Virtusa. Creating Opportunities

Transcription

1 Virtusa Creating Opportunities CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT 2005 SRI LANKA

2 Creating Opportunities It is vital for a business to remain responsive and be well aligned to the society in which it operates. As a global player in the field of IT consultancy and outsourcing, we believe we are in a unique position to make a significant impact to the society we live and do business in. Over ten years of operations in Sri Lanka, we have strived to impart our knowledge, create opportunities for talented graduates, touched lives of many less fortunate children, recognized excellence around the country, opened new doors of possibilities, and shared our best practices in our quest to Create Opportunities, and this has now become business as usual. 01 C O R P O R A T E S O C I A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y R E P O R T

3 Our Values Our values form the nucleus of our being and our corporate culture. They are the common thread that permeates the entire organization. In our fast paced, dynamic environment, values guide us in doing things right. Pursuit of Excellence - To expand the contours of what is possible through Pursuit of Excellence Integrity - To be forthright and honest in all interactions ensuring Integrity Respect - To Respect clients and fellow global team members Leadership - To inspire others through empowerment and Leadership 02

4 Creating Opportunities Creating Opportunities for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things has been a long standing mantra for Virtusa. Creating opportunities for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things has been a long standing mantra for Virtusa. It is a delight to note the contributions that we have been able to make in our very first Social Responsibility Report For a business, cash flow and revenue are extremely important. They are like food and water to the body. But the whole purpose of life is not about eating and drinking. Life has a much higher purpose. And as a company we believe that our higher purpose, our core ideology, is about Creating Opportunities for our clients, our team members, our shareholders and the communities we live in and do business with, to unleash their full potential. Fiscal year 2005 was a special and a significant year for us. The Asian Tsunami took the lives of over 30,000 Sri Lankans. Families lost their loved ones and many more have been displaced due to this tragedy. It was touching to witness the level of compassion, dedication, kindness and generosity that Virtusans all around the world demonstrated in our drive to make a positive difference. We together raised over 10 million Sri Lankan rupees to help Tsunami victims. We also ran a number of other programs helping the less fortunate around us. The globalization phenomenon is here to stay and we have a unique and unparallel opportunity to take advantage of this to create significant opportunities for the Sri Lankan youth. This year, we have been able to make a momentous impact in the IT industry, and academia in harnessing this opportunity. We drove a number of initiatives to help universities better their quality of education though advisory committees, direct teaching, sharing TechTALKs, sponsoring events, recognizing academic performance and through collaborative research. We also took an active role in shaping the industry by providing thought leadership and sponsorship in many areas of concern. Many Virtusans went beyond their call of duty in truly making an impact. I would like to thank each one of you and your familes for being a pillar of strength in our quest for making a difference today by creating opportunities for a better tomorrow. Madu Ratnayake General Manager Team Virtusa 03

5 Commitment to Education Education opens doors of possibilities and creates opportunities. At Virtusa, we strive to impart our collective wisdom to help improve the quality of education in Sri Lanka. Training Academic Staff University academics play a critical role in the growth of our industry. We are fortunate to have a strongly committed and passionate group of academics across all engineering universities. While resources and manpower provided for these institutes have been grossly inadequate, these individuals go over and beyond their call of duty to make a difference. Over years of close associations with the academic community, we have built fruitful associations and strong relationships. We continually strive to make a difference in the academia, which we believe is the heart of our industry. As part of our initiative to strengthen the quality of education, we started a program to provide training to the academic staff of universities across the country. The staff then takes this learning to the students through programs run at the universities. Staff members from the IT faculty and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the University of Moratuwa, the Colombo School of Computing and from the Open University of Sri Lanka have attended the Project Management training program conducted within Virtusa by our Training Manager, Chrishan de Mel. We also support academic staff through Train the Trainer programs. These programs provide individuals with a solid foundation to become effective trainers and provide knowledge of program design and adult learning while improving skills in training delivery. GuIDING CAREERS Virtusans from all levels contribute their time and knowledge in various capacities. In one such initiative, we commenced a program at the University of Peradeniya, where a significant percentage of lectures for the Software Engineering course were delivered by Virtusa visiting lecturers. Virtusan Uditha Weliwita was the main contributor to this initiative. Virtusan Asankha Perera taught some of the modules for the University of Moratuwa MSc program. Many other Virtusans support innovation at universities by Uditha Weliwita supervising graduate and Associate Software Architect undergraduate research projects. Virtusans are encouraged to lecture and teach at Universities. Technical workshops of 1-2 days duration are also conducted by Virtusans on a regular basis. We have also conducted market oriented lectures, TechTALKs and Career Guidance workshops, to encourage students to think beyond studies and in terms of their career, helping them become better employable. And we continuously sponsor 'Careers Day' and 'Freshers Day' events as part of our commitment to education. Adding TEACHING capacity "My involvement with many of the education related initiatives at Virtusa, have enabled me to meet many potential IT professionals from a wide range of institutions. It is a very fulfilling experience to help aspiring young engineers reach their goals through the various programs that we conducted, ranging from career guidance seminars and presentations, to delivering entire courses at leading universities in Sri Lanka. Even more, the positive feedback we invariably receive makes the entire effort worth the while. I am personally very grateful to Virtusa for encouraging and facilitating my involvement in external programs with educational institutions in addition to my regular responsibilities at the workplace, and look forward to formulating and participating in many more worthy initiatives in the days ahead " The manpower available in local universities is not adequate to carry out all programs and to cater for increasing demands. We came forward to fund one additional full time lecturer at the University of Moratuwa. This is now a model that is being explored for future capacity building. 04 Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life

