Software Industry Targets $54 Bn Exports By 2010

Slowdown hit, India's software exporters are exploring new markets in the middle east and Africa to increase IT exports by 10 per cent and touch USD 54 billion in the current fiscal.

IT software exports were valued at USD 49.5 billion in 2008-09, which was about 14 per cent more than that in 2007-08.

"We are not expecting much growth in exports in 2009-10 due to the global slowdown," Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) Executive Director D K Sareen said. The ESC, however, has set a higher target for growth in electronics hardware exports, he added.

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Software lobby seeks greater role in U.S. security

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. software industry is pushing for a greater role as government officials develop a policy to ward off attacks on the nation's communications infrastructure, a trade group said on Friday.

The Business Software Alliance, which represents companies including Microsoft Corp and Dell Inc., told White House officials this week the government should share more threat and attack information with the industry.

It submitted a set of recommendations to Melissa Hathaway, the acting senior director for cyber space at the White House, this week, the group said. She had asked for industry views in an earlier meeting.

The private sector owns about 85 percent of critical infrastructure in the United States, according to BSA.

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Software industry pushes for IT-driven government

When President-elect Barack Obama appoints a chief technology officer to the White House, he should make the new appointee a part of his senior economic policy team and the chief "evangelist" for innovation-spurring policies, the software and hardware industries say.

The Business Software Alliance, which represents companies like Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, and others, sent a letter to Obama last week with suggestions for what role the CTO should play in the administration. The BSA has taken other steps in the past week, such as meeting with the Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday and releasing its 2009 policy agenda on Thursday, in an appeal to the next Congress and administration to integrate information technology solutions into its policy prescriptions, both in the short term and long term.

"When dealing with every major issue, there should be a question of what is the role of IT in providing the solutions," BSA CEO Robert Holleyman said Thursday.

The industry's goals are largely aligned with the president-elect's, Holleyman said, including Obama's proposal to push for increased adoption of health IT. New legislation and a new approach to cybersecurity is needed as well, BSA members said, to improve both the government's cyberinfrastructure and its communication with citizens regarding the security of personal information.

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Software industry on rapid rise in Beijing

Rely on the organization of innovations to promote technical innovations so as to promote the application of innovations. In recent years, the software industry in Beijing has been adhering to the development strategy of joint innovations and a stride in the process of development has been thus realized. In 2007, operating revenues of the software industry in Beijing amounted to RMB125.2 billion yuan with a year-on-year growth margin of 28 percent, making Beijing the only city in which revenues made from software amounted to over RMB100 billion yuan in China.

From RMB78 billion yuan in 2005 to RMB97.2 billion yuan in 2006 and RMB125.2 billion yuan in 2007, the software industry has been developing rapidly. Behind such achievements, the key other than Beijing's regional advantage and the advantage in terms of talents is that two kinds of rules were followed and grasped: "Firstly, market rules shall be followed; that is, it is necessary to rely on the market mechanism and drive the development of the software industry by consummating the industrial chain. Secondly, rules in the industrial development shall be followed; that is, to achieve development by adopting the train of innovative thoughts instead of the road of 'imitation and substitution'." That is an interpretation given by Ma Lin, Director of the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission.

Three years ago, it was still an authentic portraiture of the status quo of the software industry in Beijing that "small enterprises gather together to compete with one another". "Almost all software enterprises started with one or two informatization project (s); almost all industry-oriented software companies had experienced a transition from making a lot of profits to making only tiny profits or just breaking even; and in almost all informatization markets in all industries, there converged competitors." When recalling the then status, Hu Qinghua, Director of Beijing Software Industry Productivity Center, repeated the collocation of "almost all" three times.

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Software, services exports grow 29% in FY08

Despite the global economic turmoil and rupee appreciation, the country's software and services exports grew 29 per cent to register revenues of 40.4 billion dollars in FY08 against 31.4 billion dollars during the previous fiscal.

