In a global economy fraught with the difficulties of recession, Thai software companies are continuing to expand their export markets.

Led by the Thai Software Export Promotion Association (TSEP), local companies have successfully entered two markets - Japan and the Philippines - this year and in 2010 their sights will be set on Indonesia and Turkey. Their strategy, planned by the association and called "global niche cluster", groups software companies and some of their leading products into industry-based clusters, so that comprehensive packages can be offered to overseas industries.

Even though the Thai software industry has been established for decades, a tangible presence in overseas markets has been established only over the past few years, under TSEP's brand.

Association president Chalermpon Punnotok said TSEP aimed to become a regional player in the global software market, as a brand offering Thai software clusters. After two years of operations, it has succeeded in exporting Thai software to three markets: Vietnam, Japan, and the Philippines. From these markets it is now earning Bt400 million per year.

"Even though this might not seem much when compared to the value of the country's whole software industry, which is expected to be more than Bt60 billion this year, this Bt400 million is tangible and solid revenue, purely from exports of Thai software," Chalermpon said.

The TSEP concept of "global niche cluster" involves entering an overseas market via a niche sector with a group of products offered by a cluster of Thai software companies. Currently, TSEP has classified local software firms into four key clusters, covering the finance and banking, hotel, construction and fast-moving goods industries.

TSEP begins by defining opportunities in potential markets to determine the key sector that will become its "flagship market". Then TSEP members who are strong enough and prepared for exports in that area will join the foray into that market.

For example, in its first market - Vietnam - it identified finance and banking as the sector with most potential. TSEP's members gathered into a group led by Wealth Management Systems (WMS), a local company that is very strong in finance and banking.

"We offered Vietnamese customers the solutions of our finance and banking cluster, including WMS's Risk Management software, IT Works' Finger Print Recognition software, Freewill Solution's Stock Trading, Simplify's Asset Management software and CT Asia's Call Centre software," Chalermpon said.

At present, TSEP has about 21 software-company members. It is in no hurry to expand its membership, expecting that by next year it will have achieved at least 20 export-based projects in Vietnam, Japan and Philippines.

Chalermpon said TSEP had proved that Thai software could succeed in overseas markets. However, on its own it was unable to operate on more than a small scale. TSEP needs more support from government agencies, especially the Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa), to help it scale-up its software exports, he said.

"The increase in TSEP's revenue represents an increase in the country's software-industry revenue," he said. "It should be a part of Sipa's mission to focus on reducing software imports by replacing them with locally-made software and to increase exports of Thai software to overseas markets."

Source:  http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/12/15/technology/technology_30118543.php