The venture boom at the end of the 1990s was a great vogue for those dreaming of a bright future not only in Korea but also in the world. However, after the venture bubble burst, everybody could see the fact well that such a temptation to make success in business was no easy task.
Recently, enterprises in the IT software field are struggling to cope with the slowdown in economic growth and the Chinese market's growing significance. Under these difficult conditions, one venture company is effectively coping with a rapid change in the domestic IT software market and expanding its business overseas, showing the appearance of the IT superpower and proving Darwin's evolutionary theory that species more suited for adaptation can survive more easily than species more resistant to change.
That company is Atto Information Technology (www.attoit.co.kr), which was established in 2001, with the SI business for budget and accounting for public corporations. Now it is a leading venture company in the IT service sector including Web development, sales of framework, SOA/EA consulting, IT education business, e-work market place service business and overseas projects, enjoying a stable growth despite the overall economic slump.
The special feature of Atto Information Technology is unstinted investment in R&D projects. At present, 20 percent of the company's total employees are working at a technology research center affiliated with Atto for the development of new products and technology. Also, over 85 percent of its employees work for research and development projects.
It also reinvests a considerable portion of sales in technological research with the aim of creating future-oriented new technology. In 2005, it acquired the KT mark from the Ministry of Science and Technology for its framework technology for the development of component-based Web.
Its superiority in technology and management has been widely recognized by the Small and Medium Business Administration's designation as the management and technology-innovative export company, recipients of ISO 9001 quality certification, a transparent management company certification and high-technology entrepreneurship certification by the Technology Credit Guarantee Fund. The main business of Atto has not been confined only to software. Based on its state finance business-related know-how, it built a "digital budget and accounting system", a state finance integration system of the Ministry of Planning and Budget.
Based on its manpower for core consulting and development in the public sector, it is also concentrating on strategic management through diversification and globalization, including advancement into Vietnam and India with its overseas e-government projects. At present, it has locally incorporated firms in India and has applied for its establishment in Pune City. Atto also plans to set up a locally incorporated firm in Hanoi, Vietnam in late 2007, enhancing the status of Korea as an IT superpower.
SynergyFrame is one of the main products developed by is seeking a result-oriented principle to successfully realize corporate informatization. Under the result-oriented principle, it should a offer high-quality system, reduction in costs for development, ease of repair and maintenance after development and convenience of users. It also should tide over risk factors related to the evolution of development method and change of development language.
SynergyFrame is the SOA-based Web development framework solution made to solve problems occurring in the process of implementing SI projects. It was designed to develop each class through the CBD method according to standards, guidelines and Model-View-Controller (MVC), preparing the cornerstone of Web service of Service Orient Architecture (SOA) and making Web application easily and conveniently. Accordingly, it can improve the quality of realized systems. It is a framework that advanced one step further, bringing about a significant reduction in TCO and a core technology and business of Atto Information Technology.
SynergyFrame won Good Software quality certification, the highest award for first Korea software technology grand prize, the 2005 Korea technology grand prize and the award given by the minister of commerce, industry and energy, receiving recognition of its high technology and quality.
It is software with a new concept that maximizes the efficiency of the development of a Web-based corporate business system. It is now being applied to the government's (ministry of planning and budget) "digital budget and accounting system" and the Web-based business system of a number of public institutions and general companies. Atto is also equipped with various product lineups, including "SynergyJournal", which builds public institutions' accounting system easily and "eWork," an online project transaction system.
Kang Kwan-shik, CEO of Atto Information Technology, said, "Most employees are shareholders of our company. All workers have made our company as it is with their endless efforts and supply of fresh ideas under the thought that Atto is their own company. Last year, when other companies in the same business sector faced crisis owing to slowdown of sales and a drop in profits, we could double growth and enjoyed big profits.
Kang also thinks it is attributable to the strenuous efforts of Atto's executives and employees, who have actively engaged in work under the company motto of passion and creation. He said: "We will not sit on the laurels of our present achievements . we will make doubled efforts with a global mind to dominate the world's e-government syste