The Indian IT-BPO industry recorded an overall growth of 28 per cent, clocking revenues of 52 billion dollars in FY08 against 39.6 billion dollars in last fiscal, according to data released by premier trade body of the Indian IT-BPO industry National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) here today.

The overall revenue from software and services are projected to grow by 21-24 per cent to touch 50 billion dollars in current fiscal.

In the export segment, IT services exports have grown by 28 per cent to clock revenues of 23.1 billion dollars, while BPO exports are up by 30 per cent at 10.9 billion dollars in revenue.

Engineering services and products exports clocked 6.4 billion revenue, growing at 29 per cent in fiscal 2007-08.

''The Indian IT-BPO industry's resilience is reflected in its FY07-08 performance, with a 28.2 per cent overall growth rate and next year's projected growth between 21-24 per cent. Given that we are well on our way to achieve the target of 60 billion dollars in exports by FY09-10, the industry is now focusing on improving productivity, efficiency, as well as opening up new markets and services,'' Nasscom President Som Mittal told reporters here.

He added that the next decade offers opportunities and challenges which will require new business models and the industry dynamics will also see significant changes leading to a many new industry drivers and enablers.

Mr Mittal also disclosed that Nasscom is developing a long-term vision for 2020, to chart out the roadmap for all stakeholders and help them tap into this opportunity.

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd stood first on the 'Top 20 IT Software and Service Exporters FY07-08' and 'IT-BPO Employers in India FY07-08, while Genpact India Pvt Ltd topped the BPO ranking.

Source : http://www.deepikaglobal.com/

Bangalore's software exports to touch $13.5 billion

BANGALORE: Unperturbed by the US economic recession, the software exports from Bangalore is expected to touch 13.5 billion dollars for the current fiscal.

Talking to ANI, Karnataka Principal Secretary for Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science and Technology, Ashok Kumar C. Manoli said that Bangalore was the favored Information Technology (IT) destination and would expect to reach 60 billion dollars of software exports by 2010.

"Two committees have been formed under Infosys chairman and mentor NR Naryana Murthy and Biocon chief Kiran Majumdar Shaw to review the state IT and BT policy," Manoli added.

It may be recalled here that Narayana Murthy recently said that Pune would take over Bangalore in software exports soon.

According to him, 116 IT companies have been added to a total of 2000 IT companies.

"Bangalore has 248 Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs) and 183 bio-technology companies with a work force of 5.5 lakhs techies," he said.

Manoli further said that the BJP Government-led by Chief Minister B.S Yeddyurappa had announced a separate policy for Bangalore in their election manifesto and this has consolidated their vote share and won 18 MLAs from Bangalore.

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

Time to blow up the software industry

Vinnie Mirchandani’s post, Call to Steve Jobs: Please reshape the enterprise software market was bound to get a reaction out of my Irregular chums. 70 reactions to be precise as at the time of writing this post. That’s the number of posts to our Google Group on the topic with the title for this post supplied by Vinnie. Looking back over the thread, there’s enough to work up at least three posts but for this one, I’m sticking to Vinnie’s main theme which can be boiled down to a single sentence: Why is it that despite all the interest in saas and enterprise 2.0 that the industry offers so very little apparent bang per buck for business as a whole? Tied to that are the inevitable questions about time to market for new solutions`.

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'India is the brain of software in the world'

Healthcare is an area that ranks amongst the issues of grave concern for India. Hence, it didn't come as a surprise that SAP Summit's esteemed chief guest - Union minister for health and family welfare Dr Anbumani Ramadoss - chose the occasion to deliver an address on the issues that concern him. Extolling IT for being the flagship industry of the country, he proceeded to elaborate on how IT could prove to be an enabler for the healthcare industry.

"Healthcare is the biggest industry in the world today. In addition to healthcare services, the industry is also made up of pharma, clinical trials, health insurance and so on. In the coming years, the dependency of healthcare on IT will increase significantly," he opined.

