Parquesoft

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Parquesoft is a registered trademark that distinguishes a Colombian organization dedicated to the development and promotion of software and technology. It supports the creation and sustaining of micro enterprises in many cities of Colombia. Parquesoft has not only sold US$29 million in products since its founding but also broke a paradigm in the process: It lets young people with limited resources partake in the global economy. Parquesoft has 11 more regional operations in medium-sized Colombian cities. The initiative is led by Orlando Rincon, a successful 43-year-old Cali businessman who grew up modestly and a leftist. For 2008, the objective at Parquesoft is for all of the companies to post combined sales of $100 million.

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[edit] Description

Founded in 1999, ParqueSoft supports the creation and development of software enterprises in 12 major Colombian cities located along the Valle del Cauca corridor. To date, this network of technology parks includes 200 enterprises, 800 entrepreneurs and more than 400 professionals that provide them with administrative and business development services. ParqueSoft is innovative in three areas: Its business model: a non-profit organization, its purpose is to develop and strengthen business entrepreneurs who design and produce software goods and services. These young entrepreneurs come from the most marginalized communities in the Valle del Cauca. ParqueSoft is not an incubator, but is built on the notion that each is part of a growing community of entrepreneurial ventures that synergistically nurture one another’s creativity and talents and welcome new entrepreneurs into its growing fold. Its organizational model: the board of ParqueSoft comprises its entrepreneurs. The group defines the policies, strategies and activities. With a policy of “zero bureaucracy,” all administrative activities are subcontracted to other enterprises within or outside ParqueSoft, thus reducing costs of rent, electricity, communications and maintenance to a minimal annual US$ 300 per person. Its selection model: the selection of entrepreneurs is based on an interview between the candidate and a committee of 12 ParqueSoft entrepreneurs. The most important criteria for selection are the characteristics of the entrepreneur and their colleagues, including their willingness to invest their energy, passion and talents, to take risks and work hard to achieve their goals. The content of the product they propose to develop is likewise important, but slightly less so. The least important is the existence of a business plan and the curriculum vitae of the entrepreneur.

[edit] Background

Orlando Rincón Bonilla is a firm believer in the creative capacity and commitment of his compatriots. But with the enormous challenges that face the nation, what is the best social and economic development model that will allow economic growth and enhance equity and justice without compromising that creativity? In pursuit of an answer to that question, he visited several Asian and European countries that were being touted as “economic miracles” thanks to their ability to create a niche in the Information Technology industry. He observed with disappointment that behind that miracle were managers—not self-starting entrepreneurs—who had been hired by global companies located in Los Angeles or London, justifying the low wages paid by reasoning that the workers were earning much more than they would if contracted by a local company. That was not good enough for Bonilla. He returned from this sojourn convinced that it was possible, with a small amount of capital, to start a software technology park that would create major opportunities for Cali, then submerged in a grave economic and social crisis because of the devastating problem of drug trafficking.

[edit] Strategy

Anyone who thinks that ParqueSoft is primarily about Information Technology businesses would be mistaken. ParqueSoft is fundamentally focused on creating social value, not software companies. Its mission is to stimulate democracy and justice through the inclusion of previously marginalized young people living in low-income communities. ParqueSoft seeks to transform them into protagonists of their enterprises, not employees. For large global companies such as Microsoft and IBM, ParqueSoft is highly interesting since it contributes to the development of the Software industry in Colombia and helps with job creation. ParqueSoft’s 12 offices are located in the major cities of the Valle del Cauca; each is a beehive of activity. Within a large open space, enterprises are organized into blocks, depending on the size of the team. Each team is a software company that designs, develops and sells many different types of software including optics, artificial intelligence, edutainment, bioinformatics and, as of early 2005, tools for nanotechnology. These companies currently sell their software in 42 countries. The open space system allows for continuous informal exchanges within and across each company. ParqueSoft has created a great ecosystem that stimulates innovation, inquiry and improvement of software products for sale to national and international clients. ParqueSoft supports all these efforts in their early stages. It organizes support in 16 areas; each is under the responsibility of entrepreneurs with expertise in that field, who, from their own enterprises, provide the support. These areas include legal support, market analysis, human resources, communications and public relations, savings funds, credit and risk capital funds and business development, to name a few. To foster an entrepreneurial culture, ParqueSoft has a programme whereby every two months it integrates 150 young people for 8 weeks into the different enterprises according to their interests. The youth participate in the activities of the enterprise and learn what it is like to be wrapped up in the world of technology and science from a venture perspective. The objective is to teach these young participants about technology and business, and help them to envisage themselves as agents of change rather than as future employees.

[edit] Companies from Parquesoft

One of the better-known companies from Parquesoft is Manglar, a four-employee outfit--two of which are in Russia--that invented and patented software that corrects distortion in a projected image that arises when a projector is poorly placed. According to iSuppli/Stanford, a consultancy, the worldwide market in 2006 for projectors will grow by 80% and in 2007 it will hit $17,900 million. Other software businesses to come out of Parquesoft include Immersion Software, which from its start three years ago began to create applications for the construction and security businesses and has since closed deals with companies in New York. A little more than a year ago the company began to develop video games. After much effort, Immersion closed a deal with a big U.S. firm that, between royalties and production agreements, could mean $2 million in revenue, according to Ernesto Galvez, Immersion's 28-year-old president. His 11 employees come from academic backgrounds as varied as sociology and electrical engineering.

[edit] Personal Snapshot

Orlando Rincón Bonilla, one of ten siblings, grew up in an impoverished neighbourhood in Cali, Colombia. Though his political activism as an adolescent cost him a place at the public university, it opened other opportunities. He won a scholarship at a private university that educated the sons of Cali’s major businessmen. This marked a turning point for Bonilla, as his exposure to their way of thinking influenced his own, convincing him that ideology alone was not the answer. His double specialization in Engineering and Anthropology, and his passion for mathematics, led him to computer sciences and software. In 1984, he founded Open Systems Ltd, which became one of the leading examples of Colombia’s emerging Software industry. As head of the company, he accumulated a wealth of experience and knowledge on running and managing a software company. But he was troubled by the tension between profit maximization and the importance of social development, which remained of paramount importance to him. He realized he had to foster entrepreneurs with a different mindset that would understand that markets could provide a way to achieve equity and justice, and decided to pursue that vision. Bonilla sold all of his stock in Open Systems and founded ParqueSoft in 1999 as a non-profit enterprise. From the outset, he wanted to build an innovation park that would draw young entrepreneurial minds from poor communities who showed talent in software development and a commitment to their communities and country—not just to their financial balance sheets.

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