RMI Global Ventures, a Bangkok-based tech firm, is touting its ThaiWPS Office suite to encourage the use of licensed software and to compete with Microsoft's Office 365.
The company estimates the market for office software in Thailand at 6 billion baht. The recently passed cybersecurity and personal data protection laws are expected to lead to a rise in the use of copyright-protected software to avoid cyber incidents and data breaches.
Nuttakit Boonyawisitpokin, vice-president for sales and management at RMI, said the company is ready to aggressively market its software to new businesses and state agencies.
The ThaiWPS Office suite is localised for Thailand and was co-developed with Kingsoft, a Chinese software firm that owns the core engine of WPS Office.
According to Mr Nuttakit, RMI's software is lighter than rival Microsoft's and supports only the Thai language, while competitors support multiple languages that require more computer resources. As a result, WPS can run on old operating systems like Windows XP in addition to Windows 10.
The company is counting on the new cybersecurity and personal data protection laws to encourage the use of copyrighted software.
"We see that since Thais have dealt with ransomware in the past few years, businesses and state agencies that use illegal software will change to copyright in order to keep security updated," Mr Nuttakit said.
The company offers two models: a lifetime licence that cannot be upgraded to a newer version, or an annual licence fee that continuously updates to the newest version.
Plans call for a cloud-based subscription model by the third quarter, similar to the one offered by Google Docs, a free online alternative. RMI bills its minimum product as 60% cheaper than paid options.
The amount of unlicensed software in Thailand ranks third among Southeast Asian countries, trailing only Indonesia (83%) and Vietnam (74%).
According to the Software Alliance trade group, Asia-Pacific firms have the highest rate of unlicensed software usage in the world at 57%.
Kanokchana Petcharat, vice-president for marketing and strategy at RMI, said customers will receive a free 60-day trial. In addition, if users want to apply for other software such as ERP and document management, applications can be customised with Thai fonts and various templates used by government organisations.
Unlicensed software has a negative effect on the overall economy because of the increased risk of cyber-attacks. The damage from a threat such as malware can cost a firm up to US$10,000 per device. Organisations worldwide spend $359 billion a year to fix malware problems stemming from the use of pirated software.
Proper management of software use enables organisations to save up to 30% in costs each year, Mr Nuttakit said.
