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Sri
Lanka is
at the
very
early
stages
of an
economic
boom and
therefore
a
technology
boom,
according
to Mani
Kulasooriya,
a
Founder
/
Director
of
Business
Development
of the
recently
launched
local IT
consultancy
Latitude655.
Further,
he
suggested
there
was a
lack of
professional
IT
services
companies
to
effectively
support
this
anticipated
technology
boom,
noting
that the
local
engineering
talent
can be
currently
characterised
as
'uncut
gems'.
While
indicating
that
Latitude655
would be
investing
US$ 5
million
locally
over
five
years to
build up
their
business
with the
goal of
becoming
the
number
one IT
services
company
in Sri
Lanka,
Mr.
Kulasooriya
further
noted
that
Laitude655's
key
differentiator
from the
many IT
companies
that
operate
locally
is that,
while
many
send
their
staff
abroad
to gain
experience,
Latitude655
would be
the only
one to
bring
Silicon
Valley
talent
to Sri
Lankan
shores
to
reduce
the
technology
adoption
lag for
local
clients
from the
three to
four
years
which is
the
domestic
norm
today to
a more
acceptable
three to
four
months.
Further,
according
to the
company's
Chief
Technology
Officer,
Chetan
Narsude;
the
technologies
being
'incubated'
by
Latitude655
includes
mobile,
including
home
automation
(using
smart
phones
to tie
into
closed
circuit
television
footage
and
provide
remote
access
to
approved
visitors),
translation
(real
time
translations
from
English
to
Japanese
or any
other
language
and vice
versa
using
mobile
devices)
and
social
networking,
all part
of the
mobile
platform
which is
expected
to grow
even
faster
since
smart
phones
sales
have
already
overtaken
laptops
from the
3rd
quarter
of 2009.
Latitude655
will
also
offer
cloud
computing
services,
an
architecture
which
enables
smaller
software
developers
to keep
startup
costs
low by
only
buying
the what
they
need in
terms of
online
storage
space,
software,
etc.;
with Mr.
Narsude
further
suggesting
that
clients
using
'non
cloud'
can be
changed
to
'cloud'
in a
matter
of days.
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