99X Technology Archives

September 13, 2020

Geared towards educating the local and global tech community on building market winning products

Building a software product sounds simple and straightforward but launching one that can win in the global marketplace is far from easy. Understanding this, software product engineering specialist 99X Technology has taken its knowledge, amassed over nearly two decades of building 150+ software products for independent software vendors (ISVs), and put it all together in an online portal aptly titled ‘Winning Product’.

A fully volunteer-driven initiative by the product engineers of 99X Technology, winningproduct.com is an interactive site that covers all stages of the product lifecycle – from exploring an idea right down to retiring a product. It has been created to be a one-stop shop for anyone interested in any aspect of building a market-winning software product, whether it is a mature product company or an entrepreneur with a bright idea.

What makes it unique is the fact that every piece of information on the site has been tried and tested by the product engineers of 99X Technology. It is also community driven and invites anyone interested in contributing to the space to do so, bringing together the best practices from more success stories and even failures. The model identifies 87 process areas within eight key stages in the product lifecycle. Each of these 87 areas include supporting links, how-tos and measurements.

“Over the years, we have been through dozens of product lifecycles with our ISV customers and we’ve understood that there isn’t a single formula to create a winning product. Yet, we believed that the experience we have gained through co-creating products with ISVs, illustrated through systematic sets of activities, was something that was worth sharing with the global community,” stated 99X Technology CTO Hasith Yaggahavita, explaining the thought process behind this undertaking.

99X Technology Chief Product Officer Chatura de Silva added: “Our goal with the Winning Product portal is for it to act as a guide along the path to success at any point of creating a software product, from the business value proposition to the technical detail, even aspects related to financing. It has been a tremendous undertaking by our product engineers and we are incredibly proud to release this publicly.”

The Winning Product initiative of 99X Technology is also in line with the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM)’s vision to champion the creation of world-class tech products and helps position Sri Lanka as a pioneer in building tech products for global players.

Apart from the released knowledge base, an assessment tool and a certification model for product consultants will be added in the near future. The knowledge base helps product engineering teams learn and understand the activities involved in building a winning product. The assessment tool will help teams understand where they stand in terms of product engineering practices. This will be strengthened by the certification model, to help teams get their team members certified as product consultants.

“I must extend my gratitude to the 60+ volunteers who, for over a year, contributed to building the Winning Product portal. Our team comprised of product engineers, UI/UX engineers, QA engineers, project leads, interns and more. They helped immensely in gathering data, proofreading, and most importantly, reviewing the content thoroughly multiple times,” observed 99X Technology Associate Technical Architect and AWS Community Hero Manoj Fernando.

The team is keen for it to be community-driven and welcome all those interested to contribute to the portal. For more information, visit winningproduct.com

Headquartered in Sri Lanka, 99X Technology is a product engineering company co-creating well-engineered, innovative digital products for the Scandinavian market. Its expertise has been proven through a portfolio of over 150 impactful global digital products developed since 2004, together with leading Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). 99X Technology employs over 300 technology and product specialists, who are high achievers, creative thinkers and team players. The company has been adjudged one of Asia’s Best Workplaces for 2020. It is ranked among Sri Lanka’s 100 Most Respected Entities by LMD Magazine and has been named a Best Workplace in the country for seven consecutive years.

August 14, 2020

August 13, 2020: 99X Technology is pleased to announce that Tracified, a company incubated within its innovation center/accelerator StartupX Foundry, has received an equity investment from 360ip, a venture capital firm based in Tokyo. Tracified is a blockchain-based traceability solution.

Mano Sekaram, CEO and Co-Founder of 99X Technology and Founder of StartupX Foundry commented: “I’m delighted to see Tracified reach this milestone, a tipping-point in the journey of becoming a global offering in this space. When we formed StartupX Foundry in 2017, it was as a corporate accelerator to provide a platform to enable our employees to build their own startups. We give them the mentoring, funding and environment to nurture their entrepreneurial spirit. I believe that every employee at 99X has the potential to be an innovator or an entrepreneur. Being able to provide such opportunities is what makes us different and lets us rank consistently as a Great Place to Work. I applaud the founders of Tracified, Dileepa Jayathilaka and Uthpalie Thilakarathna, for their courage to pursue this idea and build a winning product.”

Tracified is a blockchain-based traceability solution that connects the entire supply chain. The solution can be applied to scenarios when its crucial to assure the integrity of the supply chain. Whether it’s organic produce or Atlantic salmon, Tracified can identify and record movement, temperature and storage durations across every stage, using a multitude of tracking technologies.

A delegation from 360ip visited Sri Lanka in December 2019 to evaluate Tracified and its potential for the Japanese market. Asashi Fujimori, CEO of 360ip Japan, stated: “360ip has a focus on investing and developing advanced science and technology ventures on a global scale. Although Sri Lanka’s potential in developing advanced ICT services and products is known to many, only a very few early-stage technology startups survive beyond seed round, due to the lack of a well-established venture capital financing framework with an effective technology commercialization methodology. 360ip wants to bridge that gap by supporting promising startup ventures to develop their technology and business beyond Sri Lanka.”

