Software park: Key role in the ICT industry

Key platform for industry offers support and funds to nurture innovation, Tang Zhihao reports.

A key center for China's software development industry, Shanghai Pudong Software Park aims to become a world-class innovation park for both domestic and foreign companies.

"Among the first batch of software parks launched in China, SPSP has become an important platform that supports the development of software and information system developers," said one expert at the park.

Jointly established by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Shanghai municipal government, the park has seen significant growth in number of resident enterprises since it opened in 2000.

Currently, a total of 1,391 companies are operating in SPSP, providing more than 1,000 products and services. World leading software developers and service providers such as SAP, TCL, HTL, Freescale, TATA, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Citigroup Service and Technology all have a presence in the park.

It has received such titles as National Software Industrial Base and National Software Outsourcing Base. And it is also established as a national business incubator for small technology firms.

In the past three decades, the SPSP has launched four sub-parks in Shanghai, the Guo Shoujing Park, Zu Chongzhi Park, Sanlin World Expo Park and Kunshan Park.

And it is planning to create another two sub-parks: Chuansha Park and Sanlin Park.

Companies in the SPSP mainly provide products and services for six industries, including chip design, the Internet, software outsourcing, e-commerce, industry applications and culture creativity.

In 2013, software developers and information service companies in the park generated a total income of 55.2 billion yuan ($9 billion).

But there are a growing number of software development parks in China, and SPSP is considering how to maintain its competitiveness and attract more world leading companies to strengthen SPSP's position in the world.

Services and support

The SPSP is enhancing its service quality to compete with the newcomers.

"We are part of China's software industry and will spare no efforts to serve companies better," said a senior SPSP manager.

The park operator launched a new one-stop service system in 2009 and identified five key service areas including technical support and network communications, human resources training and exchanging, business incubation and investment financing, operations consulting and business promotion and amenity facilities and basic infrastructure.

In terms of smart public services, SPSP developed an IT Services Cloud called Wiz Cloud in 2011, the first public cloud that was built and operated by a software park.

It is based on the latest cloud computing technology and is part of a high-end IT service platform the park provides.

The project has helped small and medium-sized enterprises, which make up nearly half of all the companies at the SPSP, reduce their IT expenditure and transition into cloud computing services.

The SPSP also provides business incubation services to start-ups and helps them overcome the challenges they might face in the early stages.

The SPSP has established an investment fund of 250 million yuan, which provides support to both start-up companies and growing companies.

The SPSP will also provide consulting services and hardware supports according to enterprises' needs. In addition, the SPSP will provide personalized services to companies so as to better meet businesses' changing requirements.

The SPSP said it has established a database which can evaluate a certain company's contribution, loyalty and growth to the park, which enables it to provide customized services to companies.

Future development

The SPSP has set three main objectives: The first is to build an innovation community with management.

The second is to improve the service system so as to serve resident companies' through their whole business cycle.

Third, it will establish a tiered incubation system, which can provide financial and support services dependent on their stage of development.

According to the park's 12th Five Year Plan (2011-15), the target is to achieve a total output value of 60 billion yuan by 2015.

Contact the writer at tangzhihao@chinadaily.com.cn