VietSoftware: Int'l-standard Orientation Creates Success Story

3:26:34 PM | 7/8/2005

For sustainable development, software enterprises need leaders with good management knowledge and a strategic vision to work out development orientations for between five and ten years. Also, they should develop international standards. This is according to Tran Luong Son, managing director of the VietSoftware Company.

VietSoftware is a software enterprise set up five years ago under the management of Master Tran Luong Son, who obtained his Ph.D. degree in the former Soviet Union and finished a technology management post-graduate course at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. The company has seen a rapid growth rate and become one of the leading software enterprises in Vietnam. The company's key to success is that it has developed suitable orientations with experienced experts who have studied and worked in foreign companies.

In 2000 and 2001, expenditures for information technology in Vietnam were insignificant as users hesitated to invest in the industry due to lack of knowledge about it. In addition, the world software industry experienced a crisis in 2000-2001, and Vietnam suffered from the crisis. In such a difficult context, many software enterprises had to close. However, VietSoftware stood firm and developed. Son said: "We have a strategic vision not for one or two years, but for ten years." Meanwhile, many enterprises lack a strategic vision, let alone their constraint management capability in technology. Furthermore, they did not dare to invest in large-sized projects.

A software enterprise features investment in research and development activities. To develop a software solution, enterprises have to invest money and strength for at least between one and three years, whereas they remain unclear whether they are successful or not. Therefore, the biggest difficulty for software enterprises is financial strength. VietSoftware has invested a lot in research and development activities. Son said that markets should be explored very carefully to make sure that they accept all products developed by the company. With a proper development approach, VietSoftware launched its portal solution which was welcomed by the market. It took the company two years to develop the solution.

VietSoftware develops solutions for the domestic and international markets. In the international market, the company has implemented outsourcing contracts for foreign organisations. In particular, in 2002, VietSoftware won an outsourcing contract from IBM. So far, the company has become a partner of many major international companies. Recently, VietSoftware has begun to tread the water of the Japanese market, implementing outsourcing contracts for companies in the country.

In the domestic market, the company target government sector which has an extensive program for computerisation of public administration. The company has initially succeeded in developing software solutions for Governmental agencies. In particular, the portal solutions developed by the company have been popularly used in State management agencies the ministerial and provincial levels.

To maintain its high growth rate, Son said that in the coming years, the company should develop in accordance with international standards. One of its major projects is to build up its international co-operation department, promoting the implementation of outsourcing contracts with foreign partners. Also, the company will concentrate on developing major projects in the domestic market with portal, Enterprise Resource Planning and E-commerce solutions.

With a high year-on-year growth rate, VietSoftware is one of the most successful software enterprises in Vietnam with 50 per cent of its total revenues coming from foreign markets. The company aims to better satisfy customers' needs in the future instead of developing and selling software solutions. All partners and customers have seen a good development prospect for VietSoftware. VietSoftware is in a good position to further succeed in the future, according to IT experts.