Living in an era embracing the constant change of digitalization, no number of technology companies can gratify the rising demands of the world. Nevertheless, only a minority of individuals excel in this industry showing exemplary capacities.
Chandana Ranasinghe is a successful entrepreneur, whose expertise has echoed throughout the country. With an extensive experience of 22 years, he has functioned in multiple trades, within a wide spectrum including executive management, strategic planning, and operational excellence. Chandana graduated from the University of Moratuwa with a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering. He holds an MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) and he is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Change Management from the Open University Malaysia.
Kicking off his career as a software engineer at Virtusa, within 12 years he went on to lead an entire practice consisting of a 700+ member team and a $25+ million P&L. Chandana’s proficiency in the field has led him to roles at the upper end of the hierarchy. Serving as a Director and the Head of the Independent Software Quality practice at Virtusa, he owned the P&L responsibility for the entire Testing and QA practice in Colombo. Chandana subsequently served as the Head of Process Improvement and Lean Manufacturing at Brandix, a multinational apparel company in Sri Lanka, where he implemented the concept of re-engineering to drive profits up to $300 million in business.
After remarkable accomplishments throughout his career, Chandana co-founded Auxenta and led the company as its Chief Operating Officer and VP of QA for 6 years. Auxenta became the best software start-up in 2016 and won many local and international awards for its ability to deliver innovative products using industry-standard engineering processes with a team made up of the best talent in Sri Lanka. Grasping opportunities in a demand surge relating to maintaining specialized services for a wide variety of clientele, Chandana originated Acentura to unlock the great potential in the dip of smart tech solutions. Acentura focuses on diverse domains spanning from telco, insurance, lifestyle, learning management, to high-tech segments. Due to this growth and success, it has gradually expanded its operations to multiple countries with over 100 associates and over 100 successful project deliveries.
Chandana further discusses the strategies implemented to maintain an uplifting profile. “As the current market demand is at a peak for new services such as Cloud, CRM, IoT, and Blockchain, we have successfully partnered with a spectrum of companies ranging from large enterprises to start-ups, to deliver domain-specific services and products”, he emphasized. He also outlines the importance of prioritizing learning and development among employees, when functioning within an expeditious industry. He further adds “There is a systematic and methodical training structure promoting tech certifications such as AWS, Azure, Appian, TOSCA, UiPath, etc., and domain certifications in the Telco, Insurance, Apparel, and other relevant spaces, as well as process frameworks such as ISO 9001, 27001, and CMMI Level 3.”
According to Chandana, his formula to success is to improve on regular customer feedback, which he states to be a critical component in upholding excellent Client Delight Index standards. When working with clients, Acentura is reinforced by a team of highly masterful professionals who naturally enhance the stature of the company. Chandana adds, “Our team’s years of experience has been instrumental in creating a mature delivery model, tools and frameworks,” where distributed teams successfully practice agile development and testing best practices tailored to versatile customer needs.
Acentura demonstrates a strong momentum throughout projects, inculcating fine leadership skills into them, and providing consulting, implementation, and transformative services across engagements. Chandana emphasized on Acentura’s robust global delivery operation, “which leverages automation wherever possible, coupled with powerful tools to retain project knowledge within teams, thereby creating an evolving hub of knowledge”.
Chandana appreciates the core value system that Acentura is built upon, enriched with integrity, respect, and customer leadership while simultaneously encouraging engagement and fun; the perfect equilibrium of enthusiasm and excitement coupled with work. Along with his team, he operates for the betterment of their clients to ensure synergies and efficiencies are passed on to their customers. “We strive to become trusted advisors to our clients. Even in situations where Acentura is at a disadvantage”, he adds, while further stating, “We believe in building leaders and experts rather than hunting for them. Our DNA is about bringing the best talent from universities and molding them into future leaders and experts.”
Chandana shares his views on Sri Lanka’s flourishing start-ups operating in the tech space, “Sri Lanka has a tremendous opportunity to grow foreign revenue by supporting the tech start-up ecosystem”, he adds when discussing the advantage factors such as high computer literacy and the high percentage of tech graduates and multilingual individuals. Chandana believes that the X factor of an island country like ours is the ability to be more adaptive, and the Sri Lankan youth are able to incorporate innovative thinking and entrepreneurial ideas and excel with the right supportive funding and infrastructure.
With the increase in demand for tech solutions, during a pandemic, Acentura plans on expanding its presence to the UK, Australia, and the East Coast of the USA. The expansion of Acentura services to Cloud, IoT, and Blockchain, has given them the opportunity to evolve their client portfolio to Europe, Middle East, and APAC regions. Chandana sums up his story with a valuable remark on Acentura; “We spearhead digital transformation journeys to create smarter businesses for clients across the globe.”