Zone24x7team seen here receiving the Gold award for R&D at the APICTA 2015

The only company from Sri Lanka to compete with 11 regional teams in the R&D category

Zone24x7 emerged as the overall winner in the Research & Development (R&D) category at the recently concluded Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) 2015 awards held in Colombo from 18-22 November. 

Competing with 11 regional teams from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and Pakistan, Zone24x7 was the only organization from Sri Lanka to contest battle with the best in R&D.

‘This is a proud moment not just for Zone24x7 but for the entire Technology and Innovations sector in Sri-Lanka,’ said Dr. Sankalpa Gamwarige, General Manager and VP of Engineering-Zone24x7. ‘We competed with some of the leading companies, universities and research centers in the entire Asia Pacific region dedicated for technology based research.’

‘Only the best products from the 16 APICTA member countries are selected each year to compete in these awards and it gives us a great deal of satisfaction that a Sri Lankan product developed with the knowledge of Sri-Lankan engineers surpassed all other products in clinching the Gold award.’

‘These are quite positive signs for the entire Sri-Lankan ICT sector which is pursuing an ambitious USD 5 Billion revenue target by 2022 and research and development for new products and services would be the key for us to get there.’ concluded Dr. Gamwarige.

The award winning product is the Autonomous Inventory Robot (AZIRO) designed and developed in Sri Lanka by Zone24x7 for radio frequency identification (RFID) based inventory taking and cycle counting. The product has already captured much attention in the United States where it is being already evaluated by 2 of the top 3 department store chains for tracking their RFID tagged merchandize. 

Zone24x7 has already secured a United States patent in addition to two provisional patents for the intellectual property of AZIRO. Very recently, AZIRO also emerged as the overall winner at National Best Quality ICT Awards (NBQSA) 2015.

Zone24x7 is no stranger to this as it became the first organization from Sri Lanka to win a Research & Development award at APICTA when Braille to go (B2g) designed by Zone24x7 won a Merit award at APICTA 2013 in Hong Kong. 

AZIRO is the brainchild of Zone24x7 CEO Llavan Fernando who is widely regarded as a thought leader and a disruptor in the retail tech industry in the United States.