Every business is under pressure  to embrace new technology and progress with their digital transformation programs. The difficulty is that to engage with new technology paradigms requires expertise which not every company can access. 

John Gillis, Executive Vice President and Co-Founder at Virtusa says that the solution for many businesses is to get outside help – and our job is to connect them. 

“There are many people in Sri Lanka that in the right circumstance could provide tremendous support to American and European enterprises. We have many customers looking for support from a technological standpoint, because it is getting more and more difficult to be able to get the right people to do the right things.” 

With help from Virtusa, many more businesses are able to do things electronically, utilizing support of technologies such as artificial intelligence turned into decision support. How do they do this? Tom Holler, Chief Strategy Officer at Virtusa explains: 

“We deploy multidisciplinary teams, comprised of domain consultants, designers, architects and engineers. We also use gamified development tools and pre existing IP assets, which allow us to condense the development life cycle and accelerate time to value.”

Digital transformation is not just about the bottom line (though businesses are increasingly finding that they need to innovate to stand still in our fast-paced world). Denver De Zylva, Senior VP Facilities and Sustainability at Virtusa says that technology is vital for businesses seeking to burnish their sustainability credentials: 

“One thing the world knows is that we need to change. How do we incorporate that change in a structured manner? I believe environment, social and governance is what really encompasses the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

The SDGs are big news for businesses: with pressure being put on industries to make the world a cleaner, fairer place for future generations, clients are looking to technology companies like Vertusa to help them with their sustainability goals. Div Pakash, Engineering and Delivery Head, Banking Sector at Virtusa explains: 

“Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence & Machine  Learning  (AI/ML), cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and data analytics can help solve a lot of issues related to the carbon footprint through dashboards that track every project and how it is doing with regard to the ESG goals.”

Tracy Smith, VP of Human Resources at Virtusa says that equality opportunities for women everywhere is a key part of the company’s mission: 

“We have great programs that support women in technology across the globe: Virtusa is bringing women together, for mentoring and networking, giving them an education and opportunities to grow and to come back to work after taking maternity or other leave of work.”

Tracy says that Virtusa’s core values are passion, innovation, respect and leadership:

“Passion drives employees to get what they want within Virtusa and reach that next level of innovation. We look for innovation to give to our customers, but also to drive it within our organization. Respect is across the board, driving diversity and opportunities from all places in the organization. Our fourth core value is leadership, which we nurture through the Virtusa Thrive Academy program. This gives individuals different opportunities to learn and take on the technology that they have never used.”

Denver De Zylva says that as an innovative company, diversity of thought is essential: 

“It is the ingredients that make the cake. Diversity – whether that’s gender, disability or whatever – really contributes with multiple ideas, innovations, and creativity. Diversity has to be structured and built in by purpose and design. Virtusa is one hundred percent work from home enabled. Whether an employee is in Sydney, New York or Colombo, we can all collectively work. What technology has done is build that diversity bridge, enabling people to work together.”

For Tom Holler, Virtusa is enabling clients to be ready for both the business landscape of today, as well as protecting the future of the planet for business tomorrow. 

“Virtusa has an influence on the wider sector by actually helping our clients achieve their sustainability goals. We’re setting a high bar on our competition. We believe that will have a meaningful impact in our industry. Additionally, we will promote and create awareness and transparency of our ESG initiatives. Virtusa will make that information publicly available and we expect, in our sectors, others will follow, perhaps embrace and maybe even innovate.”

Holler, after all, believes that good ideas can come from anywhere: 

“We lead, they innovate and then we can learn from them as well.”