Technology and Digital Transformation will drive Sri Lanka’s Future of Business: IBM Innovations Forum

IBM today conducted an IBM Innovation Forum in Colombo that brought together business leaders to explore how they can leverage next generation technologies for innovating at scale. The forum saw more than 250 attendees and was focused on bringing forward the business value of emerging technologies through a series of show-and-tell sessions with LIVE demonstrations and 1:1 discussions with small, medium and large enterprises.

The event speakers included Karan Bajwa, Managing Director, IBM India/South Asia; Riza Wadood, Country General Manager for Sri Lanka and Ruwindha Pieris, Managing Director and Head of the Colombo Office, Stax. They evaluated the breadth and depth of technology including cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), data and analytics, its wide potential of applications and how their combined impact is reshaping standard business architectures today.

The event witnessed engaging conversations on women in tech and a show and tell on IBM’s journey to AI and cloud. It also featured an Expo Zone for live demos of various technology-led solutions driving digital transformation that saw great participation from local enterprises particularly from the small and medium enterprises.

Digital transformation is the transition from traditional tools and business methods to digital technologies that enable innovation -from industries like retail and banking offering mobile apps for shopping or banking; to business functions like supply chain innovating with blockchain to prevent contaminated food entering your kitchen, or building maintenance managers using IoT data to track a heating problem within minutes rather than days. Digital transformation is leading to improved business performance and much simpler user experiences. Digital strategy from IBM provides clients with the resources to succeed and grow, empowering them to offer new experiences through a new and disruptive focus on business model innovation and market activation.

Quotes

Riza Wadood, Country General Manager at IBM Sri Lanka, said “Today we are at an inflection point in Sri Lanka where growth and differentiation are driving businesses forward. Digital has now become the norm for businesses to stay relevant and provide customers with the cutting edge solutions they require. IBM has been in Sri Lanka for 57 years and our legacy expertise in leveraging tech solutions to drive digital transformation for our clients is most relevant to the Sri Lankan industry.”

Karan Bajwa, Managing Director, IBM India South Asia, said “Innovation has made a rapid headway through digital re-invention for businesses across the world. There is a big opportunity for digital adoption in Sri Lanka and the entire ecosystem including the government recognizes it. IBM has built strong clients, catered to key verticals like banking & telecom and introduced emerging technologies during our long tenure here. Our capabilities are uniquely positioned to help streamline Sri Lanka’s digital roadmap in the nation’s future growth.”