SEOUL, KOREA -- "People form the core of a company."
“My vision is to create environment and soil where knowledge experts are cultivated and they in turn become higher level experts by nurturing other knowledge experts,” Cho Chong-arm, the CEO of Exem, says at the very beginning of the interview.
Cho believes that “the stability of organization is important in managing a company,” and that “people are the foundation of organizational stability.” The name ‘Exem’ was created by combining the words expert and empire to mean the empire of experts. When asked what his management philosophy is, he answers in one word without hesitation – people. And people are what Mr. Cho believes is at the core of business management. Whether it is a strategy, product, or service, it is always people who are at the center in business, he says.
“If knowledge experts can work properly and consistently, then the company becomes stable, which in turn brings profit.” This is why Cho pays the most attention to the ‘human resources management system.’ From Cho’s perspective, Exem should be a ‘happy workplace’ where employees feel a sense of achievement and pleasure with work and share them with colleagues.
Exem and its ‘knowledge corporation strategy’
Established in 2001, Exem is a leading system software firm that provides IT system performance management products and services, having created and developed the concept of database performance management for the first time in Korea. Apart from performance management products supporting Oracle, Microsoft SQL server, and IBM DB2, they offer consulting for over 200 major Korean corporations like Samsung Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor, SK Telecom, POSCO, Korea Exchange Bank, Korea Electric Power Corporation, and Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute. Exem is the biggest IT system performance management company in Korea.
Exem Corporate Blueprint
Exem Corporate Blueprint
Exem’s corporate philosophy of creating a company that fosters people with ‘knowledge corporation’ strategy came to fruition in the form of high-quality products, services, and training. The cycle of ‘Share→ Create→ Spread’ is the key to understanding Exem, as it creates the basis on which Exem aims to produce software and grow together with its clients.
Whenever releasing a new software, Cho publishes a book that accompanies its launch. The books are written by the engineer who developed the software and are printed by the company’s own publishing division, such as Oracle Optimizing Optimizer and Advanced OWI. The publishing process brings a sense of accomplishment to the employees, and are used as manuals for Exem products as well as addressing the clients' most pressing questions. The company holds technical seminars every two months and they have proven to be a big hit. About 40 people attend each seminar.
Having decided that a company has to have its own culture for ‘human resources management, Cho has made efforts to create an autonomous, knowledge-based environment where employees realize what they need to do, then take action on their own. The company’s vision, strategy, corporate blog, newsletter, and CEO Blog all contribute to making his -- and every employee's -- vision of Exem a reality. This was the management policy that brought lower turnover and higher profits at Exem when most Korean software companies have difficulties finding qualified labor.
The knowledge-based customer service also accelerated the company’s sales as clients began to differentiate Exem from other companies. Since its establishment in 2001, Exem has increased its annual profit by over 20 percent on average: from KRW 5 billion in 2006 to KRW 8 billion in 2008 and KRW10 billion in 2011.
Exem’s main accomplishments: MaxGauge and InterMax
MaxGauge. It was 2001 when Exem pioneered the field of database performance management field by developing a tool that monitors and analyzes databases in real-time in order to detect potential problems. Adding to the momentum, Exem released MaxGauge, a database management system (DBMS) that boasts world-class technology, which topped the charts in the Korean marketplace.
MaxGauge is a ‘specialized performance management tool’ that enables a system, database, or application manager to monitor, diagnose, manage, analyze, and fine-tune performance effectively, in real-time.
MaxGauge collects performance data generated from databases using minimum load, reports errors and shows degradations before taking proper measures. Logging the performance data in the same form real-time means you can precisely analyze and report the problem from different angles later on. LitePlus, a tuning tool that is organically linked, allows easy and quick performance optimization process. MaxGuage is offered in different versions for Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, and MySQL database.
The birth of MaxGauge brought domestic software to the Korean government, state-run enterprises, and major corporations that used to rely on foreign products. MaxGauge has contributed greatly to improve the value of Korean software, energize the database performance management market, as well as develop the country’s IT industry.
InterMax
InterMax. The company’s distinguished technology resulted in the development of InterMax, an application performance management (APM) solution, in 2002. It is a professional tool for prismatic monitoring, diagnosis, and analysis of business transactions performed on WAS-DB (Web Application Server-Data Base) systems.
Apart from easy installation, what differentiates this APM solution is that it monitors the client's web server, WAS (Web Application Server), and other databases real-time in exacting detail, and unlike its competitors, allows precise monitoring of each by linking database and WAS information. Matching on a one-to-one basis, InterMax was designed to find a mutual link whether it is a top-down or bottom-up system. Moreover system reliability was further enhanced by source history management checking changes in the source after deployment.
Exem’s technological prowess was proven many times over by certificates and awards including patent approval; approval from Ministry of Information and Communication, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Science and Technology; Jang Young-sil Award, Public Procurement Service’s Good Product; Good Software (GS) certificate from Korea Software Enterprise Association; and grand prize from New Software Product Award by the Federation of Korea Information Industries.
Social Networks. Exem is also keeping its eyes on the development of social networking services (SNS) in Korea. Exem’s interpretation of current trends that emphasize two-way communication and life-log can be found in SyncClip, which allows users to share the story of a book that they read on the web and SNS, and MList, which enables users to create private meeting spaces online.
Exem’s overseas achievements and strategies for 2012
Exem’s overseas activities focus on Japan and China, after the company set up a local corporation in each country in 2008. Exem has globalized Korean technology by continuously supplying solutions to major local corporations like Oki Electric Industry, NEC, Nomura Research Institute, China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Citic Bank.
The Korean software-maker's know-how was once again proven when Exem signed a contract with Japan’s Sun Bridge in 2004. In China, Exem operates out of I’Park, an economic zone by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency -- and has built an export platform after marketing and selling the products to Korean corporations operating in China.
Exem is now recording KRW 1 billion and KRW 700 million of annual sales. This year, overseas sales in other regions are expected to reach KRW 2 billion.
“We are focusing on expanding our operation in China,” Cho said, “and, in the US and Europe, we have entered into partnerships with and service Korean companies operating in the regions.” He added that “in 2012 we will pour more efforts into entering overseas markets.” Cho believes that you should take care of business by yourself to see results in the overseas market; in other words, passion is required before any accomplishment. The company is also examining OEM or exclusive partner managements.
Exem has set its sales target for KRW 15 billion for the upcoming year. We wish them much luck.
