1.
Jan Softa - CEO of Somerco Research Ltd.
Draft proposal -
Enhance EC member states competitiveness in R & D
- Part 2: Strategy to support the software industry
Abstract: In this paper I discuss how the ITRE committee and the Commissions Directorate General for
Enterprise and Industry can develop its work towards the software industry in order to achieve a high
usability of these companies software and how software companies that rely on IP-rights can be helped
by crowd sourcing if their IP-rights are protected. And if EU has a clear legal framework that protects
software company’s IP-rights when they use crowd sourcing as a work method, it can develop into a
competitive advantage against other parts of the world.
Background
Helping geniuses! Our slogan sums up who Somerco aims to help. Somerco are a
company that target to help researchers and innovators so that these geniuses can
create prosperity and jobs in society. In order to achieve this aim, it is important to
also help governmental officials in international and national governmental agencies.
In this paper, I discuss three topics when it concern EUs development of highly
competitive European software companies. The focus is on cooperation, usability and
crowd sourcing.
Introduction
The discussion about cooperation between EU and the software industry present a
way forward for how EU can enhance the European software company’s
competiveness. The discussion about how EU can work with software companies to
achieve the highest usability in software is specific for the software industry. Finally,
the discussion about crowd sourcing is about a work method that suits the software
sector that can be further developed.
Cooperation
Should EU take on a leading role when it concern enhancing the support for software
companies? There are many reasons to answer: - Yes!
By using the Parliaments ITRE committee and the Commissions Directorate General
for Enterprise and Industry EU has a broad platform for their cooperation with the
software industry. It is important for these to have a direct dialogue with the software
industry and bring in new work tasks that create opportunities for these companies to
succeed. The software industry is important in many aspects. A factor to discuss is
Europe’s vulnerability due to our dependency of importing IT products. Moreover,
the software has a growing job sector and in just a few years it is estimated that there
will be a shortage of 1 million employable workers. Good reasons to have cooperation
in order to help. In this suggestion, I focus on how EU can cooperate in order to make
the software industry more competitive. In Europe we have many highly talented
people in this sector, but still very few large software companies in comparison to our
size. There are no company in the size of Microsoft or Google. Now also software
companies from India and China is catching up or perhaps even surpassing the
European software companies. The race is on – what can we do right now?

2.
Jan Softa - CEO of Somerco Research Ltd.
I believe it just not important, it is vital that the ITRE committee and the Directorate
General for Enterprise and Industry play an important part of helping this industry. In
order to help them there is need for cooperation. In this cooperation it is important to
acknowledge what challenges the European software company’s face and seek
solutions they can adopt in order to grow and compete on a global market. Below I
pinpoint two focus areas I believe will help the software industry to grow. It is
usability and crowdsourcing.
Usability
Usability is a key focus in order to become a future successful software company. To
achieve the highest usability it is important European software companies let their
software integrate into other company’s software and share info between software’s. I
believe it is the best way forward unless you are big as Google, Microsoft or Apple
who can afford to do much on its own. A concrete example between the different
approaches is online file storage, which have become a popular function. Dropbox
and HiDrive are companies specialized on online file storage.1
The popularity of this
function among people has been embraced by Google, Microsoft and Apple and they
have developed their own similar file storage solution. Google call their Drive.
Currently, I cannot see that European software companies can have this approach;
instead they should let HiDrive become an integrated part of their own software. It is
important to acknowledge that the European software companies need to work after a
different approach to increase the usability of their software. In other words, to
achieve the highest usability you need to integrate.
Normally, people discuss software in the categories SaaS - software as a service and
PaaS – platform as a service. Both of them are used in the development of end-user
software, meaning software used when we read, write, calculate, play games and so
on. To make it easy to understand what I focus on in this suggestion I have divided
software providers into three different categories. Developers of regular software are
used by anyone in work or at home. An example is Microsofts Windows. Leisure
software developers are focusing on game development and music services like
Spotify. Work software developers are focusing on helping professionals in their
work. Examples of work software are SAGE software for bookkeeping and SAP who
have procurement software and Dessault Systems who have their information
intelligence software Exalead.
When it concern regular software like windows and excel it is not common to find
these types of software integrated into other companies platforms such as
Salesforce.com or social networks. The software giants that own these types of
software do often opt for integrating them into their own platforms. Google have Docs
with their own version of windows, excel and power point on their own platform.
European software companies have few of these software’s, but the ones who exist
should opt for a different approach and integrate them into Salesforce.com and into
social networks.
In leisure software European companies has started the process to integrate into other
platforms. One example is Spotify with their integration into Facebook. In their case it
1
Dropbox and Hi Drive provide an online store place where you save your files instead of on you
computer because you want access to them from anywhere without bringing your personal PC. The
files can be pdf-files, movies, music, etc.

