Press Releases

This year, National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) marks its 12th anniversary and the industry has stepped up to endorse and pledge their continued support to this national cause. The constant backing of the industry yet again endorses NBQSA as a “Seal of Excellence” in the ICT industry in Sri Lanka. The NBQSA 2010 sponsors were officially announced at the 12th NBQSA press conference held at the Hilton Colombo Residencies recently.

The head table at NBQSA press conference
BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT is the main sponsor of NBQSA since its inception in 1998. BCS has been backing NBQSA extending their continued support to the Sri Lankan ICT industry through the annual sponsorship and through the efforts of the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT - Sri Lanka Section.

As a step to promote the development of quality software at national level the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) has extended their support to the only national event that recognizes local ICT achievements, as the national partner. Endorsing the national contribution and popularity of the NBQSA event, Microsoft Sri Lanka pledged to the NBQSA cause as strategic partner in 2008 for three consecutive years. Microsoft Sri Lanka has been a strong supporter of NBQSA since 2006 (Gold Sponsor in 2002 and 2007) totaling their partnership with NBQSA to five years.

The Bank of Ceylon has been a long term partner of NBQSA supporting the event for many years since its inception. This year too, the Bank of Ceylon is supporting NBQSA as Gold Sponsor.

Intel Sri Lanka who has been supporting NBQSA is the past has stepped in this year as well to support the NBQSA event as Silver sponsor. IFS have also continued their support for NBQSA as Bronze sponsor in 2010. WSO2 is yet another continuous supporter of NBQSA and this year they will be a Special Award sponsor. This year NBQSA is also supported by Domain LK, who acknowledged the importance of the industry event by stepping in as a Special Award sponsor.

Source: Daily News

National software awards to promote IT

July 10 2010

COLOMBO: The National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) has been organised with its 12 year anniversary celebration this year.

It has been identified as the only national competition to appreciate local ICT achievements, and where local ICT providers can display their products and the growth year-on-year.

The competition is open in 17 categories ranging from application and infrastructure tools to media and entertainment applications, in addition the NBQSA will honour the best product developed using Microsoft products and open source products, the committee said.

Sri Lankan ICT distribution has not been developed and the products are only used within a small segment of the population, with basic infrastructure developed to attract more users.

The committee said that they hope in the near future it will be developed and all house holds will be using ICT products, Rural areas have to be tapped in achieving ICT development in the country.

Sri Lankan computer usage is low and stands at around 10 percent, while internet connections are small in numbers. Broadband has a very low consumption though it provides a good service.

Source: South Asian Media Net

National software awards to promote IT penetration

July 9th 2010

The National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) has been organised with its 12 year anniversary celebration this year.

It has been identified as the only national competition to appreciate local ICT achievements, and where local ICT providers can display their products and the growth year-on-year.

Sri Lankan ICT distribution has not been developed and the products are only used within a small segment of the population, with basic infrastructure developed to attract more users.

The committee said that they hope in the near future it will be developed and all house holds will be using ICT products, Rural areas have to be tapped in achieving ICT development in the country.

Sri Lankan computer usage is low and stands at around 10 percent, while internet connections are small in numbers. Broadband has a very low consumption though it provides a good service.

Source: ITPro

12th anniversary of National Best Quality Software Awards

July 7 2010

The 'Seal of Excellence' in ICT, the National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA), yesterday announced its 12th anniversary this year.

This prestigious national event is organised in association with the BCS the Chartered Institute for IT, United Kingdom. NBQSA has been the only national competition of its type in Sri Lanka that recognises exceptional local ICT achievements, and honours significant technological advancements in the country.

BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT - Sri Lanka Section (BCSSL), has called for applications for the Gala event, which is to be held on 1 October 2010.

Since 1998 NBQSA has afforded opportunities to individuals and organisations, having made outstanding contribution to the development of the ICT industry in Sri Lanka, to display and benchmark their products.

Over the years the event itself has grown in recognition and prestige, both locally and internationally.

Today, NBQSA 'Seal of Excellence' is regarded as acknowledged symbol of achievement, and is a means to gain international recognition for locally-developed ICT products to successfully compete in the global market.

The objectives of the NBQSA competition are threefold: to provide recognition to outstanding achievements of individuals and organisations in Sri Lanka who/which have contributed to the development of ICT; to create a window to gain international recognition for locally developed ICT products; and to improve standards and the quality of local ICT products and services to be able to compete in the international market place.

