Global tech company Wiley buoyed by the talent of Sri Lankan software engineers
View(s):From a traditional publisher which started in 1807 as a book store in New York, to a distinguished, world-class high technology company and a provider of digital education.
Mr. Bimal Gunapala(left) and Mr. Aref Matin
That’s John Wiley & Sons today, and in Colombo to explain its Sri Lanka technology centre and the phenomenal growth here was Aref Matin, the group’s Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.
Joining him at a media briefing in Colombo on Tuesday was Bimal Gunapala, General Manager, Wiley Sri Lanka, engineers from the Colombo centre and some Wiley staff from abroad.
Mr. Matin agreed that the entry of Wiley into Sri Lanka should send a strong message to the rest of the world that this is a place to invest in tech centres as Sri Lankan engineers are highly skilled and employable.
“We were drawn to Sri Lanka for several reasons. The talent pool here is unrivaled with highly skilled and experienced engineering professionals. Prospects are highly educated and have a strong focus on innovation and a desire to learn latest technology trends. Some of our other reasons include the strong work ethic, collaborative teams, great English speakers, commitment to careers rather than job hopping for competitive market situations, and perhaps my own personal favourite, everyone always has a great Sri Lankan friendly smile,” he told reporters, with a smile.
The centre began in April 2019 with Mr. Gunapala being its first employee. That has progressed to 215 workers with plans to hire up to 600 engineers in three years; such is the growth potential of the Colombo tech office.
Two areas of interest of the company is in education and upskilling workers for client-corporations.
In one programme, a company wants trained and skilled workers and asks Wiley to prepare (train) a batch of workers to be digitally ready. Wiley recruits the batch of passed-out engineers often from universities, trains them while paying their salaries, and the company then absorbs them. “We have a regular stream of recruits under this programme,” Mr, Matin said
He says Wiley is a rather “unique” company in the sense that it provides content, knowledge and tools to support researchers, learners, universities and corporations. “In research, we are one of the leading publishers in the world, and through our platforms, bring forward over half of the world’s research. In education, we are focused on helping learners develop the skills and knowledge that they need to succeed in an ever-changing world. This learning spans university services (degrees and certificates through online education), career preparations, and corporate training (upskilling and reskilling). Our content tools support the wide spectrum of learners: from subscribing to online education content, to a highly skilled knowledge worker, ready for the digital economy. Our platforms assist in identification and matching prospective students to online universities, and skills/training programmes leading to gainful employment. We are the only one that can reach across the learner journey in this way; no one else can,” he said.
Its clients include 10,000 research institutions, 600 scientific societies. “We have online projects with 60+ universities, 1,000 corporates and we serve millions of students,” he said. Wiley empowers researchers, learners, universities, and corporations to achieve their goals in an ever-changing world.
The US-based company which has operations in 18 countries and three tech centres (including Sri Lanka which, in time, is set to become its largest tech centre), has spent around US$5 million to establish the operations in Colombo with its team occupying five floors at the iconic MagaOne building in Colombo 5.
With a majority of the revenue coming from technology services for the once, better-known publisher, the question was asked whether books are going out of vogue, and the reading habit is dying. “Not so,” says Mr. Matin, adding: “All the major book fairs in the world still attract millions of books and thousands of visitors”.
John Wiley & Sons, founded in 1807, is an independent, global publisher of print and electronic products. Wiley specialises in scientific and technical books, journals, textbooks, education materials, and professional and consumer books.