Sri Lanka is and has been for some years always considered in the top 50 countries to outsource services, this is also related to the IT industry being one of the most important industries in the country. The history of the industry in Sri Lanka started in 1976 with the creation of the Computer Society of Sri Lanka, but the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry started around the year 2000 and its development has been increasing since then to become one of the top destinations for foreign countries to outsource their services. 

The country is a development center for many big companies from all over the world, such as J.P. Morgan & Co, Qatar Airways, Microsoft or Google, and other companies from countries like Japan, Sweden, Norway, North America, Australia, or the UK. It is estimated that the profit of outsourcing services to Sri Lanka can cost 70% of the price It would cost in the same country as the companies.

The next projection of the future for the country is to reach 5 USD Billion dollars in exports by 2022 and creating 200.000 jobs, related to this data, the country also achieved a target of 1 USD Billion dollars in the year 2016. With the fast growth of the IT industry, the government took action to boost the possibility to be able to learn IT-related technologies in the country and improve IT education in the country. Sri Lanka also ended the Indo-Sri Lankan “Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement” because it was causing unemployment for Sri Lankan professionals.

Why you should work with Sri Lanka Companies.

Some of the reasons for working with IT companies from Sri Lanka are the low costs of outsourcing the services there, and also the good education of the country’s professionals. It is estimated that the costs can be 30% lower, also the minimum wage in Sri Lanka is €63.3, we will talk in-depth about this in the following section. 

The education in the IT sector is rich in knowledge because the IT industry is one of the most important ones in the country, you can find highly educated graduates and also there’s one more aspect to talk about, and It is the law.

The law about foreign business and commercial law follows the principles of British commercial law and has an independent judiciary. Sri Lanka has also signed some international treaties about intellectual property rights, electronic transactions, and computer crimes, and It is one of the most rigorous about this in their region. In addition to this, the country has signed a Free Trade Agreement with Singapore (SLS FTA) that eliminates 80% of all tariff lines through staging periods of up to 15 years, and this has come into force since 1st of May 2018.

Their English level is better in relation to other neighboring regions, especially in the city zones, and they are friendly by nature, and this makes doing business so much easy.

What you should be aware of when working with IT companies from Sri Lanka.

When thinking about working with IT companies from Sri Lanka, you have to be aware of the geopolitical situation of the country and its past, as well as the current situation of the sector. First of all, when talking about minimum wage in Sri Lanka being €63.3 a month (the equivalent of 10.000 rupees, the official coin of the country), you can think about why there’s only a 30% difference between outsourcing the projects to this country with such a big difference in salaries, and the answer is lies in the difference in purchasing power and payment gap between employees and employers that earn a huge profit from these operations. This means that you can have workers of a certain quality but not always comparable to more developed countries with also better salaries and work conditions.

Also, you need to be aware of the country past and present history, and this includes a very recent civil war that lasted 26 years (from 1983 to 2009), a sometimes unstable security situation in relation to the terrorist attacks suffered from moderate frequency, the last one was on April 2019 and talking about this last attack, Sri Lanka is also a very conservative and religious country, especially for women (Buddhism is part of life in 70% of the people). 

Instability, the wage gap between the richest and the poorest, and common scams, not only for tourists also for business, are things to be aware of when doing business with IT companies from Sri Lanka.

How reliable are IT companies from Sri Lanka?

To answer this question, we will have a look at some studies and other parameters to be able to measure the reliability of  Sri Lanka IT companies. We have to refer to a 2008 study by the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka, which we will take with a grain of salt for the few objective references that can be found on this subject and the source of the information, we will also take in account other aspects in relation with the other questions we answered above.

There’s a case study called “Reliability of effort estimates in offshore software companies in Sri Lanka” that can be found in the Digital Library of the University of Moratuwa. The goal is to find out the reasons affecting the reliability of projects in Sri Lanka offshore IT organizations and recommendations made as a result of this research study.

This case study concludes that the credibility and reliability of IT companies in this sector are subordinated to subjective beliefs of concrete experiences of prejudice, although from the data we know, not all unreliability is due to this, as Sri Lanka is a country where common scams are certainly frequent, this can apply to the IT industry but not with the same magnitude.

To conclude this section, we will say that the reliability of IT companies is certainly compromised by the fear of fraud, but as in every region or country, there are always good companies and bad companies, it is advisable to find companies with proven reliability to avoid fraud and that they work with the international standards of quality.

How does the IT industry from Sri Lanka relate to the neighboring regions/countries?

