May 30, 2020Don SouthertonCommentaryComments Off on South Korea Hancom Group Unveils Hancom Office 2020 —Their Newly Feature-Enhanced Office Productivity Suite
In a move set to advance operations and support the company’s aggressive growth, Hancom Group, South Korea’s leading ICT company has announced the North American release of flagship product ‘Hancom Office 2020.’
Previously, Hancom has been most well-known internationally for the default mobile office suite experience in Samsung Galaxy/DeX devices and a long-time technology partnership with AWS WorkDocs supplying a cloud-based collaborative document editor.
More cost-effectively than with any other office suite available today, and a smart alternative to Microsoft 365, new enhancements for the Hancom Office 2020 product lineup include word processor Hancom Office Word, spreadsheet Cell, presentation Show, and PDF. Most importantly, as a part of ongoing efforts for enterprise customers, this update facilitates interoperability by improving the spreadsheet’s Excel compatibility significantly by adding advanced support for pivot tables, charts, formulas, and macros.
Setting the stage for collaboration, Hancom Office 2020 also strengthened its link with Hancom Space, a cloud-based storage and web office. Hancom Space, a cloud service that allows you to edit Hancom Office documents via Internet access, even on a PC without Hancom Office, allows users to save and share documents created on Hancom Office 2020 directly in Hancom Space. In turn, you can edit a document you created in Hancom Space on Hancom Office.
Adding value, too, a cost-saving and a new feature of the suite, Hancom Office 2020 now offers a new built-in PDF application that provides an essential tool for PDF use and includes annotation, merging, and extracting. It also allows you to convert any existing PDF documents into Word, Excel or PowerPoint files and then edit and reuse your PDF files. With this feature, there is no need for a separate PDF editor required by other products in the market as users can edit and author all common office documents formats.
Regarding the product launch, Sungjun Byun, Chief Executive Officer of Hancom, said, “Building upon decades of experience supplying the office productivity suite to Korean enterprises, SMBs, educational institutions and government, Hancom Office 2020 is built to meet the diverse demands of global customers regardless of size or sector.”
Dr. Peter Wonsok Yun, President of Global Business, Hancom Group notes, “With the New Normal Post COVID-19 workplace, Hancom Office 2020 will unleash your creativity and enhance your productivity more cost-effectively than with any other office suite available today.”
A free 30-day trial version is available for download at office.hancom.com. And the subscription license and a lifetime license are available for purchase now.
I am excited to share my most recent article that looks at the New Normal market entry for brands and products. As always your comments and thoughts are welcome.
In this post COVID-19 world, we hear the expression the New Normal used frequently with regard to society and business. A timely question then is how will this New Normal apply to commerce and specifically international market entry?
In a Deep Data webinar jointly hosted by the Israel Economic Trade Mission to Korea in Seoul and Cardumen Capital based in Tel Aviv, I spoke to a wide audience of Korean companies on how I saw market entry under post COVID-19.
For one, and as in the past, ‘need and demand’ have always been the drivers for a successful business market entry. Goods or services must match what is lacking in a market and enterprisingly fulfill a need or gap in that local market.
For example, in a market like South Korea with an abundance of pizza and fried chicken eateries introducing either fast food would be an uphill battle. In contrast, with innovative hubs like Israel and South Korea as developers of new AI, robotics, drone, deep learning and mobility technologies, a company offering its unique product or service has a much greater probability of success in that they provide needed cutting-edge solutions. More so, these technologies will drive the transition to the digital economy accelerated by COVID.
Second, for successful market entry selecting the right partners goes without saying. I feel a best practice is to find a partner that has both an industry sector plus international experience working with other cultures and approaches to business. Teams tied to the project must be skilled in a deep understanding of the local culture, norms and expectations. With the new normal of COVID-19, a partner who has also weathered past crises and business disruptions would be a huge bonus, too.
And finally, the third best practice is the need for flexibility. If there is one lesson from COVID-19 it is the need for businesses to be open and flexible. As an example we now see the widespread adoption of video conferencing during the pandemic instead of insisting on in-person meetings.
That said, few market entry projects succeed in a climate of rigid thinking on either side of the partnership. Give and take fosters collaboration, which builds relationships nurtured over time.
Even under adversity, fulfilling a demand, the right partner, and coupled with flexible and adaptive transformative thinking means all parties will see a project through to execution and beyond—to both side’s mutual benefit, as well as the individuals tied to the market entry partnership.
South Korea: Smart Work and COVID-19 Transforming the Workplace
By Don Southerton
With the COVID-19 New Normal from video chat platforms to office productivity and cloud-based software, the shift to working remotely is now seen as a convenient alternative to in-person communication, the office and commerce.
