Tran Phuc Hong, managing director of TMA Solutions, forecast the software outsourcing market would maintain stable growth towards the year-end as most of the contracts had been secured in the year to date.
“TMA’s revenue rose by around 20% in the first quarter against last year’s same period. We have signed contracts for the entire year,” Hong said.
Similarly, Global CyberSoft won many outsourcing contracts from the Japanese and North American markets in the first three months of this year and this helped the company register strong growth of some 25%, said deputy general director Ngo Van Toan.
On the optimistic side, Chu Tien Dung, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Computer Association and Chairman of Quang Trung Software City Development Company, said the major markets for local software outsourcing firms in the period included Japan, North America and Europe.
In January-March, enterprises at Quang Trung Software City posted a year-on-year revenue increase of 34% to 678.1 billion VND, with exports up 37.4% to 16.82 million USD. These firms outsourced software products for 20 markets, including the United States, Japan and Europe.
“The current demand for new technologies, including cloud computing, mobility and big data, is forecast to surge this year and is opening many opportunities for enterprises to increase earnings. However, enterprises are encountering a lack of programmers,” Dung said.
This challenge was also mentioned by Toan at a recent conference held by the Ho Chi Minh City Computer Association that that software companies were thirsting for employees as the number of outsourcing orders had kept growing since last year.
Statistics of the association showed enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City needed around 80,000 information technology employees while schools can meet only 20% of the demand. Moreover, the quality of new graduates has yet to meet the requirements of employers with only ten of every 100 engineers having necessary skills.-
