Rewriting the History of Korean Software,

Dae Yeon Park, Founder of TmaxSoft

“Over the MIRacle”, the slogan used by TmaxSoft, a Korean software company, represents its aspirations to break the current stranglehold in the global software market. In fact, the 'MIR' in 'MIRacle' stands for Microsoft, IBM, and ORacle: the three tech giants currently standing in the way of TmaxSoft's goal. Using its experience in rising to the top of Korea's system software industry, TmaxSoft is redoubling its efforts to rise above and "Over the MIRacle".

Two facets have been crucial in TmaxSoft's rise to the top of Korea's software market: superb technology and company founder Dae Yeon Park.

Meteoric Rise - From Night School Student to the Bill Gates of Korea

Dae Yeon Park established TmaxSoft in 1997 at the height of the Asian Financial Crisis. Within 6 years, TmaxSoft grew to be the most prominent system software company in Korea. To truly appreciate TmaxSoft's meteoric rise from small startup to Korea's market leader, one must take a look at Park’s life.

Dae Yeon Park was born in 1956, in Damyang, Jeollanamdo province. Due to his father’s poor health, Park suffered great economic hardships during his childhood. After graduating from elementary school, he worked for a small logistics company during the day and went to school during the night until he graduated high school. At that time, an employment guarantee was awarded to the valedictorian of each commercial high school. Park focused on his studies and not on his grim economic situation. After many years of hard work and study, Park was awarded a position at Hanil Bank in 1975.

With his position at Hanil Bank, Park was able to support his younger siblings' educations until they graduated university. Once his siblings finished their studies, Park used his experience working in Hanil's computer department to apply to the University of Oregon to study computer science. After just seven and a half years of study, Park was able to earn his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees in Computer Science. In fact, he received the best graduation thesis award for his Doctorate degree. After completing his studies, Park returned to Korea and was appointed as an Electrical Engineering professor at KAIST, Korea's most prominent technology university.

Even while working as a professor for KAIST, Park nurtured his dream of starting a software company, which began when he was operating IBM software-based servers at Hanil Bank. Realizing this dream was made difficult by the near insurmountable technological hurdles that awaited entrants in the Korean software industry. These hurdles led Korean companies to prefer reselling foreign software instead of developing their own. Many people even remarked that the development of system software based on Korean technology was a fool's errand. The use of foreign-made software was thought to be the only choice. However, Park shattered these misconceptions when he finally realized his dream and established TmaxSoft.

Despite the plethora of naysayers, TmaxSoft released JEUS, a WAS product that met the needs of a rapidly growing Korean web environment. In three years, JEUS surpassed BEA, Oracle, and IBM to become the number one WAS in the Korean market.

JEUS has continuously retained the number one position in the Korean middleware market by becoming the first closed-source WAS in the world to meet all Java standard specifications for the enterprise environment: from J2EE 1.4 to Java 6.

Following JEUS, TmaxSoft has successfully released system software such as Tibero (database software), ProFrame (framework software), and OpenFrame (rehosting software). As a result of becoming the most successful entrepreneur in Korea's system software sector, Park was dubbed "Korea’s Bill Gates".

Setting Sights on the Overseas Market

With the continued success of JEUS in the Korean software market, TmaxSoft began to expand its operations to overseas. In 2003, TmaxSoft established subsidiaries in the US, Japan, and China. These markets proved fertile grounds for TmaxSoft's OpenFrame, a rehosting solution strategically targeted at the global markets. OpenFrame, which allows easy downsizing from IBM Mainframes, generated buzz overseas. In 2011, TmaxSoft hit another milestone by acquiring GE Capital as a client. GE Capital decided to replace its portfolio management system (PMS) with TmaxSoft's OpenFrame. GE Capital made this decision based on TmaxSoft’s numerous references, cost effectiveness, and perfect performance record, proven by 13 months of testing. GE Capital's adoption of OpenFrame became the talk of the 2011 Gartner Symposium.

The GE Capital PMS is a system used in more than 50 countries and processes approximately 3.5 million pieces of data annually. Success with such a large-scale project was only made possible with TmaxSoft's business system. This system consists of close cooperation with the Korean HQ, which minimizes risks, and its employees, whose work ethic and technical prowess were crucial in the 13-month long testing process.