In this article, we will look at how Koreans post-COVID-19 may come to accept remote working (also referred to in Korea as “smart work”), as an option to the traditional on-site model. In February and March government agencies and companies across South Korea opted to keep workers home in what can be seen as a mass experiment with the remote work system — the intent to flatten the spread of COVID-19. As the threat passed, and methods to control the spread of the virus proved effective, companies soon called for their homebound teams return to their offices.
In a nation with little experience with teams working remotely, responses are mixed — some now strong advocates perceiving themselves more productive and efficient, while others feel working from home meant longer hours tied to technology and little boundaries between work and personal time.
With the post-coronavirus shift back to the office, the pros and cons of work-from-home will be subject to scrutiny and comparison with the day to day work culture still heavily rooted in on-site interaction and interpersonal contact.
One issue that did not hamper work from home was Korea’s Internet infrastructure robustness even as the demand for telecommuting solutions rapidly increased.
Unlike underdeveloped countries, Korea was not limited by a lack of state-of-the-art technology. A number of Korean and multinational information technology companies were able to provide top-notch smart work services, with many large firms like the Hyundai Motor Group having long had their own internal communications systems.
More so, Korean domestic ICTs like the Hancom Group have since the 1990s offered a suite of office productivity software platforms. Originally developed for the home Korean market in their indigenous language Hangul, the software now has English as well as other language options. Plus, as an attractive alternative to Microsoft 365, Hancom offers several Cloud-based products, including Hancom Space and Hancom DocsConverter. [Source: https://office.hancom.com]
Not Alone
Korea tech brands like Naver, too, saw considerable demand. The tech giant which offers Line Works, a popular telecommuting software, witnessed a huge spike in usage during the peak of Korea’s COVID-19 outbreak. The company added that its video conference calls technology saw a sevenfold increase during the same period.
The Big Question
As most of Korea has returned to working on-site, the big question remains open as to whether working remotely and adopting “smart work” systems will become an option and part of the new normal.
As I noted in my book Korea 2020, A Workplace in Transition that was released earlier this year, there has been a considerable effort to offer a flexible working environment. Many of Korea’s top Groups have transitioned their corporate policy for rigid older norms to open dress codes, flexible work hours, and are adopting a more horizontal and creative work culture.
Increasingly, Korean companies, particularly those dedicated to technology and mobility have sought to become adaptive and agile global players. Adding to this, we are finding that the strong hierarchical corporate culture is being challenged by the growing number of millennials. It is no surprise that some millennials are leaving their corporate jobs to pursue freelance work and are very open to working remotely.
That said, even as Korea’s workplace culture has progressed, we are seeing push back on working remotely — some executives still prefer their teams to work on-site and are expressing concerns about employees’ work ethic and output.
On an encouraging note, South Korea’s leading game and online service provider NHN Corp. just announced it has decided to take its remote work experiment further by making Wednesdays their official “work remote day .” The move comes after overwhelmingly positive feedback from NHN and their affiliates’ employees. [Source: https://pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?sc=30800018&year=2020&no=471263 ]
A Second Look
Perhaps Korean companies should take a second look into creating a smart working environment. Accepting remote work systems that have been embraced in the West will depend greatly on whether companies and society are willing to bring such corporate and cultural changes.. Businesses can improve ROI and save on overhead and rental costs for their offices. Workers, for their part, can reduce their hours’ long commutes and experience increased productivity, as well as foster a better life-work balance.
The COVID-19 outbreak has changed the way people work and their perceptions about work. The virus crisis could provide an opportunity for Korean companies to re-visit and re-evaluate the benefits of smart work approaches to the workplace.
I’ll be a guest speaker sharing my thoughts on Deep-Tech and what Israel and South Korea have to share as both are strong centers for innovative technology. For all those in the tech sector, this webinar will prove insightful.
The webinar is hosted by Yaniv Goldberg Economic Attaché — Head of Israel Economic and Trade Office, Embassy of Israel in Korea, and Israeli Cardumen Capital.
The webinar will explore among other topics of interest Israel’s ‘Deep-Tech’. Speakers include Gonzalo Martinez de Azagra, CEO and Founder of Cardumen Capital and Ruby Chen, Venture Partner of Cardumen Capital.
The event will be held at 3 PM on Wednesday, May 13, Korea time (time subject to change).
To participate in the Zoom Webinar, you must register. Interested?
Like most of the world, government intervention is the cornerstone of South Korea’s recovery. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has announced a massive relief package worth billions for South Korea’s key industries disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Preventing layoffs and creating jobs have become the top priorities for the government.
The funds are meant to help them weather the crisis, which the Korean president characterized as the worst since the 1997 IMF financial meltdown, and to help maintain employment. Moon also unveiled an additional job protection program to cushion the COVID-19 impact on the country’s overall job market. This includes new job creation in the digital sector.
