Neusoft attains a name worth US$1.2m
( 2001-05-28 16:18) (1)
Ten million yuan (US$1.2 million) for one name, it's worth it, said Liu Jiren, chairman of China's biggest software maker, Neusoft.
The Shenyang-based software maker changed its name from Neu-Alpine to Neusoft last week.
As a public listed company, the name changing process will cost the firm over 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million), according to Liu.
As a former university professor, Liu said he was hesitant about starting a company. But in order to support his technological research he opened a software company ten years ago.
Just like many companies in the early 1990s did, Liu thought that co-operating with a foreign partner and using its name in the joint venture would make the products easier to sell. The company was thus named Neu-Alpine, after its major partner Japan-based Alpine.
Over the next 10 years, and after the company went public in Shanghai five years ago, the company was stuck with the name due to the contract it held with the Japanese partner.
"Having a foreign company's name did help the sales of our products, but it also cost a lot," said Liu, who said the name changing task now is an expensive correction of a mistake made 10 years ago.
Starting with three people and three computers, Neusoft is now a software group with assets of 2.5 billion yuan (US$301 million) and has over 20 subsidiaries around China and representatives in the United States, Japan and Hong Kong.
The company also constructed the country's first software park, Neusoft Park.
Neusoft's 3,500 employees have an average age of 26 and the company has become China's software flagship.
Riding on the rapid development of China's telecoms industry, Neusoft is now the major domestic supplier of billing software, short messaging systems and Internet telephony solutions for most of the country's seven telecom operators.
"The phone call volume of one province is larger than that of a European country," said Liu.
Alliance has been Neusoft's key to success. The company has over 1,000 partners around the world. Big international software names, such as Sun, IBM and Cisco, are all strategic partners.
"Neusoft cannot rival Microsoft or Oracle in operation systems or database solutions, where the two lead the world respectively. Telecommunications, especially the opportunities provided by broadband and wireless communication will help Neusoft establish its reputation internationally," said Liu.
Embedded software, frequently used in appliances like microwave ovens, TVs and VCD players, which are mainly made by Chinese vendors, is a new development opportunity that Chinese software makers must take in hand, according to Liu.
"Do not follow others, make your own products," is Liu's advice to domestic software firms.
The company has earned over one billion yuan (US$120 million) in the domestic capital market and will soon be branching out into international capital and technology markets.
The name change is the first step in Neusoft's international strategy.
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