6 Leading With Knowledge Virtusans have taken key roles in shaping the direction of the industry and academia to help Sri Lanka profit from the global outsourcing phenomenon Chamindra de Silva Member of the e-security Working Group of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Chandika Mendis Member of the Management Committee - University of Peradeniya IT Centre. Visiting Lecturer -University of Moratuwa MSc Course Keith Modder Member of the Board - Lanka Software Foundation Member of the ICT Sub Committee - Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Madu Ratnayake University Industry Collaboration Board - University of Moratuwa Advisory Board - Department of Information Technology & Management Kelaniya University President 05/06 - Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) Sri Lanka Visiting Lecturer - The Open University Sri Lanka Shahani Weerawarana Advisory Board - University of Colombo Uditha Weliwita Visiting Lecturer - University of Peradeniya Recognizing and Rewarding Excellence Recognition and reward are essential for sustained excellence. In FY2005, we initiated the Virtusa Academic Excellence Award Program and presented them to outstanding students who received the highest grades at their respective degree programs. The award was offered to the best student of each batch at the IDM and NIBM graduation ceremonies and to the best final year project at IIT. We are currently working with other universities to implement the same program. Providing World-Class Opportunities A note from the IIT Interns Batch 04/05 After being part of this prestigious organization for nearly a year, the time has come for us to say goodbye to Virtusa. The term "virtus" means "excellence" and we surely learned the true meaning of excellence during our stay here. It has been wonderful being a part of the Virtusa family. The friendly atmosphere and the helpful environment made our internship a productive and an enjoyable one. Our project managers and leads have been very supportive and their guidance allowed us to carry out our tasks with ease. Also the support that we got from the HR team has been simply remarkable. The experience that we gained during our short stay is invaluable and has given us a lot of confidence that would help us face our final year challenges effectively. In addition to that the skills that we learned would definitely enable us to become professionals in our careers. Practicing the company's focus on 'Creating Opportunities', Virtusa continues to provide opportunities to graduates with a recruitment policy of employing a high percentage of graduates annually. As Virtusans, they enjoy the opportunity for professional and career growth in an international working environment across the globe. This opportunity to work in a global organization is also extended to students who join Virtusa, during the industrial placement year of their academic studies. Students from local and foreign universities join us each year for work experience. Our internship programs offer students the opportunity to be involved in real life engagements. At the end of the internship, students gain knowledge of all aspects of the project lifecycle and the software development process. They return to their academic studies, enriched with knowledge and invaluable work experience which would enable them to secure employment in time to come. We are truly grateful to the Virtusa management for giving us this opportunity to experience a real work environment under the best leadership that a company could offer. The memories we had at Virtusa will always be with us. With a Big Thank You Interns - Informatics Institute of Technology. 05

