PSIA targets to commercialize 10 software products by 2016

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) targets to develop and commercialize at least 10 software products in various categories by 2016 to maximize the potential of the Philippines to become one of the world’s renowned creators of commercial software products.

Each one of these software products is also targeted to generate a minimum of US$1 million annually from offshore customers.

This vision was recently set forth by the organization’s Product Development Special Interest Group (PD/SIG), which was earlier launched to help address the challenges presently faced by its members in monetizing existing software products and enhancing skill sets for employees.

In a statement, Arup Maity, PSIA information and research chair and BlastAsia chief executive officer (CEO), led the launch of the group in a meeting with key officers of PSIA's information and research committee.

Maity, who is also a co-founder of the PD/SIG, said the group has already come up with achievable goals for the next five years.

These goals could take two directions: one is without funding and the other is with annual funding.

The PD/SIG will embark on project management seminars, co-sharing of marketing workshops and best practice seminars among members, and also establish knowledge sharing and mentoring between experienced and seeking members of the PSIA.

As for the direction with funding, the PD/SIG will go full blast with scheduled classroom-type sessions on capability development to courtesy a joint partnership between the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and the Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT). There will also be product pitching to venture capitalists (VCs) which will be modeled after Silicon Valley investment activities.

The direction with funding will also have competition will also be held for members with the winners getting subsidized for go-to-market funding. A mentoring program at the AIM will also be included.

“These activities are all geared towards making the software industry in the Philippines globally competitive. The PD/SIG will be seeking more partnerships with the academe and other business entities to fuel the software development industry in the years to come,” Maity said.

Likewise, Ito Gruet, a founding member of PD/SIG and executive of software company Computer Professionals, Inc. said the role of the newly established group of the PSIA is to overcome certain challenges that hold back growth in the software development and services industry.

She noted that among the areas of growth should be in building a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, improving designs for user experience, better marketing strategies, distribution networks, revenue-generating customer support, and creation of middle managers. 

“But most importantly, we’re also challenged by the lack of capitalization. This is what we’re trying to resolve by coming up by these goals where the direction could be on either having funding or no funding,” said Gruet.

Gruet added that in succeeding meetings, scheduled to be held once every month, PD/SIG will hold a series of workshops for PSIA members on building business capabilities for software intellectual property (IP) on product development, marketing, and distribution channels.

Joey Gurango, president of Gurango Software and also a PD/SIG founding member, cited his experiences in putting up a software company with low startup cost. While he mentioned that the financial considerations are always a key concern, he also stressed on the importance of keeping labor and IP assets within the company.

Gurango emphasized that companies have to be reminded that “in their business, they have to balance their expectations, remaining profitable while reducing costs of operations, which are not likely to happen in the long-term for service-based software companies.”

"To grow your revenues, you need to hire more people and keep them utilized. This, however decreases your profit over time,” he said.

Gurango thereby urged service-based companies to develop hybrids --- that is, to start developing and marketing software products and move on to become totally software product-based businesses, which promise to produce dramatic increase in business profitability.

"Creating IP assets give a good boost to your profitability because you can sell it over and over again," he says.

Gurango also added that delivery of software products is no longer a challenge today. He says new types of software products can now be offered through the cloud such as software-as-a-service (SaaS), or micro-applications for mobile devices. He urges companies to continuously look into other forms of software development where profitability is possible.

PSIA is a non-stock, non-profit organization of nearly 150 member-companies. It aims to promote the growth and global competitiveness of the Philippine software industry. It is guided by its twin-goals: Capability Development and Branding and Marketing.