The NBQSA 2010 competition will cover 17 categories of ICT products and projects ranging from application and infrastructure tools to in-house applications. In addition to that BCS Sri Lanka section has taken the initiative to honour the best products developed using Microsoft products and open source products as a special award.

The tertiary category is open to students from Sri Lankan tertiary education institutions. Gold, silver and bronze awards will be presented in all categories, provided there are winners.

The prestigious judging panel comprises of industry experts selected based on their ICT knowledge and experience from diverse disciplines such as IT, engineering, management, accounting, and marketing etc.

from both the private sector and the academia. The appointment of judges adheres to strict criteria and conditions to ensure unbiased and objective evaluation as well as strict confidentiality.

The competition is open to organisations, groups and individuals in Sri Lanka for locally designed and developed ICT products.

Applications can be obtained from Aradhana, Coordinator at the BCS Secretariat, No. 51, Sir Marcus Fernando Mawatha, Colombo 7. More information can be obtained from the BCS website: http://www.bcssrillanka.org, NBQSA website: http://www.nbqsasrilanka.org, or by Email: bcs@infotel.lk

Source: DailyMirror

ICTA promotes quality software

14th October 2009

As part of this move ICTA will partner at national level with the National Best Quality Software Award (NBQSA) competition.

The National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) competition is an annual event organised by the British Computer Society Sri Lanka (BCSSL) Section.

ICTA, being the apex body mandated for making the benefits of ICT accrue to the people under the e-Sri Lanka initiative realises the role of quality software. In implementing 'e-Sri Lanka' as a national development initiative, ICTA tries to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to make people's lives more comfortable and quality software is pivotal in this endeavour.

The objective of the e-Sri Lanka initiative is to help people by developing the economy of Sri Lanka by the use of ICT. This leads to the reduction of poverty and improvement of the quality of people's lives. ICTA aims at carrying out its role in the 'e-Sri Lanka' development initiative by harnessing ICT as a lever for economic and social advancement and taking the dividends of ICT to every village, citizen and business and to re-engineer the way Government thinks and works.

The competition serves to showcase and benchmark Sri Lankan ICT products, which fulfils a much needed requirement of the software industry in this highly competitive globalist economic structure.

This year the National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) will be presented to the winners of the NBQSA 2009 competition at a ceremony at the Waters' Edge Hotel on October 16. The objectives of NBQSA competition come within the scope of the e-Sri Lanka initiative.

Source: Island

Recognizing exceptional local ICT talent since 1998

22nd July 2009

CEO Microimage (Pvt) Ltd. Harsha Purasinghe receiving the Overall Gold Award for NBQSA 2008 from Chief Guest John Orton, Membership Director, BCS - UK

BCS Sri Lanka section in association with British Computer Society (UK) proudly announces the 11th Anniversary of NBQSA competition, which is the only National competition of its type in Sri Lanka to recognize exceptional local ICT achievements and honor the significant technological advancements in the country.

Since 1998 NBQSA has afforded opportunities to individuals and organisations, having made outstanding contribution to the development of ICT Industry in Sri Lanka, to display and benchmark their products. Over the years the event itself has grown in recognition and prestige, both locally and internationally. Today, NBQSA “Seal of Excellence” is regarded as acknowledged symbol of achievement, and serves as a vessel to gain international recognition for locally developed ICT products, enabling them to successfully compete in the global market. Thus this year NBQSA serves to being a new boon for the software industry in Sri Lanka after the crucial impact caused by recession in the global economic structure.

The objectives of the NBQSA competition are threefold. To provide recognition to outstanding achievements of individuals and organizations in Sri Lanka who/which have contributed to the development of ICT, to create a window to gain international recognition for locally developed ICT products and, to improve standards and the quality of local ICT products and services to be able to compete in the international market place.

This year NBQSA 2009 competition will cover 16 categories of ICT products and projects ranging from Application & Infrastructure Tools to In House Applications. In addition to that BCS Sri Lanka section is proud to announce the addition of a new category this year in which the best application developed using Microsoft products and Open Source products would be awarded. The Tertiary category is open to students from Sri Lankan Tertiary Education Institutions. Gold, Silver and Bronze awards will be presented in these categories provided that there are winners in these categories.

