Should Filipino Software Developers Focus on Open Source?

[Jan Pabellon]

This is an old post but wanted to share it just the same:

The Philippine Software Industry Association or PSIA announced its “global domination” campaign last Tuesday at the 9th Philippine e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition at the SMX Convention Center in Manila.

The software industry wants to get a piece of the estimated USD 6 billion in revenues in revenue generated by the IT and IT-enabled outsourcing business in the Philippines, which officials in the country are aiming to double by 2010 to USD 12 billion. This will put the Philippines firmly in the minds of decision makers as a top alternative outsourcing destination to India.

Revenues from outsourcing in the Philippines are however dominated largely by outsourced voice services such as call centers and back-office processing services. Outsourced software development and software exports contributed only about 10% of 2008’s revenues, with the PSIA reporting about US$624 million in net earnings in 2008.

This will certainly be a tough challenge, with the current global financial crisis and the competitive market for software services from not only India, but countries like Romania, Brazil, Ireland, Czech Republic, Pakistan, Vietnam and many others.

My take on what area perhaps the Philippines can focus on where it can have an advantage? Open source software.

http://webwonker.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/philippine-software-indus...