructure is provided (1).

Impressive performance on global indexes

As a country, Sri Lanka’s performance on global indexes is rather impressive. For example, Sri Lanka was named the delivery destination of the year at Strategic Sourcing Awards by Global Sourcing Association in 2019. In the same year, we became the second in South Asia in the Global Innovation Index. In 2020, Sri Lanka ranked fourth in the Doing Business Index (1). “In 2014 Sri Lanka was ranked 16th in the A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index (GSLI) and the report described Sri Lanka as developing a successful but relatively unknown knowledge services industry. (2)” Provided that Sri Lanka as an ICT- BPM destination is blessed with a skilled talent pool coupled with the developed infrastructure, it is no wonder that the country has reached such heights in terms of global indexes.

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Services Offered by Sri Lanka

Services provided by our island nation span across many fields. Sri Lanka provides services beyond standard software development to transaction processing services to global clients. Some of the services offered include legal services, architectural services and medical diagnostics, accounting and financial analytics services, telecommunication and media services, manufacturing and services related to retail and consumer products (1).

Sri Lanka’s Way Forward

When it comes to the future of Sri Lankan captive development centres, it is evident that they have a promising future secured by their current performance and reception by global leaders in the industry. However, according to recent research, moving forward, Sri Lanka needs to increase its visibility through cutting-edge marketing strategies.

One of the main drawbacks faced by the ICT- BPM industry is that it is not widely known; though Sri Lanka is well known as a tourist destination, it lacks general awareness of Captive delivery services and ICT- BPM services providers. Having realised this, the industry has taken necessary steps and several initiatives have been put in place to rectify this. For instance, Sri Lanka is currently looking into marketing strategies and promotional campaigns that will mark its presence in the international landscape. It is anticipated that the country will emerge as a well-established and known home for captive delivery service centres in the near future.

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