Drilling Deeper
A significant portion of Korea’s economy and the backbone of the country’s employment is from export-driven sectors, especially in hard-hit key industries that include aviation, oil refinery, shipping, shipbuilding, and car production.
Noting the huge task for Korea amid global downturns with much of the country’s employment driven by export-driven sectors such as automotive, how Korea preserves its workforce and jobs will take considerable effort and savvy.
As in past crises, senior government officials recently met with a group of top chaebol executives. The participants included Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motors, SK Holdings, LG Corporation, and Lotte Corporation. Although closed-door meetings, they seemed to have centered strongly on persuading the leading employers to maintain employment in the face of coronavirus-related challenges.
The Auto Sector
In a separate round of talks, senior officials from five local automakers and nine auto parts manufacturers met with the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy.
The five domestic automakers, Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, GM Korea, Ssangyong, and Renault-Samsung account for 150,000 jobs in Korea. Within their supply chain, their roughly 8,850 partner companies employ 240,000 workers.
An upswing in local sales is welcome news considering Hyundai, Kia, and the other automakers have weathered many challenges over the past few months.
According to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, the auto industry officials said they need a total of $34 billion to maintain their workforces, operate facilities, and keep up with fixed costs for the next three months. With $10 billion already secured, the local automobile industry asked the government to provide $26 billion in emergency loans to save automakers and associated companies struggling from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Automakers also requested tax cuts to overcome the pandemic’s negative impacts on sales and production.
As a condition for the funding, the government pressed the automakers to maintain their employment numbers. To make up for overseas losses and boost domestic sales, the government will also expedite the order of 8,700 EVs and make an advance payment of up to 70 percent.
Strong Local Demand
Still, we are seeing strong demand in Korea’s domestic auto market. As COVID-19 cases have been dropping without mandating drastic measures such as a nationwide stay at home and remote work, Korean customers are again venturing back into auto showrooms.
Hyundai’s domestic sales in March hit their highest level in more than four years, up 80% from February 2020. Much of this was driven by attractive discounts and installment payment plans, as well as a cut in consumption tax. Hyundai also noted robust local pre-orders for new models like the Elantra and Genesis G80.
An upswing in local sales is welcome news considering Hyundai, Kia, and the other automakers have weathered many challenges over the past few months.
In February, Hyundai and Kia had to suspended operations — hamstrung by a lack of Chinese sourced parts with the coronavirus outbreak crippling China’s industrial output. As COVID-19 peaked in Korea some plants also closed briefly as a safety precaution.
More pressing, although local sales are a cushion, little has prepared the automakers for the drop-in demand overseas and the unexpected halt in their global production facilities.
Although domestic production in March was at 95%, with the slump in global sales and demand taking hold, we are beginning to see Korea’s production, too, take drastic moves. For example, Hyundai halted production for 4 days of the sport utility vehicles Palisade, Tucson, Santa Fe, and Genesis GV80.
Sister firm Kia Motors, too, is looking to suspend 4 of their Korean plants with a mix of closures to keep inventory levels manageable and stay flexible to overseas demands.
As an additional countermeasure, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors have decided to halt all their domestic factory lines from May 1 for Korea’s Labor Day to May 5 for the nation’s Children’s Day — both public holidays. Korea’s other car brands and related industries are mulling similar moves, too. Some suppliers are now considering extended shutdowns into mid-May.
Preserving the Workforce
Noting the huge task for Korea amid global downturns with much of the country’s employment driven by export-driven sectors such as automotive, how Korea preserves its workforce and jobs will take considerable effort and savvy. It will be a difficult balance between mitigating business losses while holding on to jobs.
For one, as Korean groups have shifted manufacturing overseas, the lesson from COVID-19 is to have a less concentrated supplier and production base which ultimately means spreading things around. This does not, however, help Korean employment.
Next, government funding is but a part of the solution, more so may be an agile and scalable production model — one that can grapple with and carry on through the unforeseen and disruptive times. Again, countermeasures need to be in place as new situations unfold.
With unemployment spiking globally, the lessons learned if Korea as a first mover can successfully maintain their workforce in the wake of the crisis will be of the greatest interest as regions and nations emerge from COVID-19 — many facing the same tough challenges.
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As always here for your comments, thoughts and questions. Open to interviews, webinars and new business opportunities.
South Korea – A Roadmap to COVID-19 Economic Recovery For many weathering stay at home and a remote office, how businesses will return to work weighs heavy on the minds of governments, employers, and workers worldwide. It’s a delicate balance between staying safe and an urgent need to re-open commerce.
For an economic recovery, South Korea could be a glimpse into future best practices.
The world has been watching and, in some cases, following as South Korea benefits from its social distancing guidelines, technology-powered testing, tracing and treatment, as well as measures to utilize data in fighting the virus.
