SOFTWARE developers are struggling to drum up business from both local and international clients in the wake of the global recession, industry sources said.

In the past six months, local demand has been on the decline, said a spokesman from Myanmar Information Technology.

“The majority of the business community has been tightening their belts (reducing costs) and are reluctant to purchase new software,” said U Zaw Moe Tun, the company’s technical director. “As far as [Myanmar Information Technology] is concerned, we are now relying more on companies from abroad – particularly the United Kingdom and Spain – looking to outsource their software development. At the same time, we are still developing software packages not only for local market but also for some countries in the Asian region,” he added.

The company develops accounting software packages for local businesses, a senior manager said.

“Most of the software packages we have developed are designed for banking and supermarkets,” said Daw Ni Ni Tun, a senior general manager at Myanmar Information Technology.

Myanmar’s software industry is small – locally developed packages occupy less than 5 percent of the market – and has only existed for about 10 years.

Daw Ni Ni Tun said local software developers needed to lift their game in terms of quality and marketing if they were to increase their market share but U Zaw Moe Tun is more optimistic.

“There is much potential for our share of the market to grow,” U Zaw Moe Tun said.

“We have clients in Singapore who are using our software” so the quality is there, he said.

“I think there is a lot of potential here as well … we are looking forward to the day when the market is strong and people realise that software development is a necessary tool for economic development,” he added.

U Tun Khine, the managing director of Integra Systems, said that there is little awareness of the benefits of using locally developed software and only a few companies here are using customised packages. But he admitted that companies are often put off by the price, which can range from K1.5 million to more than K20 million depending on the size of the project.

“For the short term, the initial investment for developing software is probably high for small- and medium-sized businesses. But in the long term it saves time and money,” he said.

The industry is also facing other challenges. Currently there is a shortage of skilled workers, such as software programmers and engineers, U Tun Khine said.

“This is a major issue for the local software development industry. The skilled workers are going abroad, especially to Singapore, to get the lucrative jobs,” U Tun Khine said.

He added that there would be a significant increase in demand for local developers if and when government departments are computerised.

“If every department was computerised, the prospects of the software industry in Myanmar will be much more rosy,” U Tun Khine said.