The Software Practice was our first industry-specific practice group. The rapid rate at which software technology evolves, coupled with some of the recent and pending mergers, make the software industry a volatile and exciting place to be.

Within the Software Practice, our Client Partners are predominantly in one of two categories: Enterprise and Internet. In each category we are partnered with the global leaders, as well as some of the top-performing small and mid-sized companies. Since 2002 we have seen a gradual decline in the number of new software companies entering the Japan market, however at any given time we are working with a handful of promising start-up opportunities.

The total number of significant sized companies in this area have decreased due to an incredible wave of consolidation largely driven by acquisitions done by IBM and Oracle.

Within the Internet Software segment, the demand for Windows-based technology skills continues to rise while the need for pure Unix engineers remains relatively flat. The demand from our clients for .NET / Windows expertise outweighed the demand for Java / Unix by a ratio of almost 2 to 1 and we foresee this trend continuing going forward.

Also, despite numerous advancements by the global internet giants in areas including search, messaging, and other web services, the shift in the percentage of local Japan market share that each of them occupy has been minimal. This has caused a recent upsurge in the demand for internet Product Management skills, as well as technical professionals with not only strong programming, but strong analytical and creative thinking abilities as well.