Since that time, TmaxSoft has expanded sales of JEUS, OpenFrame, and Tibero in Japan and China. And as of 2015, new subsidiaries were established in Brazil, the UK, Russia, and Singapore. TmaxSoft is aggressively expanding its presence in new markets with Tibero (database software) as its flagship product.

TmaxSoft’s unprecedented success in the global system software market, known for its extremely high entry barrier, has surprised critics, who once called its entry into the global market as a “reckless attempt”. This success has strengthened Park’s determination in turning Korea into a software powerhouse.

Relentless Pursuit to Become the World’s Best in Software Technology

TmaxSoft is recognized for its superior technology in the overseas market because of its ability to adapt to the overseas market and its driving force in sales, which both stem from its employees' strong work ethic as proven through the GE Capital case. TmaxSoft employees' strong work ethic is a mirror image of TmaxSoft’s corporate culture influenced by Park’s bulldozer like spirit and relentless passion.

Even in his 60s, Park often spends time with employees and continuously learns about new technologies in the IT industry known for rapidly changing trends. “Success can be difficult to achieve in this field, but it can be done if you believe in yourself. We start with tackling and achieving small goals,” says Park.

To share such a mindset with employees, Park holds an annual marathon. Through this event, which is open to all employees and family members, TmaxSoft encourages all members to complete a course with a length that suits one’s level of physical ability. This is a natural way to demonstrate to employees the unbreakable determination that has allowed the company to push through during its hard times.

TmaxSoft’s corporate culture, which promotes a free and creative research environment and strong emphasis on achievement and passion, helps attract the best IT talents in Korea. In TmaxSoft’s R&D center, it’s not difficult to find IT talents who graduated from top universities such as Stanford and Oxford who have chosen to work for TmaxSoft instead of global IT giants, or work in the Silicon Valley.

They say that the reason they chose TmaxSoft is for the freedom to pursue their interest. “In TmaxSoft’s R&D center, engineers are given freedom to concentrate on their interests, and their ideas are respected. If we choose a multi-national company like Google, then we would just be one of thousands of engineers without individual recognition. We like the fact that there are many opportunities to pursue our interest and passion,” say the engineers.

Since the growth of the IT industry in Korea was largely centered around SI, the IT industry does not emphasize creativity in software development. Park is leading the way to change such a mindset and create awareness for the importance of software and software talents. Approximately 70% of TmaxSoft’s engineers holds a Master's or Doctorate degree from leading universities worldwide, and approximately 20% of the revenue is invested in R&D to support research activities.

In addition, the company provides a creative work environment where Park (who is also the CTO), the executives, and engineers can freely discuss their ideas with one another. It also provides many opportunities for employees to participate in overseas seminars, group studies, and software training. TmaxSoft’s R&D center, with its globally competitive technical skills and a unique corporate culture difficult to find in the Korean IT industry, is known as the cradle of software talents in Korea.

Half a Success for Park’s Continuous Pursuit

2017 is the 20^th anniversary of TmaxSoft. It will be 20 years since Park established TmaxSoft with the dream of turning Korea into a software powerhouse and using its technology to break the dominance of global IT giants. Over the years, TmaxSoft has firmly established its place as the top software company in Korea, and has equipped itself with superior technology that is recognized worldwide. Its influence has also grown to attract the best software talents in Korea.

Park, however, has not finished taking on new challenges. Starting from this year, TmaxSoft is planning to aggressively expand into the global market backed by an ever-growing number of Tibero references from large client companies in and outside of Korea. In addition to the 7 subsidiaries currently established worldwide in the major areas, TmaxSoft is planning to gradually add 30 more subsidiaries in a wholehearted effort to expand its presence overseas.

Currently, the company is reviewing establishment of subsidiaries in many countries including France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, Hungary, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Columbia, Peru, India, Indonesia, Australia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Dubai, and South Africa.

Park was able to rewrite the history of the Korean system software industry by venturing into the system software business, which everyone said was a “reckless attempt.” In 2015 at age 60, Park with his passion for success will continue his pursuit and quest for the future of software in Korea and his dream of turning Korea into a software powerhouse.