3.
Jan Softa - CEO of Somerco Research Ltd.
has meant that they has increased their usability and dramatically increased its user
base. It is companies like these who will become winners now and in the future.
When it concern European work software providers like SAP and SAGE it is
considered of utmost importance to integrate into platforms as Salesforce.com and
social networks. Some of their work software is already on these platforms because
they want to be where they customers are. In turn, it increases their software’s
usability.
The ITRE committee and the Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry should
map out more exactly what European companies that have come furthest in the
process of integrating into other platforms. Invite them to discussions and explore if
there are new possibilities to share information between their software’s. And when
possible, these companies should opt for developing their software so that others can
integrate their software into theirs. I believe the software companies who are the
furthest with this approach will become most successful. These could be used as
locomotives that pull other European software companies forward. EU could have an
outspoken strategy with the software industry to push this development forward.
Crowd sourcing2
As discussed above, in order to increase software’s usability integrating one
company’s software into another is one way to increase the European software
company’s competiveness.
What more can be done in order to increase this competitiveness?
I want to point to crowd sourcing as another approach, but what is it?
I start with giving an example outside the IT sector. The car manufacturer Renualt
buy different parts from subcontractors. The steering wheel comes from one
company, the clutch from a second and the seatbelt from a third and so on. Renualt
takes these parts and build a car.
Crowd sourcing is not a new approach in software; it is the essence in open source
code projects as Ubuntu and Wikipedia. But let us discuss if crowd sourcing has a
future when it concern commercially run software companies who rely on that IP-
rights will protect their income sources. I believe there are a huge potential in crowd
sourcing also for these companies and that there are benefits in working this way. The
technology to cooperate this way is already here. However, there are a few
uncertainties that EU could sort out in order to boost and develop this work method
also for companies who rely on IP-rights.
What should EU focus on in order to make crowd sourcing even more interesting for
these companies? Software companies should be able to let/invite talent outside the
company to work for them on projects whenever for a fee, salary or bonus. It is a
solution I believe will become increasingly used in the future if it is clear who holds
the IP-rights.
Another focus area for EU and the software industry to look into is when crowd
sourcing can be used when multiple companies are involved in the development of
software. It means that different companies should be able to join in whenever on
projects. It is a more open approach than the traditional way of cooperating between
companies where you have a legal agreement in place before a project starts. The
ITRE committee and the Commissions Directorate General for Enterprise and
2
Crowd sourcing is distributed problem solving. By distributing tasks to a large group of people, you
are able to mine collective intelligence, assess quality and process work in parallel.

4.
Jan Softa - CEO of Somerco Research Ltd.
Industry should discuss, clarify and later adopt laws that pinpoint who have the IP
rights in such an open work environment that crowd sourcing are. It is important that
there is a common interpretation of legislation in place throughout Europe that
protects the IP rights for these companies. If EU has a clear legal framework that
protects these company’s IP-rights, it can develop into a competitive advantage
against other parts of the world.
Final thoughts
I believe a high usability by integration and having a clear legal framework in place
that protect software companies IP-rights when they use crowd sourcing is two key
factors that will create successful European companies and thereby new jobs. The
software sector and EU can take on a leader role in the development of a clearer legal
framework for crowd sourcing. It would not only benefit this sector but the whole
work sector in society – including R & D as a whole, retail, etc.
There are other key factors that will create successful European software companies.
A success factor for US software companies is their willingness to acquire other
companies in order to gain growth versus European company’s larger focus on
organic growth. But since EU is pushing and implementing new laws that make it
easier for cross-border investments for venture capitalists and business angels I have
left it out of the discussion.
A final remark: When software companies apply for funding in Horizon 2020 should
they also have a discussion if they can integrate and share information with other
existing software?