He further added: “Tracified was identified by 360ip as a promising venture that has clear potential in developing its technology and business on a global scale. As a startup venture backed by 99X Technology, Tracified had adopted a technology development methodology of an excellent standard from its inception, powered by a team of highly skilled tech professionals. Further, its Blockchain technology for modern traceability in diverse business domains has the ability to disrupt and transform conventional global supply chains towards Industry 4.0, while realizing sustainable development goals, to enable fair and transparent trading.”

Tracified has been recognized in both national and international forums. In 2018, Tracified won the Founder Institute Scholarship for the Best Sustainability Startup Pitch at the Oslo Innovation Week. The product was also recognized at the 2017 E-Swabhimani Digital Social Impact Awards, where it emerged winner of the Business/Commerce category and at the National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA), where it won Gold in the e-Logistics and Supply Chain Management Category.

Dileepa Jayathilaka, Co-founder Tracified stated: “This is international recognition of our Blockchain competency. We are proud to be one of the first traceability solutions in the public blockchain. While we have built many award-winning products during the past 10 years through our cutting-edge research,

Tracified is the first product we have successfully commercialized with an international partnership, providing us both funding and market access.” Tracified joins the list of Sri Lankan startups receiving global recognition, yet another reason to celebrate Sri Lankan ingenuity.

July 28, 2020

99X Technology helps Sri Lankan undergraduates get industry knowledge when they need it most

Understanding the importance of minimising the impact COVID-19 has on the education of Lankan undergraduates, 99X Technology’s university outreach programme ‘Dotitude’ stepped in, conducting webinars for universities and higher education institutes across the country.

In a time where almost every industry and even simple daily activities have been disrupted and are struggling to enter the digital arena, the emergence of a pandemic has been no deterrent to the ‘Xians’, as the employees of 99X Technology call themselves. They’ve harnessed a method already second nature to them, thanks to years of development for European clients, and fine-tuned it to reach out to undergraduates across the country.

The online sessions commenced shortly after the Xians began working from home and have covered topics ranging from introductions to basic programming to soft skills development and CV writing. It has included topics highly geared to current times, such as webinars on ‘post-COVID challenges and opportunities’.

“We have always been dedicated to working closely and sharing our knowledge with Lankan academia and undergraduates. It has been inspiring to see that despite limitations faced, our employees continue to work together to share their skills with these students,” noted 99X Technology Senior Technical Lead and ‘Dotitude’ Manager Anura Adhikari. “In fact, I believe we will end up reaching out to more students than ever, thanks to these online sessions! A great effort by the team who continue to do all this from their homes.”

The 99X Technology university outreach programme ‘Dotitude’ has been in operation for nearly a decade and has reached out to over 50,000 undergraduates during this time through a multitude of activities. In the last year alone, the volunteer-based initiative reached out to over 3,500 undergraduates through collaborations with 12 universities and higher education institutes, and supported 15 research projects, among other activities.

University of Moratuwa Head of Division of Information Technology Kalpana Galappaththi, commenting on a recent session, said: “Thank you very much for accepting our invitation and doing a very good educational and motivating session for our first batch of NDT in IT students with your team from 99X Technology. Keep up all your good work to educate younger generations. We received very positive comments from our students.”

With sometimes nearly 200 students joining per session, these webinars have been incredibly popular, especially during a time when studies have been disrupted for many. A popular online series has been one on ‘Quality Engineering’, originally conducted to the undergraduates of the University of Colombo School of Computing and then made available online for public viewing. Topics covered within the series included ‘Continuous Testing’ by Aravinthan Ramraj, ‘Cypress’ by Maheesha Lunuwila and Chanaka Uduweriya, ‘Security Testing’ by Pranieth Chandrasekara and ‘Performance Testing’ by Chamath Didulanga.

“Our focus through such sessions has been to educate them about new developments in the tech space and to also show them the many career paths available to undergraduates in the IT industry. Our ‘Quality Engineering’ series, for example, has created a lot of awareness about Quality Assurance career opportunities,” observed 99X Technology Quality Assurance Engineer Jayashani Gunarathne, who helped spearhead this particular online series.

June 2, 2020

Ranked as a Best Workplace in Asia for a fourth year and listed on Sri Lanka’s inaugural list of Best IT/ITES workplaces

Reiterating its commitment to diversity and creating equal opportunities for all in the workplace, 99X Technology was once again ranked on the Best Workplaces in Asia index for 2020 by Great Place to Work Institute. It retains its position at 8^th place among 25 companies from the Asia Pacific region in the Small and Medium Enterprises category. This achievement was soon followed by yet another, being listed among 10 companies on Sri Lanka’s inaugural list of Best Small and Medium IT/ITES Workplaces.

