SA has the potential to deliver tremendous software innovation, but is still lagging behind other countries with similar infrastructure. Catching up may simply require a mindset change.
This is according to Danny Naidoo, Microsoft SA director, .Net and developer group, who will be one of the speakers at the upcoming Brainstorm 2003 conference.
Naidoo`s address at the conference, entitled "Future opportunities enabled through innovation", will look at how local businesses can compete in the global software development space.
"In SA, there is tremendous capability to deliver world-class software solutions. However, even though SA has a developing economy similar to those of India or Israel, we are not playing in that space yet. I believe that we can," he says.
He believes it is common for South Africans to develop world-class solutions in response to specific problems, but then they do not capture the solution as a product to take to market.
Another stumbling block in the independent software vendor market, he says, is that venture capitalists don`t truly understand how to assess the value and risk of a software development company. In addition, he feels government policy frameworks do not go far enough to incentivise innovation.
"SA has all the potential to be a global software development player. It just requires a mindset change and programmes to help innovators bring products to market. This is where Microsoft aims to help."
Naidoo will address ITWeb`s Brainstorm 2003 conference on Thursday, 15 May. The conference runs alongside Computer Faire from 13 to 16 May 2003.
Bookings can be made online.
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