Homegrown software cos eye domestic IT market

An emerging domestic economy and the ever expanding business activities are rapidly turning the country’s growing IT market a lucrative one for its homegrown software companies, industry insiders said this week.
These are resulting in a major shift in the focus of the local IT companies which are increasingly looking to cash in on the growing IT needs of the country’s rapidly digitising public and private ventures, the insiders said as the biggest exposition of homegrown software called BASIS SoftExpo concluded in the city Sunday.
“For years, our priority has been to capture the international market for IT outsourcing,” said Anisur Rahman Khan, marketing manager of Leads Corporation Limited, a leading software company in Bangladesh. “And that is not only for gaining better turnover in foreign currencies for our local software ventures but also because the local business houses preferred foreign software vendors to the local ones for the lack of business confidence.”
“But now the scenario has changed. In contrary to what it was like five years back, the local software farms are now proved to be capable of providing equal services if not better than their more renowned overseas counterparts while providing that instantly from the doorstep,” he added.
“No more you have to give a call to Bangalore or Singapore and then sit helplessly for the whole day if your company’s IT vendor is just a few kilometres away and ready to serve you within half an hour.”
Observers also opined that the recent government focus on bringing ICT to the rural doorsteps and revamping the local IT infrastructure have also lured the local software companies to shift their eyes on various e-government projects and domestic ICT schemes.
What’s more, it is not only the homegrown software companies who are on the look out for local clients, but also the foreign IT ventures that are growingly focusing on the country’s burgeoning IT market.
Notably, there is a significant presence of Indian software companies in this year’s BASIS SoftExpo, a decade-long annual software fair which is now aiming to be a major IT event in the region within a few years.
“The country’s booming capital market, financial sector as well as its burgeoning corporate infrastructure would require huge IT build up in the coming years which are now up for grab for the foreign and local software companies alike,” said Enamul Haque of Tally, an Indian software company which has presence in 92 countries of the world.
One major attraction of the fair was some wonderful innovative IT projects showcased by young students from various universities of the country.
While millions of the country’s capital city get clogged in traffic jam for hours each day, hardly do they know that there is virtually a digital solution in their hand called “Smart Traffic Signal” invented by some young computer engineering students which got displayed at the BASIS fair.
Similarly, these young bunches of IT whiz kids have also showcased a Robotic Hand, an Intelligent Unmanned Vehicle, a Motion Detector and Follower and a Line Following Robot – all invented at their university laboratories.
“Bangladesh has got numerous IT talents – there are instances of Bangladeshi students coming out first among 1.7 million international students in worldwide computer science exams. But it is time for capacity building for using such talents in the local arena,” said a notable Bangladesh-born IT specialist who is now working abroad.
Bangladesh’s burgeoning software industry, now estimated to worth Tk 10 billion, is set to grow to almost Tk 50 billion within the next three to four years”.

Courtesy of The Financial Express