7 Thinking Globally, Acting Locally At our global organization, with offices based in the US, the UK, India and Sri Lanka, we primarily provide IT consulting and services to our clients. In Sri Lanka, we have an extremely talented pool of IT professionals who help our clients in the US and the UK. While we strive to provide the best possible service to our clients we also contribute largely to the outsourcing phenomenon and are proud to be a major contributor to the local software industry's mission of achieving US$ one billion in revenue, by the year 2012, through software exports. Through collaborative research and thought leadership, we have not only helped open new doors to the local IT industry, but we have also contributed significantly to placing Sri Lanka on the map of the international software industry. Opening Doors to FOSS in Sri Lanka Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is a global phenomena that is destined to bridge the digital divide. We have significantly contributed to global FOSS initiatives and Virtusans have spearheaded much research in FOSS related fields and currently support the improvement of knowledge within the local industry. This is a considerable achievement since many organizations, especially in the Asian region, have been slow to adopt FOSS. Sri Lanka has been a leading Asian nation to join the FOSS phenomenon as a contributor, while many others focused only on leveraging its benefits. Virtusans play key roles within the Lanka Linux User Group (LK-LUG), which advocates FOSS in Sri Lanka and play advisory roles to the Government's Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) within many Committees. Virtusans spearheaded the Sinhala GNU/Linux FOSS project, making computing widely available across Sri Lanka in the local language. In FY2005 several Virtusans, sponsored by the company, provided expertise to global FOSS projects run by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). Contributing primarily to Web Services projects, the majority of Apache committers are from Virtusa and 75% of the global Apache committers in the Web Services area are from Sri Lanka. Virtusans also participate in workshops and exhibitions, and they have represented Sri Lanka abroad at FOSS events. FOSS Conferences & Symposiums Sri Lanka Representative: Asia OSS Symposium (2005) Sponsorship and Participation: Linux Asia Feb 9-11, New Delhi Sponsorship and Participation: 1st Sri Lanka OSS Conference - Jan 23, 2004, Colombo Open Standards Participation WS-Interop workshop Reliable Messaging, Apr 2004, San Francisco WS-Interop workshop Secure Computing, Oct 2004, Texas Contributors and leaders of local and international FOSS communities LKLUG, AsiaOSS, FOSS-App-Asia, UNDP IOSN Apache Projects Apache AXIS C++ Apache AXIS Java 2 Kandula - Web Services Atomics Transactions Sandesha - Web Services Reliable Messaging Web Services Secure Conversation/Trust implementation 06

8 Contributing to the Community We believe that it is our duty to make a positive difference to the community we live and do business with. Our role in caring for the community is primarily aimed at uplifting the living standards of children and the less fortunate. We initiated programs, implemented by the Virtusa Club, a club that brings Virtusans together; in this case, to contribute above and beyond the call of duty in helping fellow citizens. Caring For Children In the fiscal year 2005, the Virtusa Club initiated the Blue Ribbon Campaign to make a difference to the lives of young patients in the children's wing of the Maharagama Cancer Hospital. The campaign drew over Rs.500,000 generous donations from Virtusans globally. With such a large collection of funds, we extended contributions to cancer patients of all ages. In addition to the pre-planned children's fun day at the children's ward, the club also donated medicines, a wheelchair, installed special insulation in two wards to keep out the heat, and contributed a top-of-the-range microscope to aid the Pathology department. The microscope will not only allow better scrutiny and diagnosis, but also ease trainee doctors from having to share crucial equipment. Smile Makes A Difference We organized the Smile Campaign, with a view to uplift living standards of the children living at Vajira Sri Nivasa, in Kotte. Over a three-week internal campaign calling for help, we collected medicines, stationary, toys and toiletries, and those who donated wore a little yellow Smiley - a symbol which signified the pledge to make a difference for the better, in the lives of the children at Vajira Sri Children's Home. The 325 occupants living in this Children's Home, aged from 5 months to 18 years, are either orphaned at birth, during war, or are abandoned. A separate 07 building houses victims of the recent tsunami. They receive an in-house education up to the Ordinary Level examinations. They have meager belongings, a few items of clothing, couple of books, one or two toys and a few essentials. When we visited, curious looks soon turned to smiling faces, and they entertained us with a song and dance. We received funds from the Cotting School Community in the US, which were utilized to build partitioning in the boys' hall of residence. An open hall with half walls, the building was divided into three sections so that each section could be occupied by boys of three different age groups, minimizing the disruption that occurs within such large groups of children. During the visit we officially opened the partitioned section and handed-over goods collected. Community service is that little part of me that academics, friends, and even family can't fill. It is the satisfaction of knowing that I am not just taking from the community, but rather growing with it. I believe that in order to thoroughly understand your community, you have to be involved in it. Virtusans, as a team, have been able to help fight cancer, make orphan children smile and also help many who were affected by the Asian Tsunami. It was touching to witness the dedication, commitment and generosity of Virtusans globally, to help members of the community and also establish direct relationships with them.i thank Virtusa for providing every Virtusan the opportunity to get involved in community service. Sabir Ghazaly Software Engineer In a world where most of us are running behind personal ambitions it's easy to forget the many less fortunate brothers and sisters in our society. Virtusa Club not only gives us an opportunity to see and feel the plight of some of these people but more importantly gives us an opportunity to make a difference in their lives! Nishantha Hettiarachchi Software Engineer

