Best practices for Singapore software firms eyeing a global market

SOFTWARE is big business. Just look at the meteoric rises of Google, Facebook, Uber, Amazon and countless others. In Singapore, the software business is prominent , but still in its infancy. Despite this fact, entrepreneurs should consider and invest in a global strategy. After all, the Smart Nation initiative sees software, IoT, cybersecurity, and electronic payments coming to the forefront of the national economy soon.

Beyond our shores, the competition is intense. Software development cycles are often compressed, with companies pushing to roll out solutions to address market opportunities. In the software arena, companies such as Alipay have more than tens of thousands of developers pushing out software updates fairly often. Tencent, another Chinese giant, is the world's largest game developer and sends out fixes and security patches daily.

Singaporean software companies struggle to compete, in terms of manpower, with countries such as China. However, for Singapore SMEs venturing overseas, a clear understanding of the competition and challenges that they will be facing is pertinent, and the preparation put in place prior to expansion will determine the success of the company.