Until the early 2000s, the majority of the brightest students in the country chose computer programming as their major. A decade later, some colleges are decreasing faculty as students are now shunning the major. People in the software industry don’t think they are compensated enough for their hard work.

KT, the country’s leading communications company, announced initiatives to promote the software industry, Thursday. Most of all, it would recompense for the value of the software instead of only paying labor costs.

KT Chairman Lee Seok-chae pointed out that the country, once called an IT powerhouse thanks to globally competitive communications, semiconductors, and display businesses, is losing in the global transition from hardware to software.

“The smart era turned mobile devices into computers. As these computers move from place to place, they need support from cloud computing. As a result, there is a huge opportunity for software here. The market is huge. Everything will be processed with software,” the chairman said.

Korea lacks competitiveness in software as it doesn’t remunerate the sector fairly, the chairman pointed out.

“In countries with a developed software industry, success is guaranteed if you have a good idea. Investors and client businesses acknowledge the value,” said Song Jung-hee, head of the service innovation division at KT.

“In Korea software companies are considered a man power outsourcer. While developed economies take into account value added by the innovation in software, Korean firms determine the value of software by calculating how many men were put to work to create it.”

Even a genius IT expert is paid according to how many days they work, not by how much value they create. “If Steve Jobs was working in Korea, he would be nothing more than a top class technician being paid 12 million won a month,” Song said.

KT announced that it would pay for the value of the software not for the amount of labor. Around 10 percent of its software is purchased from local firms, or between 30 and 50 billion won, will be affected by this new way next year.

“I determined that the businesses that buy software should change their practice, their thoughts and the way they invest in the software. Else, the country’s software industry can’t develop,” Lee said.

He pointed out that software workers were treated like physical workers, without any ownership of their intellectual property. “It discourages them. The young industry people lose their dreams and hope. There will be no future in this way,” the chairman said.

He said KT will buy software as a package, and let the developer have ownership. “We will be only buying the service, just like we do with foreign software companies.” In this way, the software company will be able to use their output as a future growth engine. According to KT, if it pays NexR, a software company for a cloud based job analysis solution based on labor costs, it would be 1 billion won, but the price would double if paid according to value.

It doesn’t however, necessarily mean a loss for KT, according to Song. She explained that as KT will be buying more complete software packages, it would incur less costs later even with the system changes in this manner.

On top of that, KT will support software companies so that they can develop globally competitive software products. “We will continue providing them infrastructure, such as cloud computing. We will look for mergers and acquisitions with software companies that want to be sold, so that they can start another business with the money. This will inevitably attract more talented people to the industry,” the chairman said.

He added that software companies will accompany KT’s move to become a global company. “They will be aiming at the worldwide market, and develop software to fit global standards.”

Source:http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2011/09/123_95759.html

Over 400 Participants Worldwide Will Learn About the Company’s Accomplishments and Future Developments at This Two-Day, Annual Event

Tagetik, a global provider of enterprise software solutions for Performance Management, Governance, Risk & Compliance and Business Intelligence, today opened “Tagetik in Touch”, its fifth global conferenceat the historical Real Collegio in Lucca, Italy ( http://www.tagetik.com/conference-2011 ). The company welcomed over 400 customers, analysts, partners and industry experts to celebrate its latest accomplishments in delivering flexible, effective solutions for the Office of Finance. One highlight of the two-day event is the official launch of Tagetik 4.0, the latest release of its renowned software platform.

During the first-day general sessions, Manuel Vellutini, Chief Operating Officer, and Marco Pierallini, Chief Development Officer, gave a keynote speech reviewing key milestones for Tagetik in the past year as well as an outlook of the road ahead. The company’s executives emphasized Tagetik’s specialist vendor approach and ongoing focus on product innovation, customer satisfaction and partner collaboration.

Vision Keynote – Tagetik: Global Reach, Worldwide Partners and Customers, Excellence in Innovation, Head to Head with Mega-Vendors

Solution Value Keynote – Tagetik 4.0: Product Roadmap & New Functionality

“Our company has made a rapid, successful ascent into the Performance Management and Business Intelligence software markets in the past years,” explains Vellutini. “Our undying determination and specialist vendor approach are the reasons why we have been winning against major global competitors. Tagetik is positioned among the top five worldwide vendors in the Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management solutions. As market studies show, we have strengthened our position year after year through our proven track record for innovation and execution, high customer satisfaction rates and our complete focus on financial process excellence.”