9 compassion After Disaster The December 26, 2004 tsunami brought a whole new perspective to caring and giving when the entire country came together to help one another. We sprung into action, initially accounting for all fellow team members, helping affected Virtusans and subsequently donating essentials to reputed agencies for the wider community. Virtusa Relief Fund The company set up the Virtusa Relief Fund (VRF) with a vision to provide relief to fellow Virtusans and the Community affected by the Tsunami. Virtusans and well wishers in the US, the UK, India and Sri Lanka made contributions amounting to a total of LKR 10.2 million. In keeping with our commitment to enhance the education sector, Virtusa donated funds to the Rotary Club Colombo Regency to rebuild the Tsunami affected IT Center of the Onthachchimadam Sri Vinyagar Vidyalaya in Batticaloa. Further contributions were made to a livelihood development program in the ornamental fishing industry in Matara, This project was carried out by the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) and Sarvodaya. In December, Virtusans rallied together and provided essentials such as water, medicine, food and clothing daily for several weeks to the affected communities in Sri Lanka and India. Virtusans affected were also provided assistance to rebuild their homes affected by the devastation. Offering Expertise to Sahana When the country was in a dire state subsequent to the Tsunami disaster, Virtusa was quick to respond as an IT service provider to a request from the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and the Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) to design a system to centralize the disaster relief process so that relief agencies could speedily aid the needy. Working a 24 hour day rota, Virtusans and members of the local IT industry worked on 'Sahana', a system that tracked all aspects of the relief effort. Virtusa contributed its high end resources, including our Head of Engineering - Shahani Weerawarana, Chief Architect - Chandika Mendis and several senior members who worked with commitment and dedication, volunteering their core competencies for this national cause. Virtusa was the largest contributor with a total of more than 60 Virtusans volunteering their time and expertise to designing and developing Sahana. A feature article which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on February 3, 2005 commended the system. "In Colombo Sri Lanka, engineers working for Massachusetts information technology services firm Virtusa Corp., built a web based application called 'Sahana' that served several pressing needs, registering displaced people including those in camps and coordinating the logistics and supply needs of the scores of aid groups on the ground". 08

10 Enabling The Differently Abled Ravindran Suppiah is our Front Office Coordinator. He has been with Virtusa for the last nine years, and the long service record alone is proof that he is admired and respected by all. Ravi as he is popularly known is also visually challenged. Ravi's day to day role involves operating the Virtusa switch board, liaising with numerous callers and coordinating front office functions. He does this using a special Desktop Computer, which has speech to text and voice recognition and a screen reader. Says Ravi, "I'm proud to be a part of a prestigious and outstanding team at Virtusa. During my stay with Virtusa over the last 9 years, I've seen the growth of this company from 20 to employees, which shows the commitment and the dedication of each and every member in all levels. I have been privileged to meet Virtusan Ravi and non-virtusan Dulanjali, two stars, who share a common characteristic; the determination to go from strength to strength, regardless of physical constraints. In their own path, they have achieved much and have gone beyond their capabilities to become shining examples, inspiring the rest of us. I wish them both continued success! Mrs. Shireen Canekeratne Director The high class of discipline and the friendship among Virtusans and their commitment to work is the major asset which proves the steady growth of the number of clients regularly. The secret of their success is the united team effort." Gestures From The Heart Our impromptu gestures from the heart took us on a trip down the coast to Kalutara, demonstrating swift Virtusan aid to a young differently abled girl. Dulanjali is a vivacious nine-year-old who was born without arms. She lives with other homeless children, orphans and elders under the roof of Sister Rita Perera and her willing assistants. Dulanjali's mobility is severely restricted but her mind is sharp and she has been enabled to expand her horizons via a personal computer, which she operates with her toes. When her old machine failed, Virtusan Mrs. Shireen Canekeratne and Carmeline Cooray moved swiftly on behalf of Virtusa to supply a new unit. Better still; the computer was specially configured by a Virtusan to get around her physical problems. Unwanted programs were also removed to speed things up. The reward for Virtusans present: sparkling eyes and a beaming smile! 09

11 YOUR Opportunity To Make a difference Most of us are fortunate to be blessed with many talents and have the capacity to make a significant impact upon the society in which we operate. As we embark on an exciting growth phase of Virtusa in FY06, we would encourage you to take an active role in making a difference through creating opportunities for others. To get involved and make an impact, please send an to; CreatingOpportunities@virtusa.com Virtusa is a global software development and IT services firm focused on increasing our client's business agility and IT efficiency by building custom software platforms tailored to create and sustain a client's competitive advantage. Since 1996, Virtusa has partnered with Fortune 1000 enterprises and leading software product companies in the Financial Services, Communications, Retail and other industries. Headquartered in Massachusetts, the company maintains offices and technology centers through the US, UK, India and Sri Lanka. For more information, please visit CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT Copyright The CSR Report is published annually by Virtusa (Pvt.) Ltd. in Sri Lanka. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without prior approval is prohibited. "Virtusa" is the registered trade mark of Virtusa Corporation.