The Dialog-Interblocks e-business framework is billed to be the first such “Shared Application” venture in Sri Lanka and could well act as a catalyst for the wider adoption of web based business by Sri Lankan companies, by breaking down the traditional barriers to entry such as upfront costs, time to market, operational expertise and multi-party integration.

Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Director/Chief Executive, of MTN Networks (Pvt) Limited, said that the platform established in partnership with Interblocks, reaches beyond the traditional applications of the Internet. An e-business framework, which can facilitate the web enabling of Sri Lankan businesses at lower cost and effort, would be an important element of the country’s e-commerce infrastructure. We thought beyond the traditional paradigm of facilitating web sites and ventured out to provide an entire e-business engine on the Internet, which can be shared by a variety of businesses. Sri Lankan businesses would now find that establishing a fully fledged e-business front end complete with catalogue, e-commerce interface, payment gateway and backend administration would be as easy as renting a shop space in a fully serviced mall.

In partnering with Interblocks on such a project Dr. Wijayasuriya said, ““This venture signals Dialog’s evolution from a telecommunications and Internet Service provider to a comprehensive business solutions company. We are indeed privileged to have an e-business pioneer such as Interblocks as our partner and we are proud that the outcome of the partnership has been a scalable, robust portal framework backed by the operational strengths of both companies. We will continue to evolve the company’s role and portfolio of services in the direction of being a broad based provider of on-line services using a wide spectrum of delivery media and platforms encompassing the Internet, IDC/ASP infrastructure, and in the mobile domain GPRS SMS and WAP.

Dinesh Rodrigo Managing Director/CEO of Interblocks explained: “As opposed to the norm of buying/licensing any application, the businesses will benefit through a great cost saving, because they would only pay a monthly fee for the service. And these payments can be met out of their normal cash flow. Rather than being sold or licensed, this model is delivered in the form of a service provider. This is already being practiced in some parts of the world. As a partner we found MTN Networks to be the most suitable service provider who looks at future innovative trends and is open to new technologies.”

The iSuite powered by Interblocks and hosted on Dialog’s Internet Infrastructure is a comprehensive software suite that enables any merchant to fully automate operations on the Internet from cataloguing to a trading floor. The software suite for e-business transactions has also been designed in a modular format and enables a merchant to go step by step in setting up his operations. iCatalog is the basic solution needed for a shop owner to start with by displaying his goods on the web, just as if it were arranged on his shelves. A further advancement of accepting offers for purchase can be implemented through iAuction, where the merchant is able to accept offers in an auction format and decide on the highest bid or even sell at a prescribed price. The software also has the ability to connect to any payment gateway to complete the transaction online.

At an advanced level the merchant will also be able carry out back end processes of ordering raw materials or stocks for resale through the iProcurement console. If a merchant wishes to fully automate his shop activities he could use iMarket to conduct trading floor operations. All the iSuite tools have a comprehensive administration capability and provide ease of use access to the administrators.

“Our software is fully J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) compliant which means it can be easily ported to any heterogeneous environment. And since it is also J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) enabled we can easily enhance accessibility for products like PDA’s (Personal Digital Assistant) and mobile phones” Mr. Rodrigo further said.

Dialog GSM, Sri Lanka’s flagship cellular network has spearheaded the mobile industry in Sri Lanka over the past few years propelling it to a technology level on par with the developed world. The company now provides International Roaming facilities in over 100 countries and operates the countries largest cellular network comprising of over 200 base stations and supporting in excess of 350,000 subscribers. Dialog GSM is a fully owned subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia Bhd and is the winner of the Sri Lanka National Quality Award for Business Excellence in the Large Scale Service Category in 2001, and is an ISO 9001 certified company.

Interblocks is a comprehensive e-business solutions company formed in August 2000. The company currently markets iSuite - a complete e-business application, and iPay - an online Internet Payment System. Application Software developed by Interblocks is J2EE compliant and fully XML based thereby enabling compliance across all major platforms and e-business standards, using industry leading application servers such as iPlanet Application Server, IBM Websphere and BEA’s Weblogic.