Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM)

Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) is the national chamber for the island’s tech and services firms. By its own count, it has 350+ members and 80,000+ staff, and it brands the sector as the Island of Ingenuity.

SLASSCOM was incorporated in 2008 and formally launched under its current name in 2010. It sits between government and Sri Lanka’s information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) sector — part lobby, part trade body, part talent pipeline.

Members range from homegrown Colombo software houses to captive centres run by multinationals. The association’s published mission sets a 2030 goal: US$5 billion in revenue, a 200,000-strong highly skilled workforce and 1,000 start-ups.

That last sentence is the thing to hold on to. Plenty of national industry bodies publish a mission; SLASSCOM publishes a number, a date and a headcount, then organises its working groups around hitting them.

Key takeaways

• SLASSCOM is Sri Lanka’s IT-BPM industry chamber, incorporated in 2008 and launched under its current name in 2010.
• It reports 350+ member companies and 80,000+ employees on its own Who We Are page.
• Five focus pillars cover global trade, talent, entrepreneurship, sustainability and policy.
• Its published mission targets US$5 billion in revenue, a 200,000-strong workforce and 1,000 start-ups by 2030.
• It works with the Export Development Board and the national technology agency on trade, intellectual property and data policy.

How it works

SLASSCOM works through an elected executive committee, member forums and working groups organised under five focus pillars. It lobbies government, promotes exports, runs talent programmes, and gives buyers one address for the whole sector.

Membership is open to Sri Lanka registered business process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing providers.

It also covers information technology outsourcing firms, shared services captives run by multinationals, and engineering services companies.

Governance sits with an elected chair, vice chair and executive committee drawn from member chief executives. Working groups then run under the five pillars, and that is where most of the association’s output actually gets made.

Two state bodies do the heavy lifting alongside it — one on trade, one on technology policy. The Export Development Board of Sri Lanka handles market access, and it runs the national exporters directory and eMarketplace that overseas buyers search.

The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka is the other one. It was established on 12 May 2003 under the Information and Communication Technology Act No. 27 of 2003, and it is SLASSCOM’s counterpart on digital and data policy.

Examples

SLASSCOM’s work shows up in three places you can actually point at: the Island of Ingenuity country brand, the Spiralation accelerator it launched in 2013, and joint policy work with Sri Lanka’s technology agency on data protection.

Island of Ingenuity is the country brand SLASSCOM puts in front of overseas buyers. It carries trade missions to the United Kingdom, Australia and the Nordics, and it is the pitch behind foreign direct investment into Colombo captive centres.

Spiralation, launched in 2013, is the association’s startup accelerator — the entrepreneurship pillar made concrete. It backs early stage Sri Lankan software ventures with mentoring, seed grants and market entry support.

That programme is also where the 1,000 start-up leg of the 2030 mission has to come from, which is why it sits under a pillar of its own rather than inside the talent brief.

Policy work is the least visible pillar and often the most useful one for buyers. Sri Lanka’s Personal Data Protection Act No. 9 of 2022, signed by the Speaker on 19 March 2022, set the privacy rules member firms now work to.

The Data Protection Authority that the same statute creates followed in July 2023. That is the regime a buyer’s legal team asks about, and it is the reason the policy pillar keeps a standing line to the technology agency.

Talent programmes tie universities to industry through curriculum input, internships and scholarships. That graduate pipeline is what member firms draw on for talent acquisition in software, engineering and analytics roles.

For buyers, the association is a shortlisting shortcut — a filtered member list rather than a search engine result. An offshoring consultant will often start there before running a formal vendor evaluation.

The World Bank country page for Sri Lanka is the other half of the picture. It tracks the economy that fell into sovereign default in 2022 and has been rebuilding since, which is the backdrop every one of those 2030 numbers sits against.

Related terms

The terms around SLASSCOM describe the service lines its members sell and the market machinery around them. None of them is a synonym for the association itself, which is a membership body rather than a provider or a service category.

• Business Process Outsourcing: the broader industry SLASSCOM members serve, from voice work to finance and accounting.
• Knowledge Process Outsourcing: higher skill analytics, research and legal work, a growth line for Sri Lankan providers.
• Information Technology Outsourcing: software development, testing and infrastructure services, the association’s original core segment.
• Shared Services: captive centres run in house by multinationals, a large slice of the membership base.
• Foreign Direct Investment: the cross border capital the Island of Ingenuity campaign is built to attract.
• Talent Acquisition: the hiring engine the talent pillar feeds with graduate hires for member firms.
• Offshoring Consultant: an adviser who helps buyers choose a delivery country, with Sri Lanka as one option.

FAQ

These are the questions buyers and job seekers ask most about SLASSCOM: what the acronym means, when the body started, how big the sector is, what Spiralation does, and how overseas buyers actually use it.

What does SLASSCOM stand for?

SLASSCOM stands for the Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies. It is the national industry chamber for the country’s software, technology services and business process firms.

When was SLASSCOM founded?

SLASSCOM was incorporated in 2008 and formally launched under its current name in 2010. It now reports 350+ member companies on its own Who We Are page.

How many people work in Sri Lanka’s IT-BPM sector?

SLASSCOM puts employment across its member companies at 80,000+ people. Third party estimates for the wider sector run higher, so treat any single figure as an estimate rather than a census.

What is Spiralation?

Spiralation is SLASSCOM’s startup accelerator, launched in 2013. It backs early stage Sri Lankan software ventures with mentoring, seed grants and market entry support.

How does SLASSCOM support outsourcing buyers?

It runs trade missions, buyer roadshows and country branding such as Island of Ingenuity, which gives an overseas buyer a single route into a vetted member base.

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