For the first time in Sri Lanka, Latitude 655 - a partnership between a Sri Lankan entity and a Silicon Valleyinnovator (Monvia) - brings to the nation’s businesses the access to world-class technology innovation and professional IT expertise – all leveraging local talent and prices. Sri Lankan businesses will now be able to increase revenue or cut business costs by using the innovative technology services offered by Latitude 655. 

Silicon Valley has always been the leading high-tech hub because of its large number of cutting-edge entrepreneurs, engineers and venture capitalists. Perhaps the strongest thread that runs through the Valley’s past and present is the drive to “experiment” with novel technology, which, when bolstered by an advanced engineering degree and channeled by smart management, has enabled companies to flourish in unparalleled form. Up until now however, those innovations and insights have been inaccessible to Sri Lankan companies. With the launch of Latitude 655 things are about to change.  Latitude 655, will channel key developments, insights, and best practices from Silicon Valley to Sri Lanka.  

Monvia, a technology innovator that has serviced many Fortune 500 companies in the US Market since 2004. Monvia has worked closely with Latitude655’s team to build solutions for companies like Yahoo! and Condé Nast. Those projects included sponsorships as well as internet and social media applications that have reached hundreds of million  users at a time. “Latitude is an integral part of the Monvia team and with this partnership has been able to deliver state of the art solutions to the USmarket” averred Mani Kulasooriya, Managing Partner of Monvia.  

Latitude 655 was founded and is run by a Virtusa founding member, Shanil Fernando, as a joint partnership with Monvia, and focuses on the local market here in Sri Lanka.

Shanil Fernando, Chief Executive Officer of Latitude 655, is the author of “The Internet Economy: @ the Epicenter of the Biggest Shift Since the Industrial Revolution”, “Mobile e-Business: Keeping Abreast of the Technology Curve” and “Sri Lanka as a Centre of Excellence for Software Product Off shoring”. Having worked in the US, he has extensive experience in the global IT industry, and a wealth of knowledge in consulting to some of the biggest names in the global fortune 500 list. Shanil has also been instrumental in setting up world class global delivery centers here in Sri Lanka as well as in India. 

“Our services are built around empowering businesses. We provide solutions for two business problems that enterprises face: How to increase the revenue of the company? and how to improve profit by reducing cost and increasing productivity?  We help businesses increase revenue via new product innovation and reduce cost via efficiency innovation. The services currently offered by us include IT consulting and technology strategy, application development and integration, application maintenance and support, next generation web development, application testing and skilled BPO services. There are approximately 1 million online users in Sri Lanka at present and the growth rate over the years has been phenomenal. A lot of the technology and services that we have used overseas are not available in Sri Lanka. We believe that our joint experience of having worked with the best of the best companies in the world will be a significant competitive advantage in the local market. Being situated in the heart of the Silicon Valley, Monvia eats and breathes technology innovation. With this partnership we are in a privileged position to be able to bring these latest innovations in products and technology services to Sri Lanka” stated Shanil.

“We have assembled a world class team to form this partnership. Our partners are veterans in the global IT industry and have been instrumental in luring high potential talent from local as well as foreign companies and universities. We have established an intensive cross training program where Latitude 655 employees will spend extended periods of time in Silicon Valley working directly with leading US companies.  This handpicked team has already made us proud by establishing a track record of having successfully built solutions for Fortune 500 clients such as Yahoo!, Bank of America, and Citibank.,”, he added.

“I believe Agile Development is how all software will be developed in the future and is the core ingredient of our methodology.

With Agile concepts such as high performance teams, the ability to deliver fast in small iterations, with regular client interaction, multiple checkpoints, and an adaptability to changing requirements and circumstances, Latitude 655 is confident of delivering world class software quickly and efficiently to Sri Lanka. “. Said Chetan Narsude CTO of Latitude 655.