Although he did not even know what a data card or a mother board would do in a computer, Namal Senaratna decided to be entrepreneur in the ICT sector with great hope.
Soon after leaving school (Ananda MMV Elpitiya), he joined a mercantile firm dealing in computers in 2001, to get to know some finer points of the trade.
After a few months, Senaratna thought ‘he knew enough’ and got about setting up his own store in Colombo. He also managed to get a bank loan to start his business and invested heavily.
However, his entrepreneurial skill was not enough to stay afloat in the competitive business arena in the city and he was forced to shut down and almost go into hiding as he had a huge debt of Rs. 1.6 million in 2007.
His second child was also born differently abled and it was too much for him to absorb. “I seriously though of committing suicide as I did not see a future. But then I thought of my family responsibilities and decided to look for a way out and nothing else came to my mind other than computer-related business.”
Since he and his family were staying with friends, he found it difficult to get even Rs. 500 needed for a new company registration. "Luckily for me, an old customer called me and I sold him a network card for Rs. 100 and registered Asia Pacific Technology Systems (Private) Limited (APTS) in August 2008 as an IT solutions provider in Sri Lanka and stated operations again on October 1," he said.
“With the greatest difficulty I managed to secure a computer service contract for Rs. 124,000 with Arpico as my first assignment.”
He recalled that when he received the contract cheque he once again faced a problem as almost all the banks had blacklisted him and he did not have a bank to encash the cheque. “Finally I managed to deal with NDB and started accepting other bigger service contracts of this nature.”
"During this time, I saw a turnaround and also invested in higher education including a university degree for myself in the ICT industry. My business initially focused mainly on small scale businesses to cater to the void existing in the personnel systems market and to fulfill ever demanding customer requirements," the APTS owner said.
“A major breakthrough during that time was securing a contract with Orido Telecom of the Maldives to conduct a CISCO workshop for their employees. I must also say that the current contract I secured with British Telecom too is one of my greatest achievements.”
"Today, APTS is on the brink of celebrating its ninth anniversary soon - on October 1 - and we now have some of the world’s top names dealing with us, including DHL, Habib Bank, CISCO, AIA, Virtusa and many more," Senaratna said.
Today, when Sri Lankan and global businesses need turnkey solutions to stay competitive, APTS has become their preferred provider for corporate and business customers.
“Some of the largest and most sophisticated integrated systems commissioned in Sri Lanka in every sector of the economy rely on solutions implemented by APTS,” Senaratna said.
Following its success in the small and medium sector, the company quickly gained more recognition and moved on to serve the medium sized industry, which opened doors to more demanding and competitive operations.
“With a 30 member staff, APTS is now a fully-fledged internationally recognised corporate in scope, strength, as well as revenue and is growing rapidly. We are now popularly referred to as 'APTS' and our target is a turnover of Rs. one billion by the end of this year and Rs 2.5 billion by 2020,” Senaratna said.
“The company passed the Rs. 450 million revenue target last year. “Looking back as to how I found Rs. 500 to register my business, I can say our success is due to sheer hard work.”
I think our motto ‘Right things for the right reasons’ too was part of our success.”
“I must also pay tribute to my wife, Ayesha Sethunge, who has been a tower of strength and stayed and guided me along with my two kids. The second daughter whom I believe brought me much luck is now receiving advanced medical treatment and is turning out be an almost normal child.”
The company has also won a haul of awards and recognition, both locally and globally. These include the Most Emerging Entrepreneur 2014 at Enterprise Asia in February 2014 in Colombo; Cisco Sales Award by Cisco Systems in November 2015; Top SME in Asia award presented by Mors Group, Malaysia, in November 2016, at the Asia Corporate Excellence and Sustainability Awards (ACES) in Singapore; World Leader Businessperson award in 2016 presented by the World Confederation of Business in Morocco; EMC Valued Partner 2015 award by EMC Corporation in January 2016; and Excellent Sustainable Development Award presented by the United Nations Friendship Organization in August 2016 at the International Youth Day in Colombo.
"It is a remarkable honour to win this Cisco sales awards in Oslo, Norway, for the third time, because it represents a new measure of the value of business architecture that balances beauty with performance and productivity."
“Our next aim is to expand to the African continent and we are currently looking at a joint venture.”
At a time when most new IT companies struggle to face high tide to even survive the first two years, Namal Senaratna has taken his company through challenging times and says that young entrepreneurs should start with little capital and staff but with big ideas and dedication to be among the profitable.
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