SEOUL, KOREA – The Korean IT industry is setting its sights on the software industry. What lends wings to export of Korean software to the global market is software certification. Dr. Seok-kyoo Shin, Director General at Software Quality Evaluation Center of Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) who is credited with ushering in an era of software testing services, said, “It is time for Korea’s endeavors for strengthening software competitiveness to go global.” Director General Shin is regarded as a pioneer in taking domestic software testing services to global levels.
Bearing in mind that the competitiveness of software mirrors Korea’s overall national competitiveness, the Korean government had pushed for software industry promotion policies since the mid-1990s. However, the Korean software industry’s growth had been much slower than anticipated every year and Korean-made software products had continued to be dwarfed by their foreign rivals. Probes into such disappointing results revealed that consumers’ mistrust in Korean software ran deep. Thus, to upgrade the quality of Korean software and galvanizing the Korean software industry, Software Quality Evaluation Center of TTA (SQEC of TTA) was set up within Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in 2000. And later in 2001, the control of SQEC of TTA was transferred to TTA. Since then, SQEC of TTA, a government-approved software certifier, has entrenched itself as Korea’s leading software testing institute.
The reason why TTA is considered as the vanguard in improving the quality of Korean software is because Director General Shin is the person who introduced Korea’s first software quality certification service called GS (Good Software) to the domestic software market, which at that time had no idea of how to prove software quality. Offering the GS certification service, SQEC of TTA is widening its software quality improvement business into varied sectors, such as BMT (Bench Mark Test), CC (Common Criteria) for information technology evaluations, conformance tests of software developed for administrative work, I18N (internationalization and localization) of software exports, localization (L10N) tests, education services designed to foster software testing experts, etc.
A localization testing center was also put up to make sure the internationalization and localization of Korean software, the two prerequisites for reinforcing the competitiveness of Korean software. Exports of Korean software that have been thus far bound mainly for Japan are expected to gradually make inroads into the US and China.
SQEC of TTA has set up an open software testing lab to enable software developers to test their own software by themselves and detect flaws before they officially apply for GS certifications. The software testing lab consists of various kinds of hardware and software products produced by numerous companies - for instance, high-cost server equipment, cutting-edge automation tools, PCs, laptop computers, DBMS, OS, middleware, etc.- to help software developers test their software under varied software usage environments. All of the Korean software companies are given access to the open software testing lab where they can also have company-specific mentoring services furnished by SQEC of TTA.
Director General Shin put a high premium on the internationalization and localization of Korean software, saying, “Selling left-hand drive vehicles in a country where right-hand drive vehicles are the mainstream is completely illogical. It is true of software. The task of adapting software to different languages, regional differences and technical requirements of a target market should be taken into account from the very start.”
What Is the GS Certification
In contrast to other certifications that are simply handed out based on paper-based evaluations, GS certification is a system backed by a well-equipped software testing lab and GS certifications are issued based on thorough evaluations of software programs, product manuals and user manuals, etc.
The number of GS certifications issued in 2001 was six, which rose to 100 in 2005. Then, the number reached 1,000 in 2009, eight years after GS certification was first introduced. This year, the number broke the 2,000 mark. According to GS certifier TTA, a total of 1,977 software products were certified in July, 2012 and the following month saw over 2,000 software products GS-certified.
GS certification services, which had made lackluster progress in the early days of its introduction due to low awareness, started to rise to recognition swiftly thanks to the adoption of various institutional benefits, such as Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA)’s preference system for GS certified software, the Public Procurement Service (PPS)’s procurement registration system and giving additional points to GS-certified software in the process of selecting software contractors for public projects. As the average number of flaws found in GS-certified software has declined, GS certification took the credit for overall improvements in the quality of Korean software. Director General Shin mentioned, “Compared to the early days of GS certification’s introduction, consumers’ perception of the quality of Korean software have appreciably improved.”
BMT Facilitates Korean Software’s Entry into the Global Public Procurement Market
Director General Shin picked BMT (Bench Mark Test) as the biggest contributor to creating win-win deals between customers and software companies. Back in 2002 when BMT was put in place, Korean consumers’ preference for foreign-made software was prevalent owing to low consumer confidence in Korean software and low brand awareness. The practices of awarding a contract to the lowest bidder and excessive dumping served as a drag on the growth of the Korean software industry. Against this backdrop, BMT was installed as a troubleshooter.
BMT helps customers make the right purchase decisions by offering information on software products after comparing rivaling products against one another. In the process, software developers are given the opportunities to fix imperfections in their software products. Thank to BMT, software products developed by Korean SMEs of no reputation can outshine those developed by large companies and Korean software can compete with foreign-made software on a level playing field. The industry reckons that BMT has been playing a pivotal role in unearthing excellent products that had been taken off the selves due to low brand awareness and in provoking a paradigm shift from price competition to quality competition.
Scaled-up Exchanges with Oversea Software Testing Institutes Bolster the Influence of GS Certification
Yet, despite such achievements, some point out that still much remained to be done to have GS certification make a bigger contribution to the advancement of Korean software and the development of the Korean software industry. Director General Shin said, “We are working hard on the tough task of forging ties with overseas software testing institutes to ship more Korean software products to the global market. Furthermore, in an effort to offer Korean software developers insight into what the overseas software usage environment is like, we are currently creating diverse software usage environments that are similar to those of major export markets such as Japan, China the US.” To that end, TTA signed MoUs with the US’s VeriTest and Germany’s TuvIT. Striking strategic partnerships with international software testing institutes will significantly save Korean software developers time and money.
Export of Software Should Shift to the Structure of Quality Competition.
Director General Shin stressed, “To have Korean software find favor with global consumers, a paradigm shift from price competition to quality competition should come before everything else.” According to the US’s NISI survey conducted in 2002, losses incurred from low-quality software amounted to a whopping USD 59.5 billion a year. Securing software quality is not a choice but it’s a matter of survival, as evidence by Toyota’s 2010 recalls of over 10 million vehicles for the accelerator pedal problem. The debacle cost Toyota approximately KRW 6 trillion.
Director General Shin added, “Paying heed to the importance of software quality control, CEOs of software companies should make investments in software development. And professional software testing taskforces and experts are also required. In addition, customers need to comparison shop based on their judgments on software functions and quality rather than on price or which software company produces the product.” He thought investment in software quality enhancement and purchase decisions based on quality will eventually boost consumer confidence in Korean software and jack up the competitiveness of Korean software.
