In March 1991, the word SOFTIP meant one of hundreds of firm names in the business boom under new economic conditions. Following eight years, it has become a notion in the world of information technologies - a symbol of high-quality application software that has earned the favour of over 6,500 customers in Slovakia and in the Czech lands. "We have trained more than 100,000 users," the chairman of the Board of Directors and general manager of SOFTIP Banska Bystrica, a.s., RNDr. Daniel Dobrota, follows up with the first statistical data, "in order, for one thing, to work with our program products, but we have also initiated them into the rudiments of work with PCs, operation systems and text editors, for the other."

In this connection you once noted in granting certificates to your customers that you would righteously deserve a recognition from the Education Ministry.

"I meant a significant contribution by SOFTIP toward the application of computer users philosophy expressed by Microsoft with the words A computer on every table and in every house. It is an undisputable fact that SOFTIP has markedly contributed to the building of a second literacy of the Slovak nation."

SOFTIP's original line of business the formation of economic softwares including sale and installation with the customer. Another stage of the firm development were supplies of complex information systems.

"Staking on complex information systems entailed the winning of an extensive range of customers from small through medium-sized to large-scale firms doing business in trade, production, services, state administration and financial institutions, primarily in health insurance companies and pension funds. I would like to mention that by the term supply of a complex information system we have always understood a complete turnkey supply. That means the drawing up an initial analysis of that information system, defining its target state with a precise description of the implementation of individual phases including the supply of application softwares and putting them into routine operation, the supply of all hardwares, including communication, system and data base softwares, all this with a complete training of users with the customer at all management levels."

How do you see the fact if the firms searching through ad for an accountant request the command of a SOFTIP-made program as one of crucial selection criteria?

"As a pleasing reflection of the reality that for example the wage calculation program has become a Slovak standard, when over 3,200 legal entities and over 2,100 natural persons calculate wages using it. In all, more than 400,000 labour active persons in Slovakia calculate wages using the SOFTIP software Salaries and Wages.

SOFTIP products have positioned the firm into the forefront in several areas of application softwares. Is the same also true of cash registers, where SOFTIP was among pioneers in introducing them in Slovakia?

"In the years 1994 and 1995, we got involved in implementing the Regulation concerning mandatory registration of revenues using electronic cash registers. We have installed for end users over 7,000 cash registers, with the software installed with these cash registers and used to manage retail shops being currently active in more than 1,500 supermarkets, large-scale stores, small and medium-sized retail operations."

How would you characterize the position of your company in the Slovak economy in payroll and turnover terms?

"We have created more than 500 jobs taken up by highly-qualified specialists, of which a full third in new products development, the others in 24 subsidiaries and branches. As goes turnover, recently I read a news on one informatics company that had generated over five years of activity 0.5 billion Sk worth revenues, which was set up in the article to be a Slovak miracle. If we assessed SOFTIP based on this criterion, then it could qualify as a European miracle since it already chalked up such revenues in three years of its activity.

Probably somewhere here should an explanation be looked for why you were nominated for the 1997 economy prominent.

"I do not view this prestigious award as a personal merit, but as the result of team cooperation of top management, development, marketing, service, simply all the SOFTIP employees.

Can you bear comparison with your products when confronted with foreign competition?

"There are certainly many areas where there is no point of devising the devised, for instance operation systems, database servers, editing programs. Nobody has ambitions to compete with Bill Gates, but I have not yet heard about a foreign product successfully introduced in Slovakia or the Czech lands in some of health insurance companies or pension funds. I like taking part in bidding proceedings where I stand a chance of presenting that products originating in Slovak soil display world-class features and that they better comply with our conditions than any other foreign ones, however well-localized."

The principal feature of your company's business strategy is a perfect knowledge of the domestic environment. What are another?

"A perfect knowledge of historic connections, utmost flexible responding to all legislative changes, the application of state-of-the-art development tools and experience from successful implementations of information systems with thousands of customers. All this predestines SOFTIP to retain its position, giving its customers assurance regarding the quality of its products."

And how about the problem of the year 2000? Is this striking terror into you?

"The problem of passing over the millenium boundary, when many computer systems will be unable to distinct a two-digit entry of the year 00 as the year 2000 whereby grave system malfunctions and huge damage can be sustained, has already longer been at the hands of our developers. The result is the capacity to declare that SOFTIP software products are ready to pass over and into the year 2000 and therefore no data value will cause their interruption or incorrent run."

May we understand such that you are offering a concrete product to eliminate the economic threat of the year 2000?

"Our offer has two levels. The first level is the elaboration of the Audit 2000 complex project with a possible follow-up option to contract with us even for the implementation thereof. The second level comes in the shape of an option to invite in our experts in order to install our application software compyling with the 2000 switchover requirements into the prepared environment.

Slovak Trade FORUM