IMMEDIATE steps need to be help Pakistan’s fledgling software industry. And this is especially important since the downturn of orders following the September 11 events.
A number of software houses were shut as overseas software orders, on which the bulk of our software houses depend on, dried. Of course events of September 11, 2001 had a lot to do with this downturn. Only those companies were able to withstand the consequences of 9/11 that had good organizational structure and high quality standards.
However, things may now be changing as according to satistsics, the American ITsector is finally making a turn around. And this may well be penning new vistas for Pakistani software houses. US companies are adopting the approach to transfer their conventional IT jobs and projects to countries like China and India.
According to an estimate, US companies are saving 40 to 45 per cent cost in their software projects by developing them in the Indian and Chinese markets. In an IT summit held in Washington DC, CEO Rob Burges of Macromedia commented, “When people are one-fifth or one-sixth the cost of employing them here, we need to look at that.”
According to a report the number of IT jobs that will move to India would touch 1.50,000 in 2004. Computer giant IBM intends to transfer 40,000 jobs overseas by 2005. Carly Fiorina, CEO HP says, “There is no job that is America’s God-given right anymore, we have to compete for jobs.”
US companies are reluctant to openly announce their plans of job transfers to avoid opposition from US computer professionals and media. However, analysts predict that about two millions jobs of programmers, software engineers, application designers and other IT professionals will shift to low cost centres of India and China by 2014. The job transfer trend causing unemployment among American professionals is no doubt going to be the hot topic for the upcoming presidential election campaign. The unemployment rate has always been a key issue in the US elections but job shifting to China and India will give it a new touch.
Elizabeth Drake, an international policy analyst at AFL-CIO, said of overseas IT outsourcing: “It definitely could become an issue. There’s definitely a lot more media coverage of the trend in outsourcing. We’re hearing more from our own members, especially in California and the upper northwest where there are more technology jobs. I’m sure that’s going to bubble up as the campaigns go forward.”
As job transferring results in the increase of unemployment rate among software programmers in US, the Indian and Chinese companies are getting much more business from US market. India’s software exports grew 26.3 per cent in last years. In 2003 Indian software export was worth $9.5 billion.
However, when we come to comparing these figure with those available from Pakistan, it’s like comparing Everest with a mole hill. Our software industry exports software’s value is about $30 million. Nevertheless, opportunities do exist and if we try hard, outsourcing orders can be had from Europe and the US. Of course, some homework needs to be done in this respect.
Pakistan’s IT industry requires formal approach in its organization and development process. In the international market only those companies can compete that build their development and production process according to the internationally recognized standards. Therefore it is the time to get the awareness of ISO and CMM certification requirements in software industry. Indian software companies have understood the importance of implementing ISO and CMM standards, and are getting good response from US and European IT world.
Apart from the efforts of software development process improvement, there is a need for goal-oriented marketing in the American IT sector. A proper strategy should be adopted to introduce the talent of Pakistani software developers to US companies and encourage them to invest in Pakistan. And it is here, that our software export board can do a lot too.
This would open a wide range of area for thousands of computer graduates who pass out every year from computer science institutes, to prove their skills
One of the hindrances in the evolution of software industry in Pakistan is the lack of software copyright culture. Our markets are filled with pirated software CDs. And, besides, software piracy has badly affected the image of Pakistan in the international IT market. If we want a reputable status in the world, we have to enforce and implement the software copyright laws in Pakistan.
There is a need for mutual cooperation between the government and the private sector to meet the requirements of quality standards in the industry as well as in computer studies and IT institutes. No doubt our computer science and IT professionals have great potential and by providing them with good opportunities the IT industry can emerge as one of the major resources of export for Pakistan and play a vital role in the economy.
IMMEDIATE steps need to be help Pakistan’s fledgling software industry. And this is especially important since the downturn of orders following the September 11 events.
