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Published on March 6, 2008

In a bid to encourage the development of the local software industry, the Federation of Thai Industries' Software Club plans to set up the Software Promotion Institute (SPI).

Under the plan, the institute will promote greater use of e-services among the federation's members and promote software standards certification for local small and medium enterprises and very small enterprises involved in software development.

Anukul Tamprasirt, president of the Federation of Thai Industries' Software Club, said the direction of the club's software development in 2008 is to build up both demand and supply aspects of local software.

The institute will play matchmaker between the federation's 7,000 members and local software houses.

There is a huge demand for business efficiency software tools among the members' 100,000 factories across the country.

The federation will work with its network of local software companies to develop solutions tailored for the industrial sector. 

The federation aims to create ten solutions which the industry needs on a priority basis.

These include solutions for enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, human resource management and logistics management.

"SPI will collate a list of needs from the federation's members and, in parallel, it will coordinate with local software companies to develop software solutions to meet those needs," Anukul said.

Additionally, the institute will promote an international development standard for local small- and mid-sized software companies. A formal announcement of the launch of the standard, called SME/VSE ISO29110, is expected by the middle of the year.

The institute will also act as the certification body and will provide consultancy, training and certification services.

The institute will encourage local software houses to apply for ISO29110 certification by helping them with costs. The certification process costs Bt100,000 per

company.

"We have many advisers such as the National Electronics and Computer Technology, the National Science and Technology Development Agency, and the Thai Embedded System Association to help us as technology consultants," Anukul said.

The institute plans to spend Bt15 million to Bt20 million this year to promote local software development.

The budget will be supported by the Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion, the Office of Industrial Economics and the Software Industry Promotion Agency.

"[The new standard] is much cheaper than the CMMI standard, which costs Bt2 million per company. And it also takes less time. Rather than spending 18 months for acquiring a CMMI certification, small software houses have to spend only four to six months in acquiring ISO29110," Anukul said.

He said CMMI is better suited for large-sized software houses while ISO29110 is best for small- to very small-sized software houses which employ less than 25 people.

This standard comes after the previously accepted Thai Quality Software standard (TQS) through which about 60 local software companies have been certified.

"The software companies already TQS certified must also go through the certification process for ISO29110. We hope to encourage 100 local software companies to achieve this certification by the end of the year and 300 in the next three years," Anukul said.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation