CICRA Solutions Tea e-Auction platform wins e-Swabhimani 2020 national award

CICRA Solutions’ pioneering Colombo Tea e-Auction platform won the e-Swabhimani 2020 national award for Business and Commerce at the e-Swabhimani Digital Social Impact Awards ceremony held on 23 March 2021 in Colombo.

The e-Swabhimani is an initiative of Sri Lanka’s Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) aimed at recognizing excellence in digital application creation.

“This is a tremendous recognition for our hard work. When the challenge of digitizing the auction was given to us, we didn’t know the length, width, breadth of the challenge that we had to face,” CICRA Group Director/CEO Boshan Dayaratne said. 

“Our entire team accepted the challenge, purely based on supporting the tea industry at the crisis time due to COVID-19 lockdown. The entire team worked tirelessly – almost 20 hours a day – to ensure that tea factories get their price for their production and in return are able to pay salaries and bonuses to estate employees before the traditional Sinhala and Tamil new year,” Mr. Dayaratne said.

“Our sincere efforts helped our country to generate foreign exchange revenue despite the pandemic and the tea industry to survive. Special note of thanks should be extended to the officials of the Sri Lanka Tea Board, Ceylon Tea Traders Association, Ceylon Brokers Association, Tea Exporters Association and Microsoft team in Sri Lanka for invaluable support extended to us to achieve this goal,” Mr. Dayaratne said.

Meanwhile, CICRA Solutions Software Architect Champika Kuruppu said that connectivity around the country helped the team to work as a team even though they were physically separated due to the lockdown.

“When the lockdown happened, our team members were scattered around the country; but due to the technology, we didn’t feel that we are separated,” Mr. Kuruppu said.

Meanwhile, CICRA Solutions Manager Engineering Buddhika Gayan said that all the developers worked as a team to get the Colombo Tea Auction up online regardless of the pandemic situation within a very short period. 

“We all worked hard to support the tea industry and support the country. We are glad that our solution made it happen. Our solution powers the Colombo Tea Auction to date,” Mr. Gayan said.

ICTA believes that e-Swabhimani national award would stimulate a greater interest in the development of a wide range of digital applications that would serve the needs of the society. Launched in year 2009, e-Swabhimani 2020 was the tenth consecutive year of celebration where local digital talents were recognized and promoted in national and international platforms.

Earlier, ICTA nominated CICRA Solutions Tea e-Auction Platform as Sri Lanka’s nominee for Best National Digital Solution at the World Summit Awards 2020 (WSA) under Business and Commerce (Innovative Services) category.

WSA is a global initiative within the framework of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). It highlights digital content improving society and focusses on local content with global relevance.