By Lakshitha Jayaweera
- Sunday Times
I had the opportunity to read the success stories
of many IT leaders , Sergy & Brin Larry Page , Bill
Gates , etc to name a few. When I read these publications I dreamt
of reading a success story of a son of our motherland one day.
This was a wish. But I never thought that will be realized
so soon. And I never thought that I’ll ever get an opportunity
to do a write up on him. Well , my wish became a reality on a
sunny afternoon on last Wednesday. I and my colleague met
him at his office. His Harsha Purasinghe. The CEO of Microimage
, a comapny which is responsible for producing quiet a few
IT BLOCKBUSTERS over the last decade. Lets start with the beginning.
Microimage is a college startup. This was a fun club which is
specifically meant for sharing of software and developing
software for fun. At that time Harsha was the president of the
college computer society. The first break through in their journey
was the development of the SINHALA fonts to Windows 3.1 . Mind
you , if you are a person who is not much savyy with this computer
jargon , Belive me its not an easy thing. I would reckon it as
a very complex time consuming project, but our wiz kid (now a
mahestro) achieved this as a teenager. Fortunately they were able
to exhibit this product in the infotel exhibition then, Most of the
people were highly fascinated with this innovative product and Harsha
& his platoon was started to get order from many companies &
individuals. That was the beginning.
With this demand they couldn’t survive as a fun club any more. They
have converted the fun club to a partnership company. There were three
people in the company. One marketing guy, a programmer and Harsha. Others
were supporting the company after school. They were also involved with
part time development work. Team was firering on all the cylinders to
deliver the orders they have received from Infotel. Guys who were running
in pocket money , are now a well established and braned their inaugural
product as “Helawadana” . Now a well known Sinhala word processor in
the market. After releasing few versions of the software these guys
had an opportunity break in to the HR systems. As usual , Microimage
team worked hard and developed a world class solution which conquered
the Local and international market. Microimage pioneered the web based
e-HR systems concept in Sri Lanka. The HR solution introduced by them
is strengthen by the input given by the key HR consultants of the country
and the expert HR solution providers in Singapore. Training and Development
module is developed in line with the ISO process requirements and the
performance and rewarding system also supersedes the other competitor
systems easily. Ability to use employee self service functions through
multiple channels such as web, touch based kiosks and mobile is another
example of cutting edge technologies in use. Dialog GSM was the first
and most loyal customer of Microimage says Harsha. He resollect the
support given by Dialog to grow as a company when they were initially
struggling to find a customer for the HR application. I feel it is naturally
another tech savvy dynamic company only can identify a good company
like this. That may be the reason for Dialog GSM then to hold hands
with Microimage. HR Suite developed by Microiamge is now accepted by
the coeporate sector. Most leading companies in different domains like
Telecommnications , Manufacturing , Banking & Finance are now have
the privilege of using this hot HR system to make their success in the
strategic level.
After being stabilsed in the HR Sector Microimage team wanted a change.
A change which can widen their horizon. They got the break that they
need again. Harsha & his team now in to Radio Automation System.
This is a very niche market in Sri Lanka. They have made DJ’s life upside
down. Ealiler the DJ are not only play songs they were playing the commercial
and lot of other paper work. All of them were automated by These computer
wiz kids. Now DJ’s in most of the Sri Lankan Radio channels should be
thankful to Harsha and for his team for making their life easy and fun.
This is the first and only radio automation solution to be developed
in Sri Lanka today. This has won the Overall Best Product Silver Medal
given by National Best Quality Software Awards given by British Computer
Society Sri Lankan Chapter. There are many of the cutting edge technologies
which is about to be announced to the general public which I would remain
silent for the moment. Microimage is now closely working with the ICTA
– The Mecca of Sri Lankan Information Communication Technology to provide
community Radio broadcasting through “ Nenasala Network”.
Mobile Applications are the next strength of Microimage.
They have done wonders in the mobile application arena. Microimage is
one of the leading companies that have won the GSM awards. Worlds GSM
awards is better known as the mobile Oscars. Handful of companies in
the world only had the privilege of at least to be a nominee, but amazingly
Microimage already has won the GSM award for Asia Pacific & World
Level Commendation. Harsha and his team are the pioneers in developing
local language (Sinhala / Tamil / Hindi / Telugu / Dhiveh etc.) applications
for mobile phones in emerging markets. Microimage has secured the overall
best product Gold in the National Best Quality Software Awards 2005
for this achievement.
They are not restricted only to achieve their business goals. Harsha
is s o keen on getting his CSR activates also on track. Tsunami disaster
was one of the things that triggered a lot of sadness in Harsha’s mind.
This has given birth to fully fledged Disaster Warning System. Harsha
was highly appreciated the support he has got from Dr Hans Wijesuriya.
Dialog Telkom with Microimage and UoM Dialog Lab spearheaded DEWN project.
Again DEWN has won an award in the national best quality software awards
in 2006. It’s a hat trick, which is very rare achievement. Well, I can
extend this article to any extent. But I was asked to stick to a certain
number of words. To conclude, let me make this comment, If am to write
a book like GOOGLE STORY or Microsoft Secrets, it will be definitely
“THE SUCCESS STORY OF MICROIMAGE”