Prosoftware (Project concluded 2000-2004)
The Program
In Costa Rica The Software Sector Competition Support Program (Prosoftware) was partially financed through the non-refundable technical cooperation of the Multilateral Investing Fund (Fomin) from the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) and was created with the active participation of three institutions:
- The Foreign Trade Promoter of Costa Rica (Procomer)
- National Foundation for High Technology (FUNCENAT)
- Costa Rican Chamber of Information and Communication Technologies (Camtic)
All the national companies that work with design and production of software can participate in the Program, even though these might not be affiliated with Camtic.
Objectives
The main objective is to contribute to improve the competitiveness of the software sector in Costa Rica.
Individually, the specific objectives of the program correspond to one of the components of the Project and their action areas:
- Education Component: Strengthen the creation of human resources in IT, in order to increase the quantity, quality, and diversity of technical professionals, within the requirements of the software sector companies.
- Quality Component: Improve the gestation of software companies throughout the introduction of gestation systems of international caliber, which will require an increase in their competitiveness.
- Institutional Strengthening Component: Strengthen Camtic's institutional capability to improve the services provided to different players in the software industry.
Studies for each of these documents can be found in Research and Studies.
Sources of Funding
The Program's total investment was of two million five hundred thousand US dollars (US$2.500.000). CENAT's contribution consisted of a similar amount. Following, the distribution of funds:
Project Results
The Program resulted in favorable outcomes that brought great benefits for the development of the software sector in Costa Rica. The Project results go as follow:
-
Creation of Human Capital
In order to determine the necessary qualifications of information technology personnel, the private sector and the academia worked together to identify improvement areas of the current educational curriculum basing their arguments on previous research studies on needs of local software industry, recommendations from international organizations, experts' opinions, and market tendencies.
Furthermore, the Project worked with faculty from key institutions that were identified in the educational curriculum to augment and improve their teaching experience, to incorporate and instructional and graphic design in the current computing training, and encourage gender equity, thus increasing national human capital.
-
Improve Quality Standards
The Program worked on increasing productivity and quality of the IT sector to be able to compete in the highly competitive international market. Several companies were advised on how to improve their production processes, certification systems and evaluations, such as Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and ISO norms, through specialized training, consulting and with a high degree of technology transfer.
-
Strengthen Institutions
Vital alliances were created among sector related organizations, not only between companies that are focused on the creation of IT solutions, but also among a broader range of ITC companies. This led to the creation of Camtic, who is responsible for facilitating, coordination and consolidating the national ICT sector.
The following chart summarizes the accomplishments that took place during the duration of the Program:
Sector Evolution Indicators 2000-2004
|
Accomplishments |
2000 |
2004 |
% Increase |
|
Software Production Companies |
137 |
150 |
9.5% |
|
Companies affiliated with Camtic |
22 |
105 |
377%
|
|
% Large Size (+100 employees) |
3% |
9% |
200% |
|
Medium (20-100 employees) |
23% |
31% |
35% |
|
Small (5-20 employees) |
46% |
43% |
-6.5% |
|
Micro (1-5 employees) |
28% |
17% |
-39% |
|
Employees per company (average) |
15,2 |
30% |
97% |
|
Employees in the software sector (total) |
2.083 |
4.500 |
116% |
|
Companies that have applied quality standard systems |
0 |
15 |
|
|
CMM Certified Companies |
0 |
2 (4 in process) |
|
|
ISO-9000 software certified companies |
0 |
4 (5 in process) |
|
|
Software export value |
$50 USA* |
$70 USA* |
40% |
|
* millions of US dollars |
|
|
|
