LEAP Sri Lanka

'LEAP Sri Lanka' Program

“LEAP (Learn Engage Aim Prosper) Sri Lanka” is a platform initiated and managed by the Technology Industry Development team of ICT Agency Sri Lanka (ICTA), aiming at scaling up regional technology companies to break into global markets. LEAP is the flagship national technology SME accelerator program, endorsed by the National Exports Strategy in 2019 and ICTA's Digital Economy Strategy in 2021. The cohort of SMEs receives 360-degree support ranging from personal development/ grooming to business development, remodeling the business to access international markets. LEAP is a community consisting of 40+ SMEs from around the country and is now actively engaged in developing their businesses and growing their networks in order to achieve success.

In August 2019, LEAP launched its first support initiative as a 03 days residential workshop with the participation of 20 regionally based technology SMEs, laying the groundwork for the next initiatives to scale up local IT-SMEs; enhancing their overall competitiveness for export market readiness and support them reach global markets. In order to accomplish active engagement with the representatives of these SMEs, all accelerator and support initiatives are designed and conducted as non-traditional workshops, promoting the practical application of concepts and methods which results in participants’ active engagement, peer-to-peer learning, networking and building up a culture of cross-selling among each other as direct/indirect outcomes of the LEAP program. Due to the persistent demand from the SME community, the LEAP team continued their commitment to providing a spontaneous WFH Webinar series even throughout the pandemic, LEAP covered sessions such as Branding and staying relevant to the market during a pandemic, facilitated sessions to handhold companies to fulfil working capital and conducted a LinkedIn Digital Marketing series.

All 40+ SMEs together have representatives from 12 districts and 7 provinces, covering 80% of the country’s geographical spectrum, most of the participants are from Gampaha (28%) and Colombo (25%); out of which a significant 10% of the companies in Colombo are from the suburbs and outskirts. There are a significant number of LEAP companies from the districts Kandy, Kurunegala and Puttalam as well. These factors prove that the majority of the companies are situated outside the commercial city and are from diverse regions.

XPRESS program

LEAP partnered with the XPRESS Program to synchronize one-on-one business consultancy requests from the project participants, and this was supported by USAID and implemented by PARTNER/Deloitte. LEAP is the exclusive partner funneling IT-BPM companies to the XPRESS program. 15 companies got shortlisted to receive one-on-one consultancy support in 2021 and a further 07 companies in 2022. LEAP team is an advisory to the XPRESS program, as well as for LEAP participants. The team constantly monitors the coaching and follows up with the companies to analyze the outcomes and ensure maximum benefits gained from the program.?

Impact LEAP created

The program’s outcomes are evaluated between August 2019 and November 2021 based on four primary criteria (with ICTA’s direct/indirect facilitations) including Revenue and forecast, Business redesigning, Workforce status, Client base and lead Generation.?

According to the data gathered and examined, the average revenue growth gap between the two periods (2019/20 – 2020/21) is LKR 4.8 million per company. Comparing the average revenue per company prior to the launch of the LEAP program in 2018/19 and the 2nd year of LEAP in 2020/21, average revenue growth of 191% has been achieved. Overall, it is evident that by using a number of LEAP learnings during this time period, the SMEs have produced a sizable revenue. The majority of businesses have, on average, seen a significant boost in their revenue funnel, because?they are collaborating with brand-new overseas clientele, and many of them are happy with their business engagements with international clients.

When it comes to business redesign, LEAP?and XPRESS help these SMEs make validated changes in the business by way of, changing the website to look attractive and informative, changing the staff, expanding the network with the like-minded community in the local context, increasing marketing promotional efforts through social media, changing the use of the language and the way of grooming, and searching for new customers. About 80% of the businesses have hired new employees while stepping up their digital marketing efforts exploring international markets, and enhancing their market positioning, which has led to a rise in sales leads and the formation of new businesses.?

More than 50% of businesses have begun looking into new international markets, while 70% have increased their domestic clientele. It demonstrates that thanks to the LEAP and XPRESS initiatives, all businesses have undergone major transformations.

LEAP community, it is thrilling to note that, only in the past year, exciting talent has been given?access to more than 100 new job opportunities. Companies believe that by expanding their human resources, they can?increase the productivity and efficiency of their operations, and have seen adopting best practices has resulted in them an increase in average staff as well as an increase in sales leads and customers for their businesses.?

LEAP/ XPRESS participants’ comments on the two ongoing programs

Nanosoft Global (PVT) Limited explained how they made a significant improvement in their sales once they joined LEAP/XPRESS program, “We made a considerable amount of changes on how our staffs do their work on a daily basis. We completely removed 8-5 working schedules and assigned tasks to our employees on a timely basis. We made a massive improvement of our sales and marketing strategy”. Similarly, FIDA Global PVT Limited has shared how they were able to create a valuable business community with help of this program, “We have shared business among the LEAP group and made success and created a business community.”

And here is what UNITEC Software Solution had to say about these LEAP/XPRESS programs and how they assist UNITEC in the business renovation. “Both Programs were Very Productive and Useful in remodelling our Business. I have identified the weaknesses and mistakes we have done in the past, and we had a good opportunity to interconnect with the IT companies to share the knowledge and resources among the LEAP members”.

The senior manager of Technology Industry Development at ICTA Sri Lanka, Nilan Thimbiripola, shared these views on the program and how amazing the journey of LEAP/XPRESS has been.?“It has been an amazing journey with potential regionally based technology companies, who possess a great passion to grow and accelerate to the next level. Through our engagements, LEAP has been able to work closely with the community to understand the support requirements and in the process of rolling out acceleration initiatives. LEAP is acting as a facilitating platform to grow the SME community as a group for sustainable goals, assisting one another in lead generation, cross-selling, exchanging information and skills, and linking them with key stakeholders in the ICT?ecosystem etc. Our objective is to support more potential companies while growing the LEAP community, to enrich the competitiveness of the regional technology ecosystem in Sri Lanka which will support in contributing to achieving the $ 3Bn foreign exchange revenue goal by end of 2024 and help Sri Lanka LEAP forward!”.

If you are a regional technology SME (primarily based outside the commercial city), aspiring to grow and sustain in global markets, please register using - shorturl.at/kLMR7 and/or write to us at [email protected] / [email protected] to be part of our future support initiatives.