He predicted that the country will witness a revolution in the rural health sector in the coming days, as the extensive, mega budget plans set in motion begin to deliver results. "We have also made significant investments for creating linkages between IT and healthcare." He also forecasted a bright future for the health insurance industry and major developments in the field of telemedicine.

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China software industry ranks fourth globally, but still a long way to go

China's annual output value topped 583.4 billion yuan (84.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007, becoming the world's fourth largest software producer. There was still a long way for domestic software companies to go, officials said here on Thursday.

Lou Qinjian, Industry and Information Technology vice minister, said at the International Software China 2008 show that the Chinese software industry had started from scratch since the country began its reform and opening-up three decades ago. It had grown into a fundamental industry with strategic importance to the country.

The country's share of the global software industry rose from 1.2 percent in 2000 to 8.7 percent in 2007, with an annual growth rate of more than 30 percent due to a favorable policy environment.

Cao Jianlin, Science and Technology vice minister, said the country should make an even bigger effort in innovation and personnel training to sustain the industry's long-term healthy development.

The International Software China 2008 opened in Beijing on Thursday and runs through Saturday. Its focus is on industrial policy planning, industrial standards, software technologies and development, investment and financing and enterprise personnel recruiting.

Source : http://news.xinhuanet.com/

Indian software, BPO industry to touch $132bn

The Indian software and BPO segment will grow at a rate of more than 16 per cent to become a $132 billion industry by 2012, global infotech analyst International Data Corporation (IDC) said today.

The Indian domestic IT and ITeS market is expected to cross the Rs 2,00,000-crore ($50 billion ) mark in 2012. This translates into a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.4 per cent in the five-year period. It was Rs 90,014 crore in 2007," IDC said.

Together with IT and ITeS, and exports revenue of Rs 3,20,278 crore, the total IT and ITeS industry would grow to Rs 5,29,976 crore ($132 billion ) by 2012, representing a growth of 16.5 per cent, said IDC.

Exports continue to be the biggest segment at Rs 97,492 crore. In 2008, IDC expects the IT and ITeS industry to grow at 20 per cent, with the domestic market growing at 22.4 per cent.

The overall industry is projected to be of the size of Rs 5,29,976 crore, or $132 billion, by 2012-end, with the share of domestic IT and ITeS revenues being 40 per cent of the total compared to the current 37 per cent.

The IT and ITeS exports market is likely to more than double to Rs 3,20,278 crore in 2012, IDC claimed.

In 2008, IT and ITeS exports segment is expected to clock a growth of 20.4 per cent to touch Rs 1,86,142 crore. "The domestic IT and ITeS industry CAGR of 18.4 per cent (during 2008-12) is expected on the back of a robust growth of the past five years (2003-2007)", IDC India Country Manager Kapil Dev Singh said.

The Indian IT and ITeS industry grew to Rs 2,46,609 crore in 2007 from Rs 2,01,413 crore in 2006, representing a growth of 22.4 percent.

Source : http://www.business-standard.com/

Filipino software companies eye Japan as market for IT outsourcing

Philippine software companies are looking at Japan’s fast-growing information technology (IT) services industry as a strategic market for IT outsourcing despite an expected slowdown in the US economy.

The Japanese IT market is considered the second largest market in IT services industry. Japan’s IT market is expected to turn in 2.3 trillion yen in revenues this year, which would grow to 5.5 trillion yen or billion by 2010. The market has been maintaining rapid growth since 1990.

Local IT companies are now eager to tap this huge IT market, as Japanese firms, such as Fujitsu, Canon, Epson, Denso Techno, System Yoshiii, and NEC Telecom, have already outsourced some of their services in the Philippines.

Industry statistics show that some 4,500 Filipino software engineers are already servicing the Japanese market.

On May 14 to 16, eight Philippine companies will be joining the Philippine participation in the 17th Software Development Expo and Conference (SODEC) at the Tokyo Big Sight. These are: Advanced World Systems Inc.; Alliance Software, Inc.; Astra (Philippines), Inc.; Ayala Systems Technology, Inc.; Imperium Technology, Inc.; N-PAX Cebu Corporation; Tsukiden Software Philippines Group; and WeServe Systems International, Inc.