“Tagetik is both global and ’boutique’ because we deliver our undivided attention to performance software – and not many different types of solutions like most other players on the market,” adds Vellutini. “Our vast expertise in finance and performance management flows back into our technology to provide a unified, collaborative platform that simplifies and streamlines business processes throughout the Office of Finance. We believe we do it better than anyone else and we are pleased that Microsoft has awarded our efforts by naming Tagetik its 2011 Microsoft ISV/Software Line of Business Partner of the Year.” ( http://www.tagetik.com/events-news/press-releases/microsoft-award-2011 )

“In addition to exploring the brand-new functionality in Tagetik 4.0, attendees will learn about our upcoming developments,” explains Marco Pierallini. “Tagetik has exciting new and upcoming features in the areas of mobile BI, in-memory technology and cloud computing.” The session ‘The Future of BI in Tagetik 4.0: Mobile BI with Roambi and SQL Server Denali’ will include an introduction and demo of these new technologies and provide the roadmap for their integration within Tagetik 4.0. “Throughout the conference, we will also present case studies of customers who share Tagetik’s vision for ‘Collaborative’ Performance Management which makes Business Intelligence and Performance Management processes as collaborative as possible,” he continues.

Pierluigi Pierallini, President and CEO at Tagetik, adds, “We have revamped the traditional format of our annual conference to promote even more dialog among our participants and truly ‘get in touch’ with peers, colleagues and experts around the globe.” On both days of the conference, users can participate in five breakout sessions on a variety of topics including:

Budgeting, planning and forecasting

Disclosure management, consolidation and reporting

Business intelligence and profitability analysis

C-Level challenges

Financial services (industry challenges and solutions)

Tagetik customers will share project experiences and best practices in informative case studies hosted by Keller Group, Platinum Administrative Services, KAR Auction Services, Talanx AG, Vinson & Elkins, Crif, ISAB, Dyckerhoff AG, Bolton Group, Oetker Group, Propex and Lombardini Group. Users can also preview the latest Tagetik 4.0 features in demo presentations and 1-hour, hands-on workshops with Tagetik product experts. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to liaise with conference partners and sponsors including Accenture, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Microsoft, Roambi, Excent, Twinergy, Aeonvis, Age Consulting, Altea, Blue Sof Consulting, Reply, ANDAF, Data Manager, Executive.it and ZeroUno.

Other highlights of the event include presentations from Gartner analysts as well as industry experts from Microsoft:

‘Using Disclosure Management Solutions to Automate The Last Mile of Finance’ by John Van Decker – VP Research, Gartner

‘The New Era of BI: as Microsoft is Innovating through Self-Service BI’ by Luca Venturelli – Business Group Lead Server, Tools & Cloud, Microsoft Italy

‘The Evolving Importance of CPM in a BI, Analytics and PM Strategy’ by John Van Decker – VP Research, Gartner

‘How Can CPM Help Organizations Better Understand the Drivers of Cost and Profitability?’ by Neil Chandler – Research Director, Gartner

‘Optimize Your Business for the Digital Data Explosion Era Using Microsoft Technologies’ by Persio Afonso – Partner Marketing Director, SQL Server Product Group, Microsoft Corporation

Day 2 will end with a panel discussion on “BI and Performance Management at the Core of Finance” hosted by Neil Chandler, Research Director at Gartner. Rounding out the panel are Bani Brandolini, President International at Tagetik; Achim Heidebrecht, Head of Group IT at Talanx AG; and Mike Willis, Partner PricewaterhouseCoopers, Global XBRL Leader and Chairman Emeritus XBRL International.

Prior to the conference, Tagetik partners and system integrators worldwide attended an exclusive partner summit bringing together leading consulting, software and technology professionals throughout the industry. In addition to Tagetik executives and senior consultants, speakers included prominent experts from Microsoft Corporation: Persio Afonso, Partner Marketing Director, SQL Server Product Group; Chris Dial, Director, ISV Partner Development, Western Europe; and Sanjay Jacob, Senior Manager. The agenda focused on the competitive landscape positioning Tagetik and Microsoft against mega-vendors as well as an array of Tagetik developments and partner experiences in new application areas such as Collaborative Disclosure Management (CDM). Strategic and Premiere Partners also met one-on-one with Tagetik management to discuss joint go-to-market opportunities and plans for the upcoming year.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tagetik-launches-its-new-tagetik-40-software-platform-at-2011-global-conference-2011-09-29