Affno's
work for BOI hailed among the world's best
Daily Mirror - Tuesday October 02, 2001
The British Publisher Euromoney's prestigious Corporate Location
Magazine's rating of BOI Sri Lanka website in the 20th position
is an achievement that Sri Lanka can be proud of.
Gillian Drury who assesses the best of the Investment Promotion
Agency websites in the world conducts the survey annually. BOI Lanka's
website designed and built by Affno has been rated above France
(24), California (26), Costa Rica (31), Scotland (32) and Hong Kong
(36) whilst India failed to make it to the top 50 this year.
Commenting on BOI Sri Lanka's ranking Gillian Drury says, "This
is a very good, no-nonsense site for busy executives who like instant
solutions."
Drury particularly comments on the effective use of drop down menu
lists for each navigation bar option enabling trouble-free fact-finding.
"Useful information is backed up with statistics and business
links. Investment and approval application forms are both available
online. Costs are up-to-date and comprehensive: they include registration
air cargo per item, permit and ID card costs", adds Drury.
On making it to the global top 50, Suren Kannangara Affno's CEO
said, "We are happy and proud that our client's website has
been hailed among the best in the world. Looking ahead, we hope
this becomes a source of inspiration to the many private sector
companies, banks and government organizations in Sri Lanka who are
still lagging far behind even in terms of basic standards leave
alone coming anything close to world class." he added.
Suren says that our companies need not be overwhelmed by the complexity
of building an e-business. " You can take a step at a time
as vividly demonstrated by BOI. A well thought-out, skillfully executed
and regularly updated informational website is the first step. Promoting
its presence to a targeted audience is the next. Thereafter the
various e-business functionalities could be included in stages",
he adds.
It's not too late for the Sri Lankan companies who need to catch
up. Drury says that many of the sites reviewed have lost sight of
their main purpose - to attract investment projects. To do this
effectively they need to tailor their features to the needs of executives
responsible for site selection. Out of date statistics or data that
has been sourced in-house, does not fool anyone and sends out the
wrong signals to the business world, he added.
