SriLankan Airlines entered into a partnership with IBM World Trade Corporation to outsource database services of Sri Lanka’s National Carrier.

Kamal Nanayakkara, Head of IT at SriLankan Airlines, and Charitha N. Wijewardane, Country General Manager of IBM Sri Lanka, signed the agreement on 26th May at SriLankan’s corporate offices in Colombo’s World Trade Centre.

IBM recently became a partner of SriLankan‘s extensive IT Infrastructure, and has now extended its services for the airline by accepting the challenge of providing DBA Services for AIX/ORACLE operations.

Kamal Nanayakkara, Head of IT at SriLankan, said: "In keeping with the growing trend among corporates in Sri Lanka and globally, SriLankan Airlines is exploring the opportunities available for outsourcing certain IT functions, creating further opportunities for players in Sri Lanka’s IT industry to enter into business partnerships with the National Carrier to add value through business exposure. This is a win-win situation for all parties, as our own IT team at SriLankan will gain exposure to valuable technical skills and be more focused on business domain knowledge unique to the airlines"

This is expected to be a successful business model for both parties with IBM gaining more exposure in the business, and SriLankan IT staff gaining through a valuable knowledge transfer. SriLankan is also pursuing this model of outsourcing IT services in order to mitigate the risk of high turnover of skilled IT staff.