Industry Gets Help with Local Software

SME 007 Plus has joined hands with Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa) and Software Park Thailand to help the motorcycle and parts industry improve its competitiveness with the use of local software.

Motorcycle and parts services cluster SME 007 Plus president Chayapol Khatikarn said the cluster is collaborating with Sipa and Software Park Thailand to encourage more than 200 members of the cluster to benefit from technology adoption.

"This industry is worth Bt100 billion a year, of which about Bt40 billion comprises the market value of the parts industry. But a large portion of the market share is held by imported brands. That's why we have to help local companies' boost their competitiveness with IT," Chayapol said.

Under the agreement, Sipa will provide the facilities and facilitate development of an e-marketplace and an open-source software, RosettaNet, for local motorcycle and parts.

Meanwhile, Software Park Thailand will train companies on software and system usage to improve their business processes and enhance efficiency.

In the motorcycle and parts industry, there are three main components -- manufacturing, wholesale, and retail.

The move is to encourage the companies to incorporate computers in their processes and to improve communication flow within industry's supply chain through an electronic system.

An e-marketplace, developed by Sipa, will allow industry stakeholders to interact, and exchange their products and services electronically.

"The e-marketplace became operational late last year and is hosted at the Sipa Khon Kaen Office," Chayapol said.

To facilitate the participation of cluster members in the online marketplace, the cluster has worked with Sipa to develop the open-source software based on RosettaNet standards. This allows cluster members connect computer systems running on any platform to other in the supply chain.

RosettaNet is a common set of e-business standards used in online supply-chain transactions. Based on XML, these define message guidelines, business-process interfaces and the implementation framework for interactions between companies.

At the same time, the cluster has been working with Software Park Thailand to provide training courses for members companies in order to train them in developing their own systems.

"The idea is to encourage small- and medium-sized companies in the motorcycle and parts industry to use technology, especially local software, to gain prominence in the market. Because we use open-source software and web-based applications, the companies can maintain stock and sales records with minimal investment, using just one computer connected to the Internet and share information with across the supply chain easily yet efficiently," Chayapol said.