Sri Lanka is emerging as a global IT-BPO destination of choice in number of key focus domain areas. Sri Lanka is ranked among the Top 50 Global Outsourcing destinations by AT Kearney and ranked among Top 20 Emerging Cities by Global Services Magazine. Sri Lanka has won the outsourcing destination of the year accolade awarded by the National Outsourcing Association UK successively in 2013 and 2014.
The growing IT-BPO industry in Colombo offers a unique advantage for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) to enjoy premium access to a high quality talent pool, which is becoming increasingly challenging in large established destinations such as India and China. The environment is also highly conducive for establishing high-in-demand niche competency centers out of competition for even larger global services companies.
The national level competency development programs focus on building Sri Lanka as a Center of Excellence (COE) for key focus domain areas. Software services sector focus on Telecommunication, Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) and Software Testing. The BPO sector focus on Financial & Accounting services, Investment research, Engineering services and UK based Legal services. The IT-BPO industry has been identified as a thrust industry by the government. Recognizing the potential of the industry, the government has taken number of positive steps by providing fiscal and other incentives and concessions to fast track the development of the sector.
Earnings from exports of IT-BPO sector have shown a steady upward trend during the past decade, and the 2014 IT-BPM exports have reached an estimated $850 million. The industry has set a target of $ 5 billion in export revenue from IT-BPO sector by 2025.
There are over 300 IT and BPO companies that operate in Sri Lanka, consisting of small and medium companies as well as large global players. Among the several leading global IT-BPO companies operating in Sri Lanka are Accenture,HSBC, London Stock Exchange,WNS Global Services,Microsoft, Industrial & Financial Systems (IFS), RR Donnelley, Virtusa, Millennium Information Technology and Innodata Isogen.