Specials

Exetel In Sri Lanka (11/7/08)

What Does Exetel Currently Do In Sri Lanka?

Exetel Pty Ltd employed its first support engineer in Colombo in February 2006 and has subsequently employed 3 more engineers all of whom received their initial training in Australia. The current Exetel employees based in Sri Lanka operate from their homes with Exetel supplied computers, telephones and ADSL lines linked directly to Exetel´s North Sydney PABX and data base servers providing end user support and fault resolution.

Our objectives in hiring support engineers in Sri Lanka was/is to take advantage of the 4.5 hour time difference between Sydney and Colombo to extend our support hours to 10.30 pm on week days and to begin to provide support on week ends and NSW public holidays.

What Are Exetel´s Future Plans For Sri Lanka?

Since employing Sri Lankan engineers in March 2006 to provide support for Exetel ADSL and telephone customers in Australia there are now four Colombo based engineers employed by Exetel who work from their homes connected to Exetel’s main data bases and telephone systems in Sydney via ADSL and VoIP. This has been a very successful way of providing extended hours support to Australian customers and Exetel has now decided to set up a full office facility in Colombo via setting up a Sri Lankan registered company:

Exetel Communications Pvt Ltd.

The Sri Lankan company will provide first and second level support to Exetel Australia´s 70,000 plus customers and will also provide high level programming services for the completion and ongoing development of Exetel´s highly sophisticated operational and management software which Exetel plans to sell commercially from 2009 as a major part of its revenue streams.

What Is The Time Frame Schedule?

We have leased and fitted out an office in the centre of Colombo.

We have signed a contract for the fit out and equipping of the office.

We have signed a contract for the fit out and equipping of the office.

We have obtained Sri Lankan Board Of Investment accreditation.

We have appointed a current Australian employee to run the operation in Colombo.

We have begun hiring additional Sri Lankan personnel.

We expect to provide all Level 1 and Level 2 support services for 100,000 Australian customers by the end of December 2008.

How Does A Sri Lankan Operation Benefit Australian Customers?

Should the establishment of a Sri Lankan ‘Exetel’ company prove successful, Australian customers will benefit in the following ways:

  1. Telephone support hours will be increased on week days and telephone support will be provided on week ends and public holidays.
  2. Our two years of experience show that it´s possible to provide a degree qualified level of competence in technical telephone support more easily than in Australia.
  3. Highly qualified customer support personnel are prepared to work in that position for longer than similarly qualified engineers in Australia providing more knowledgeable response.
  4. The speed at which we can bring in to service better end user help facilities will be greatly increased by being able to put in place significantly more programming personnel.
  5. Although Exetel will pay around three times the ‘local’ remuneration in Colombo, the much lower cost of overall operation will contribute to Australian customers continuing to obtain their Exetel services at prices lower than are available from any other Australian provider.

How Does An ‘Exetel’ In Colombo Benefit Sri Lanka?

If we are successful in what we plan to do a Sri Lankan ‘Exetel’ will benefit Sri Lanka by:

  1. Allowing another 24 – 30 Sri Lankan university graduates another possibility of pursuing an engineering or programming career in their own country rather than continuing the intellectual ‘impoverishment’ of Sri Lanka by being tempted to emigrate to pursue their careers.
  2. Providing, relatively small but nevertheless helpful, amounts of foreign currency that Exetel Pty Ltd will transfer to Sri Lanka in payment for the services of the Sri Lankan company will benefit the local economy disproportionately to the ‘loss’ of that money by the Australian economy.
  3. By transferring both knowledge and our software free of charge to Sri Lankan companies to help those companies that see a benefit in it become more efficient.