To start developing this section we will analyze one important and basic aspect of outsourcing projects to this type of country that is still developing. Internet access could potentially curtail the industry’s growth. Although local telecoms' operator Mobitel has developed the implementation of 4.5G LTE technology. The average connection speed is 7.3 Mbps in the country, in relation to other countries: Indonesia (6.7), India (5.6), Malaysia (8.2), and Vietnam (8.3). 

Another aspect that can influence the industry development is the high rental prices in Colombo’s commercial property sector, which is the most populated city in the country, although it is not the capital of Sri Lanka when outsourcing services one of the most important things is cost reduction, so this is an important aspect to talk about. This aspect in the neighboring countries is less problematic because their development of the industry is bigger at this time.

Sri Lanka is surrounded by one of the giants of outsourcing services which is India, a very powerful country that remains untouchable in position number 1 for BPO in accordance with the 2016 A.T Kearney Global Services Location Index, where Sri Lanka remains in number 14.

Conclusion.

The final conclusions of this short analysis on Sri Lanka IT industry are as follows, Sri Lanka is one of the top 20 best Business Process Outsource destinations, and the biggest industry activity is outsourcing services, you have to be aware of the unstable situation and the specific characteristics of this country such as internet connection, reliability of the industry, IT level of education of the graduates in this country and of course prices, for this it is recommended to work with companies that have proven reliability to be sure that any frauds will occur, and take advantages of lower costs of outsourcing services to this country.

Angular (formerly AngularJS) is a popular open-source web application framework maintained by Google and a community of developers. It's used for building dynamic, single-page web applications (SPAs) and web-based applications in general. Angular provides a structured and organized way to create complex web applications by extending HTML with additional features and enabling the development of interactive, responsive, and maintainable front-end web interfaces. Here are some key aspects and concepts of Angular:

1. Component-Based Architecture

2. Templates 

3. Directives

4. Dependency Injection

5. Services

6. Routing

7. Observable and RxJS

8. Modules

9. Testing

10. Cross-Platform

Angular's structured approach, strong tooling, and vibrant ecosystem of libraries and extensions make it a powerful framework for building modern web applications. It is particularly well-suited for large and complex projects where maintainability and scalability are crucial.

Companies may choose Angular over other front-end frameworks for their projects for a variety of reasons, depending on their specific needs and priorities.

• Google Backing: Angular is developed and maintained by Google. This association often gives companies confidence in its long-term support, stability, and continuous improvement. Google's involvement is seen as a sign of reliability and commitment to the framework.

• Mature and Established: Angular has been around for a while and has a strong track record of being used successfully in large-scale enterprise projects. It has a well-defined architecture and best practices, which can be beneficial for maintaining and scaling applications over time.

• TypeScript Support: Angular is built with TypeScript, a statically-typed superset of JavaScript. TypeScript provides better tooling, code maintainability, and catches errors at compile time, which can reduce bugs and enhance code quality, making it attractive to companies that prioritize robust code.

• Full-Featured Framework: Angular provides a comprehensive set of tools, libraries, and features out of the box, including routing, form handling, HTTP client, and more. This can save development time and effort compared to integrating multiple third-party libraries in other frameworks.

• Two-Way Data Binding: Angular offers powerful two-way data binding, which allows for automatic synchronization between the data model and the view. This feature can make it easier to develop interactive and responsive user interfaces.

• Large and Active Community: Angular has a large and active community of developers and a wealth of resources, including documentation, tutorials, and third-party libraries. This can be beneficial for finding solutions to common problems and getting support when needed.

• Enterprise-Ready: Angular provides features like dependency injection, modularity through modules, and a strong emphasis on testability. These characteristics are well-suited for building robust and maintainable enterprise-level applications.

• Strict Coding Standards: Angular enforces a set of coding standards and best practices, which can lead to more consistent and readable code. This can be important for companies with multiple developers working on the same codebase.

• Cross-Platform Development: Angular can be used for building both web and mobile applications. Companies looking to develop applications for multiple platforms may choose Angular for its ability to share code between web and mobile apps using technologies like NativeScript or Ionic.

• Integration with Backend Technologies: Angular can easily integrate with various backend technologies and APIs. This makes it suitable for projects where the front end needs to communicate with different types of server-side applications.

• Security Features: Angular provides built-in security mechanisms to help prevent common web vulnerabilities like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF). This can be crucial for projects with high security requirements.

• Ecosystem and Tooling: Angular has a rich ecosystem of tools, extensions, and IDE support, including Angular CLI for project setup and management. This can streamline development workflows and improve productivity.

Ultimately, the choice of Angular or any other framework depends on the specific project requirements, the development team's expertise, and the company's long-term goals. Companies evaluate various factors to determine which framework aligns best with their needs, resources, and priorities.