Software industry 'complacent' says university

Northern Ireland’s software industry needs to shake off complacency and increase its entrepreneurial activity if it is to compete successfully in the global economy, according to a report published by University of Ulster researchers today.

The Northern Ireland Software Industry Survey took in 60% of software companies in Northern Ireland - companies that together employ over 80% of the entire software workforce.

Findings of the survey, which was conducted by researchers Dr Don McFall and Dr Fergal McCaffrey of the Centre for Software Process Technologies, concluded:

• the NI software industry is underdeveloped compared to the software sector in the Republic of Ireland
• sector growth is hindered by the limited experience of business founders - over 25% of software companies in NI had been set up by people with less than five years’ business experience
• training is regarded as a low priority by the sector
• and 71% of NI software companies are homegrown - but they employ only 40% of the sector’s staff. Multinationals comprise 12% of the sector, but employ 52% of staff.

Commenting on the findings, the authors said: “Many home grown companies are leaving themselves open to any downturn in the world economy by targeting just one sector of industry - 71% of firms surveyed said they only targeted a single industry sector - and 30% of firms surveyed have only one client or contract on their books.

“Although 52% have more than 10 clients now is not the time for complacency.”

The authors also called on the industry to invest in training and improved quality processes in order to ensure competitiveness in the global economy.

“Too few organisations are aware of the concept of software process improvement and, more alarmingly, the importance of software process improvement for increasing their market penetration worldwide - especially in the USA," they said.

Comparing the position of the industry to the maiden voyage of the Titanic, the authors added: “We can see the iceberg - but we can minimise the threat to our sector by investing in higher quality software development processes.

“It is vital that NI software companies address this deficit if they want to remain competitive in the global software market,” Dr McFall and Dr McCaffrey concluded.

(MB)