The publication of these lists comes amid the COVID-19 crisis, which has upended daily life and business operations throughout the region. The ranking of Asia’s Best Workplaces is based on data collected prior to the novel coronavirus outbreak but organizations on the list are leading the way amid the pandemic, demonstrating care for their employees, their customers and their communities during this difficult time.

“Our focus on being a life partner to our employees has never been more important to us as it is now, during this time of global uncertainty and unrest due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now more than ever that creating a great workplace with leading people practices has shown its merit, allowing us to manage the situation and ensure business continuity, while supporting our people and in turn, receiving the maximum support from them as we weather through this,” observed Mano Sekaram, Co-Founder and CEO of 99X Technology. “Continuing to be recognized by Great Place to Work Institute serves as a testimony that we are truly a great place to work.”

On the Asian index, other winners from the Asia Pacific region include SAP, Salesforce, PayPal, Marriott, HP and HubSpot. More than 2.2 million employees participated in the survey. Great Place to Work research shows everyone wants a high-trust culture, but the way forward for organizations has regional variations. In Asia, the Best Workplaces have stood out by creating sustainability when it comes to work and life. For this region, the survey statement that most strongly predicted a Best Workplace experience overall was “people are encouraged to balance their work life and their personal life.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge facing organizations across the globe, and it puts a premium on being a high trust people-first culture,” said Michael C. Bush, Global CEO of Great Place to Work. “We honor the companies that earned places on our ranking of Asia’s Best Workplaces because they will outperform their competitors and we hope this will inspire more companies to become a Great Place to Work For All.”

With Sri Lanka’s ICT industry growing in leaps and bounds, Great Place to Work Institute Sri Lanka believed it was timely to recognize companies that have shown themselves to be the Best Workplaces among the SMEs in the IT/ITES sector of Sri Lanka. Approximately 4,000 employees from organizations with employees ranging from 20 to 500, were surveyed in 2019-2020, measuring employee perception and organisation practices.

April 23, 2020

During the current global lockdown, leading Sri Lankan product engineering company 99X Technology has harnessed its core strength – software product engineering – to rapidly deliver digital solutions to strengthen communities and organisations globally against the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One such solution was created together with UNDP Sri Lanka, who partnered with 99X Technology to build a COVID-19 WHO information chatbot on Facebook Messenger, which was delivered in 24 hours. The service is available to all Sri Lankans in Sinhala, Tamil and English languages, giving real-time updates sourced from the Health Promotion Bureau of Sri Lanka and World Health Organisation websites. Information shared with the public through it includes the latest statistics, tips on how to protect yourself, latest news, answers to the user’s questions and more. It is available via https://www.messenger.com/t/UNDPSriLanka

Speaking about this platform, Robert Juhkam, Resident Representative of UNDP in Sri Lanka, stated: “UNDP is pleased to have worked on this very useful and timely bot with 99X Technology. At a time when we need to counter misinformation, not only does this bot provide Sri Lankans accurate information in all three languages, but also shows the potential of effective partnerships at a crucial time such as this.”

Another solution was the launch of ‘Tackle’, a software product for business continuity relating to COVID-19. Build by Sureway AS, Norway and 99X Technology, the entire product design and development was done in just seven days, while both countries were under lockdown, using online collaboration tools.

Kjetil Odin Johnsen, CEO and Founder, Sureway commented: “As the COVID-19 infection began to take hold, we compiled a list of COVID-19 scenarios for municipalities and power companies, which are our major customer groups. We distributed these free of charge so that our customers could best cope with what is happening now. Based on the good feedback we received, we thought of developing Tackle as an effective solution when dealing with crisis situations. We will be providing this free of charge to all our existing customers.”

Tackle’s core functionality includes the ability to create requirements for departments and owners on what they should do to prevent infection and safeguard services. The tool can be used to understand the resources available within teams and record updates as these resources are consumed. The tool also integrates with collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Skype for screen sharing and obtaining real-time updates. The product already has a pre-filled set of instructions relating to COVID-19 management which are applicable for most companies.

99X Technology’s quick turnaround in delivering these solutions while working from home, purely through online collaboration with its partners, has seen the general public being empowered with important information about COVID-19 and strengthened companies with need-to-know data on business continuity.

November 23, 2017

Red Herring Chairman Alex Vieux (left) presenting 99X Technology Co-Founder and CEO Mano Sekaram the Red Herring certification at the 2017 awards ceremony held in Manila, Philippines

99X Technology launches ‘Winning Product’ knowledge portal

Tracified, a Sri Lankan Startup Incubated by 99X Technology Receives Japanese Investment

Harnessing Technology to Empower Lankan Undergraduates

Double honors for 99X Technology by Great Place To Work Institute

99X Technology combats COVID-19 digitally in Sri Lanka and Scandinavia

Red Herring names 99X Technology as one of Asia’s most promising tech companies