SLASSCOM recently hosted the annual Innovation Awards and Gala 2019 for the second consecutive year at the Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo, recognizing and celebrating innovators across a range of award categories in the knowledge solutions industry.

The SLASSCOM Innovation awards were the premier tech innovation awards held in Sri Lanka which recognized and rewarded teams across the industry who help put Sri Lanka on the map by coming together to innovate, reinvent, reimagine and redefine the world as it is today.

Nearly 100 submissions were received for the seven award categories namely; Best Product Innovation, Best Disruptor, Best Client Delivery Innovation, Best Innovation in Internal Processes, Best Technology or Framework Innovation, Best Start-up Product/Service and Best Innovation in Business Process Management. While FinPal from Dialog Axiata PLC emerged winners in the Best Product Innovation, PickMeFood from Digital Mobility Solutions and ayubo.life became first and second runner-up respectively. Pay by Genie from Dialog Axiata PLC was the winner in the Best Startup Product or Service category, while Magicbit and ayubo.life were first and second runner-up respectively. The Best Client Delivery award was won by Smart-grid from Dialog Axiata PLC, while Millennium Advanced Platform by LSEG Technology and UPay from SANASA Development Bank were first and second runners-up respectively.

Pay by Genie from Dialog Axiata PLC won the Best Disruptor Award while MillionSpaces won the first runner-up and Coal Pal by Techwire Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd. was declared the second runner-up. AutoPilot of MilleniumIT ESP emerged winners and PoBot and ProTime from MilleniumIT ESP became the joint first runners-up while Minuteman from Sysco LABS became the second runner-up in the Best Innovation in Internal Process category. The Best Innovation in Business Process Management award was won by CheckIn BOT from Virtusa while Res.Q|MI of H One Private Limited and Orcam by Orel IT were first and second runners-up respectively. The Best Technology or Framework Innovation award was awarded to CropChain by Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT) while Bitesize by Pearson Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd and The CAKE Data Platform from Sysco LABS were jointly awarded the first runner-up and Millennium Advanced Platform by LSEG Technology took home the second runner-up award.

Delighted with the success of this year’s event, SLASSCOM Chairman Ranil Rajapakse commented, “It is extremely heartening to see the enthusiasm of professionals from the knowledge solutions sector through the submissions that were sent across. There was indeed a tough competition this year as all companies were notably innovative and creative in their business processes. I congratulate all the winners and encourage all participants in their journey to advance the prominently rising innovation sector of Sri Lanka.”

Chrishan de Mel, Executive Director SLASSCOM, commenting on the event said, “With the assistance of our eminent panel of judges, SLASSCOM has recognized the efforts of several companies in the knowledge solutions sector of Sri Lanka who have delivered outstanding solutions to our global clients. We would like to thank our panel of judges, participants and sponsors for all the support extended to us in order to make this event a success.”

With this year’s theme of “Cultivating an Innovation Ecosystem”, the event focused on assembling the industry’s top senior and mid-level technology and innovation professionals in the knowledge solutions industry to witness the premier tech innovation awards while encouraging and appreciating the efforts of Sri Lanka’s knowledge solutions companies to achieve business excellence.

The applicants were reviewed and judged by a distinguished panel of international judges with extensive knowledge and experience in the fields of research, consulting, entrepreneurship and innovation. They were well-equipped to recognize the strengths of each submission presented to SLASSCOM. The panel comprised of three eminent international judges: Achyuta Ghosh – Head of Research of NASSCOM, India; Jeanette Cheah – Co-founder and CEO of The Hacker Exchange, a global, tertiary-accredited company; and Eli Itin – Founder and Senior Innovation Consultant at Northern Star Innovation, a boutique consultancy specializing in the creation and management of organizational innovation.

Supporting the enhancing and improvement of the technological and innovation sector of Sri Lanka, the event sponsors for the SLASSCOM Innovation Awards and Gala 2019 were; Millennium IT ESP as the Strategic Sponsor, Sysco LABS as the Platinum Sponsor, Embla Software Innovation, Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) and Dialog as the Silver Sponsors, zMessenger as the Digital Media Partner, Shangri-La Hotel as the Hospitality Partner, alongside Corporate Sponsors Dialog Enterprise, Horizon Campus and Hatch.

Apart from recognizing the winners in the seven categories, the SLASSCOM Gala segment also paved the way for a unique opportunity where individuals from various organizations came together to share knowledge and network among industry professionals. As a result, this event was also the largest social gathering of all SLASSCOM members for the year 2019. Following the distribution of awards, the event moved on to a glamorous night of entertainment including live band performances and a gala dinner.