Processes and Operations continue to change, every industry undergoes a substantial amount of revolution, this change is progressive because people are looking for more efficient ways to get things done, ranging from office tasks, industrial operations to home utilities. People become creative when they are looking for a solution to a problem, challenge or a crude, inflexible process.
The idea of ‘making life easier’ is a concept so to speak, that has trended in the software industry for some years now, it is a concept that has sponsored creativity in the industry. Holding to such concepts, developers literally scout for problems and challenges in everyday life, and then try to solve those by writing a software program that can address the issue. Personally, as a software developer, I enjoy writing codes to solve real-world problems, there is nothing more comforting than the feeling one gets as a developer when you see people use and benefit from a software that was created by you.
Software, as it is, is a tool to drive development and economy when the right policies and learning capacity are in place. Mechanical devices used for large scale industrial productions rely on good software systems for their operability. War systems and nuclear warheads/nukes rely solely on software to run and navigate them at high speeds and transportation will soon solely depend on software with the advent of electrical and self-driving cars filling up the market.
Now the question is, how can a country utilize software for development and economic growth? well, the answer does not lie in government using sophisticated software systems in government circles alone.
To benefit and use software to drive the economy, first, Software must be seen and perceived of as an asset, a tool that can be used to bring more money into the pocket of the country or the particular industry intending such. You see, when you spend millions or thousands of dollars buying software that you only use and have to periodically pay for an upgrade, it becomes a liability on the government or the industry because it takes away money from the pocket of the industry/country. In order to use Software as an asset in an organisation, when you have a need, challenge or problem, while using a temporal solution, a team could be deployed to create the software needed to solve the issue. When the software is ready, it becomes a software product, which can be sold to other companies or countries who have similar issues or are anticipating such. This way, you solved your problem, and you have the software serving as a product in the market that brings you money whenever there is a sale, talk less of the value the product is providing. So, rather than take money away from you, it brings money into the system. This is one-way software can be used as an asset.
Another way is to develop a system that enables young citizens who are interested in development to build the necessary capacity required to develop creative software products that will thrive in the market. Most of this products will serve as the foundation for startup companies that will generate revenue, locally and internationally, that was how Facebook and android started, for example, Facebook was a product built by someone first, which then became a company producing other software products that are useful to the world.
Concluding on this, The impact of Software in developing countries depends to a great extent on the ability of the country/industry to see Software as an asset, and thus use it as such, because it is only then that you would not only be solving a problem for yourself but would also be solving the same problem for other countries/government/industries and thus providing value and making money continuously from the product that once solved your problems.
