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More and more software is being delivered to businesses through the cloud. But, as The Wall Street Journal reports, Silicon Valley is losing out on many newer software companies despite its reputation as the world epicenter of technology.
As one analyst tells the newspaper, two-thirds of 96 public companies that deliver business software as a Web service have headquarters outside the Bay Area.
LED Secretary Stephen Moret is among the many economic development officials around the country who are working hard to lure software development companies to areas outside the industry’s traditional hub on the West Coast.
“The software development space is our No. 1 recruitment target at LED,” Moret tells Daily Report. “Our goal isn’t to dislodge Silicon Valley’s leadership position in this space but rather to be one of the top domestic alternatives to Silicon Valley, as well as to be one of the top domestic locations for companies that want to ‘reshore’ software development work they may currently be doing in low-cost offshore locations like India.”
To that end, Moret says, LED had dedicated two full-time employees to “lead-development activities focused exclusively on leading companies in the software development space” over the past 18 months. At the same time, new print and online marketing campaigns have also been created by LED, as well as targeted events on the West Coast and in other locations.
“We’re getting a lot of traction, and we expect to make some more significant software-development announcements later on this year,” Moret says.
Louisiana can offer emerging and established software companies several advantages over California, Moret says.
“Although Silicon Valley certainly is the hottest market in the world for cutting-edge software development, it also is one of the most expensive places in which to do business, from the very high cost of living to very high labor costs to the negative business climate of California to high turnover of software developers,” he says. “Silicon Valley will always be a major player in software development, but it will not have the majority of the software development jobs in the U.S.”
Moret says LED also sees an opportunity to recruit companies to Louisiana who may want to keep their headquarters and core software development teams in Silicon Valley, but shift a large portion of their software development work to an outside location in the U.S.
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Source Article from http://www.businessreport.com/article/20130731/BUSINESSREPORT0112/130739943