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Virtualization: Creating a new software development infrastructure

Software development is a fascinating industry that has changed over the years as developers have continually adopted newer programming languages, from Fortran to Pascal to C++ and beyond. But although developers readily look to software itself to drive innovation, few have considered their development infrastructure a possible vehicle for change. With the advent of virtualization in the development process, that's about to change.

When the first embedded devices appeared, software as we know it today simply did not exist; all functionality was built into hardware. With the introduction of the microprocessor, software content emerged but still comprised only a small part of the overall system. Over the past twenty years, the embedded industry has witnessed a complete shift as software has exploded in size and complexity. Today, software is the primary driver of increased functionality and innovation in embedded systems.

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Microsoft's new chief architect is taking software into "the cloud"

Consumers are getting used to retrieving their digital information and collections — contacts, photographs, e-mail, documents — on practically any computer and a growing number of mobile devices.

These Internet services are replacing much of what was done only a few years ago with software firmly rooted to an individual computer.

The software industry is in the midst of a transformation that will see an expanding range of desktop-software functions delivered to users as Internet services.

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Wipro will set up software development centre in Egypt

Wipro, the leading consulting and information technology company from India, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) of Egypt to set up a global development centre in Smart Village.

Dr Tarek Kamal, Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, was present at the signing of the deal in which Wipro will target the IT Export Services for the Middle East and global markets.

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Export controls could harm software development

The government is being urged to act to prevent overseas collaboration on software development being crippled by export control laws designed to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

The appeal follows a report from MPs which signaled alarm at the potential damage the heavy-handed application of existing export control regulations could cause.

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Boost productivity with lean software development

Lean software development is one of the latest hot topics at strategy consultancies like McKinsey. A report conducted by McKinsey dubbed "Applying Lean To Application Development And Maintenance," says implementing the approach can lead to productivity gains of between 20% and 40%, and that quality and speed of execution can improve markedly within a matter of months. Both valuable benefits when the cost of developing and maintaining applications now accounts for about 50% of the average IT budget - a figure that is set to rise in the future.

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Introduction To Software Development Lifecycle

Software Development Lifecycle.

In order to understand what is Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) let us break these words into two parts: Software Development , and LifeCycle.

Software Development.

Software Development is A PROCESS to create software.At first glance to a developer - this is the coding process. This is when you sit down with the computer and start to write codes that later processed (compiled,linked etc.) become the actual software that is used by the end user. This is might be the case for beginners or novice developer who are working on "garage" project.

In a small one person project its common for developers to go directly into coding and then testing their code. They are using common divide and conquer, then trial and error testing.But for a significant size software development trial and error method will be expensive.This is because large size project normally involved few developers. Any change in any part of the codes might requires other developers to change their code also.

Larger software development also requires better way to communicate, between the developers.The communication is to make sure developers understand what to be developed, when to start the development, when the other part of the software that they dependence to will be developed, when to test these parts together, what is considered pass..etc.etc. Lot of issues to synchronized the developers.

The larger the group, the harder it is to communicate to all the team members.
This can be worst if the team members are not located in the same place - which are common these day. The team that I am part of have people working in 4 different continents in different time zone.

To make it easier, a concept of "Lifecycle" is introduced.

Lifecycle

Common concept of lifecycle is communicated to a development team to synchronized all the team members - so that every one knows when are the important milestones.
Milestones are dates when certain important criteria or requirement has to be met.

Concept of lifecycle is not exclusive to software development.
For example a human being also has lifecycle. Start from the day a human being is born.
Then s/he grows become baby,teenager,adult, old and died. This lifecycle also can be traced differently based on different view -example if look from education lifecycle (of the same human being) it can start from pre-school,junior high, high school,college undergrad, and graduate.