The judging panel would comprise of industry experts who have been selected based on their ICT knowledge and experience from diverse disciplines such as IT, Engineering, Management, Accounting, Marketing etc. who come from both the Private sector and the Academia. The Judges are appointed adhering to strict criteria and conditions to ensure unbiased and objective evaluation as well as strict confidentiality.

The NBQSA Overall Gold winners for the past three years are Microimage Mobile Media (Private) Ltd for their “Microimage for vStation “ in 2008; Affno (Pvt) Ltd. for their “Expenditure Management System” in 2007; and Dialog Telekom Ltd., Microimage (Pvt) Ltd. and University of Moratuwa collectively for their “Disaster and Emergency Warning Network” in 2006.

NBQSA winners become automatically eligible for the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA), an International Awards Program initiated to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the Digital Divide. Sri Lanka won the first ever APICTA Gold in 2006 when Nuwan Senaratna from University of Colombo School of computing (UCSC) presented his project on Automatic Music Composition (AMC) beating 78 entries in the Tertiary category and in 2007 too Sri Lanka was able to sustain the Gold when students from SLIIT presented their Tripwire Project. In 2008 creating a milestone in Sri Lankan software industry Sri Lanka won two gold awards in APICTA and the first ever golden award for Sri Lanka in the Financial Category of the competition was won by Epic Lanka (PVT) Ltd exceeding nations such as Australia, China from East to Pakistan from West through South & South East Asian countries, and Ganindu Nanayakkara of Ananda College Colombo brought glamour by winning the Gold award for his Project “The Watch” . This year APCTA is sheduled to be held in Australia.

NBQSA Mini Events consist of NBQSA Launch and calling for Applications on 17th July 2009, Nominees’ Briefing on 04th August 2009, Judges’ Briefing on 06th August 2009 and the Gala Awards Ceremony on 16th October 2009.

The competition is open to organisations, groups and individuals in Sri Lanka for locally designed and developed ICT products. Applications can be obtained from Harsha, Coordinator, BCS Secretariat, No. 51, Sir Marcus Fernando Mawatha, Colombo 7 (Tel: 0112665261/2), or downloaded from :

http://www.nbqsasrilanka.org

The application closing date has been extended to 31st July 2009

Source: Daily mirror

NBQSA Awards for Local ICT talent

06 July 2009

National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) 2009, the 11th Annual NBQSA competition was announced recently by the BCS Sri Lanka section, in association with the British Computer Society (UK). NBQSA is the only national competition in Sri Lanka recognising and honouring exceptional local ICT achievements and significant technological advancements in the country. Since 1998, the NBQSA has given opportunities to individuals and organisations that have made outstanding contributions to the development of the ICT Industry in Sri Lanka, to display and benchmark their products. Over the years, the event itself has grown in recognition both locally and internationally. Today, it serves as a vessel to gain international recognition for locally developed ICT products, enabling them to successfully compete in the global market.

'This year's NBQSA specially hopes to bring some relief to the software industry in Sri Lanka, which is still fighting to overcome the impact of the global economic crisis' said Vajeendra Samanpriya, Chairman of the NBQSA Organising Committee and Member of the BCS Sri Lanka Executive Committee. This year NBQSA 2009 competition will cover 16 categories of ICT products and projects ranging from Application and Infrastructure Tools to In House Applications, with Gold, Silver and Bronze awards being presented to winners in each category. In addition, the BCS Sri Lanka section is proud to announce the addition of a new award category this year, where the best application developed using Closed Source and Open Source products would be recognised. The Tertiary category is open to students from Sri Lankan Tertiary Education Institutions. Each year, the judging panel is selected based on their ICT knowledge and experience from diverse disciplines such as IT, Engineering, Management, Accounting and Marketing. It would include persons from both the private sector and the academia, selected to ensure unbiased and objective evaluation as well as confidentiality. Samanpriya invited local ICT innovators to take part and win opportunity for international recognition through Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA), an International Awards Programme initiated to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the Digital Divide. The NBQSA events schedule commences with the launch and call for applications on the 17th of July, with the nominees' and judges' briefings to be held on 4th and 6th of August respectively and concluding with the Gala Awards Ceremony on 16th of October 2009.

Source: Digital learning India / Daily mirror