Kingslake helps mid-sized businesses to realise their full potential
View(s):COLOMBO -The 30-year old ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka deterred many expatriate Tamils from returning to their roots; not S. Dharmavasan.
Born and schooled in Sri Lanka, the youngster migrated to the UK in 1975, studied at the University of London and then taught applied mechanics before setting up his own IT company with three other colleagues to develop research in the field of oil and gas.
Dr. Dharmavasan (Dharma to friends) named the company Kingslake, as one would imagine due to his UK background. “Not really,” he laughed during an interview with the Business Times in Colombo at the company office, adding: “It’s a long story.”
Kingslake recently launched its cloud-based business solutions at an event in Colombo. In the picture from left – Michael D’Costa - Senior solutiions Consultant,Progress Software; Duleep Fernando - CEO, Kingslake; Bhupesh Lall - Marketing Director, Progress Software, Asia Pacific and Japan, and Huang Xinwei - Senior Channel Sales, Progress Software South Asia
His hometown is Akkaraipattu in the eastern Ampara district where the family’s ancestral property was destroyed in ethnic violence, some years after he settled down in the UK. “The name of the property is ‘Manankulam’ which means Kings Lake and I wanted to name the company after this to remind me of home,” he said.
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then and the company, launched in the UK in 1991 and Kingslake Engineering in Sri Lanka in 1994, has grown by leaps and bounds.
In the interview, Dr. Dharmavasan said he was very positive on Sri Lanka and discussed many developments including new technology and how the company has progressed over the years.
“There is a major shift happening in IT, a change that happens every 10 years or so. This has been the case in the past three years where selling consumer products has changed and more people are into smartphones and tablets,” he said adding that the use of cloud technology is growing.
He said there are huge opportunities in what he calls ‘this disruption’ and Kingslake is making the best use of it particularly in the tea industry.
The shift in technology means small players like Kingslake, which concentrates on mid-sized business applications, is able to compete on a level playing field with the ‘big boys’ (big companies).
When the Sri Lankan operation was set up, the company hired university graduates from Peradeniya who were capable but lacked awareness on IT-related issues.
The company was set up by acquiring a John Keells subsidiary dealing with accounting software with Dilmah and Phoenix Industries being Kingslake’s first few customers.
Dr. S.Dharmavasan
The company focussed on the manufacturing sector which at the time was using low end software to run the business. Accounting, inventory planning, logistics software and production planning software were being developed. It transformed companies to provide quotes for customers in just 30 minutes compared to three days before Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems were put in place to optimize the process.
As Kingslake’s mid-level clients moved up the ladder, they migrated to the SAP (Systems, Applications and Products) solutions, which Dr. Dharmavasan said, was a natural progression.
While the tea sector accounts for a sizable 20-30 per cent of the company’s business in Sri Lanka, its clients come from other sectors like apparel for instance. “We make sure we are not dependent on one big customer or one sector,” he said.
The UK firm is the holding company with units in Malaysia and India. Malaysia’s largest hospital group is a Kingslake customer.
The Kingslake founder and CEO believes that with Sri Lanka being a mid-income country, the IT industry should not attempt to compete with countries that offer cheaper skills. “We have to focus on value and better use of tools,” he said.
Kingslake is coming up with a range of cloud based products under its own brand name which was launched last week.
Like many entrepreneurs, Dr. Dharmavasan is excited by the new technology that is taking over the world. Citing one example, he said Mercedes Benz recently launched a high-tech car which has 18 sensors and cameras. It automatically adjusts the suspension after sensors pick up the road conditions ahead. The car can park or drive without human contact.
But he is also a firm believer of the people’s element in technology and development and hopes it would remain that way in the future.
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