To software lifecycle is look like normal products (cars,computers,furnitures) creation lifecycle.It can be splitted into 5 phases:

+ Requirement
+ Design
+ Implementation
+ Final test
+ Delivery

This phases actually applicable to the final product, or even into the individual component that make up the product. For example if you are creating a chair, then you have components such as the arm rest, legs,cushions, and back rest. Once the "high level" requirements (description, specification - lot of different names of the same thing) is defined the developer of each component should be able to continue on their own to produce the components. Each of the components will go through the same 5 phases lifecycle also.

This concept of "component" developement is that not far off from what is happening in software development. If you have been in the industry long enough I bet you have heard of "component based" development. The idea is to introduce generic requirement on how components can be handled, then as long as a component is developped in conformant to this standard it can be "plugged in" into another software that understand this standard with very little effort.

Even a lot of people say that software development should be the same as other product developement -- such as car and building constructions, but experience has proven that this is not true. The normal discipline that is used in building construction does not really work in software development.

From what the expert observation this is because in normal product construction such as a freeway, ideas and creativity are injected to the project only in very specific part of the phase -- early phase. In building construction creativity can come from the architect and also the civil engineers who has to figure out how to build what is envisioned by the architect. This is done in early stage (design) of the development phase. Once it is fixed the implementation, testing and delivery just need to follow the instructions.

In software development on the other hand, the injection of ideas is hard to controlled since its actually needed in every phase. From the high level architecture, down to low level programming, ingenuity and creativity is needed. Most software development actually depending on in development discoveries to come up with innovative products. New way of coding, new algorithm, new component can make the difference between on software to the other in term of feature offered,resource usage and performance.

Because of this software development process is normally "less rigid" compare to car or buiding construction. The side effect is that this can also caused two major problems:

+ project delay
+ low quality -- more bugs, untested code/features.

This is part of the challenge in software development.

About the Author: sawahid is a software developer and project lead by day and the owner of of http://www.dzikry.com a site dedicated with free information about software development.

Source: www.iSnare.com

Mistral Intros Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Software Development Kit

For use with Texas Instruments’ DaVinci Technology, Windows Embedded CE 6.0 drivers and Software Development Kit help designers accelerate digital video applications development.

Mistral Solutions today announced the availability of its Accelerator Program for Windows Embedded CE 6.0 for use with Texas Instruments Incorporated’s (TI) DaVinci technology.

Mistral’s Accelerator Program for Windows Embedded CE 6.0 is a complete Software Development Kit (SDK) for TI’s TMS320DM6446 Digital Video Evaluation Module (DVEVM) based on DaVinci technology. Mistral’s BSP enables customers of DaVinci technology to prototype their software on the DVEVM board before implementing their products.

DaVinci technology and the Windows Embedded CE development environment are both optimal choices for applications such as set-top boxes, digital media adapters, voice-over-IP (VoIP) phones, navigation systems and portable media players. Mistral’s latest offering empowers product developers to blend the high performance of DaVinci technology with the versatility of the Windows Embedded CE development environment in creating innovative products with shorter development cycles and faster time to market.

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Testing times for slack software development

Australian businesses are wasting up to 50% of software development budgets because they lack the resources, tools and knowledge to conduct efficient software testing, according to market analysts.

Gartner application development analyst Partha Iyengar says shrinking time-to-market project deadlines and naivety about the benefits of software testing mean that businesses are missing out on an opportunity to streamline and improve the quality of software development.

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Visa gets mobile payment trials underway

At the Consumer Electronic Show in January, Visa International announced a mobile platform initiative that would lay the foundation for mobile payment solutions based on near field communications and featuring electronic coupon redemption and bar code transfer capabilities. At CTIA in March, the company announced that Ecrio and VeriSign would be two of its primary partners and that trials would begin this year. Today, Visa said it has teamed with Wells Fargo & Co. to launch of an extensive mobile pilot to test consumer mobile payments and services.

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