How South Korea tackles rebooting their economy will also be closely followed — as Asia’s fourth-largest economy, it is considered a bellwether for world trade.
As a trial, in their recent election, South Koreans turned out in record numbers. The country after much discussion went ahead with elections as its massive and rapid testing and quarantine efforts have slowed the spread of COVID-19.
On one level the strong voter response is a sign of intense public interest in what may be seen as a referendum on President Moon Jae-in and his administration’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
Perhaps more insightful, as a first step in COVID-19 recovery, it appears to have pushed more citizens to cast their ballots.
I believe all efforts will now turn to economic recovery.
For me, this was very apparent in recent in Zoom calls and correspondence with Seoul.
In one example following the election, a Korean colleague asked what was needed as the next step into jump-starting our marketing outreach for a stalled product launch. More so, sensing the urgency and some pressure, they shared leadership’s new and rather hefty quarterly goals for the product launch.
In another instance on a call with a team, senior leadership jumped in to get an update on a number of global business outreaches made in the last few weeks — leadership then asked to move forward ASAP with whatever support was needed from their teams and HQ.
Stepping back and pondering some, I feel we all need to have a plan in place — and be positioned to move forward fast.
As business and commerce recover, agreements will probably be revisited, terms subject to renegotiations, and above all expect partner and leadership requests for a detailed localized Recovery Plan!
To this, I’d add that it’s best to include some countermeasures for recovery. In weeks to come, and as economies emerge from COVID-19, early movers like South Korea may provide much-needed roadmaps for recovery and implementing return to work plans.
That said, we can assume recovery will be gradually phased-in, vary by location, industry sector, and the overall local health status.
It also will require continued social distancing, expanded use of personal protective equipment, and other preventative health measures. ###
With millions of people sheltering in place amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the cloud computing market is getting a serious usage boost.
Schools, corporations, and individuals are using cloud-based software to learn, collaborate, and stay connected.
The pandemic is changing the way the world operates, including how we work.
A significant number of companies deemed non-essential have transitioned to remote work environments to remain in operation, using cloud-based software to collaborate and work.
At the same time, a large segment of the population is practicing social distancing and turning to virtual tools to stay connected.
That demand for cloud-based services isn’t going to go away anytime soon, even if cities begin easing social distancing rules in the coming weeks or months.
One attractive alternative to Microsoft 365, is Korea’s Hancom suite of productive software. The company in business since 1990 offers a number of Cloud-based products, including Hancom Space and Hancom DocsConverter.
Hancom offers a number of Cloud-based products, including Hancom Space and Hancom DocsConverter.
Hancom Space provides a full-featured suite of office productivity tools in a modern collaboration space for enhanced team effectiveness.
You can create and share documents conveniently from a desktop, mobile device, or web browser. You can work together on documents stored in the cloud.
You can even combine cloud storage services and manage them from one place.
Hancom DocsConverter is a server solution that enables you to convert MS Office documents into a variety of formats. It provides features such as document preview, content security, search keyword extraction, and more.
DocsConverter integrates with Groupware, EDMS, CMS, email systems, search engines, and more.
The Hancom DocsConvertor business application is available through the AWS Marketplace with a free trial period, too.
SEOUL, April 9 (Yonhap) — South Korean IT solution providers are introducing various artificial-intelligence (AI)-based solutions to help the country’s fight against the novel coronavirus, industry insiders said Thursday.
Hancom Group, South Korea’s leading software developer, said it has been offering an AI-powered phone calling system, known as Hancom AI Check25, for free to help local municipalities monitor those in self-quarantine.
The outbound call system asks people about their health conditions and can quickly analyze data from their answers. Its AI voice assistants can make many phone calls at once, allowing authorities to save time and check quarantined people efficiently.
The AI call center platform is currently used by cities, like Seoul and Daegu. Hancom said Naver Business Platform Corp., an IT infrastructure management firm, is also supporting systems by proving cloud infrastructure.
In the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak, South Korea’s ICT ministry has since last month been supporting IT firms that develop AI algorithms or solutions for the containment of COVID-19. For more information, please contact Don Southerton
If times are a challenge or you have an urgent need to talk regarding Korea, text me and we can connect.
310-866-3777
Don
Don Southerton
To stay proactive here are some of my thoughts for this week
Like you, I miss meeting in person, travel and much of the daily routine. That said, after more than a decade + of 24/7 working remote, virtual and online support for teams in Korea, North America and worldwide, technology today allows us to stay very well connected.
I do however recognize the uncertainty most are experiencing and have blocked off time in my schedule to not only catch up with teams and leadership but feel free to reach out as a sounding board and for a strategic, culturally savvy perspective.
Here are a few examples… but not limited to these 🙂
1. Short term how will Korea HQ’s’ team and leadership respond globally vs, in their own Domestic market? i.e. Will HQ work to maintain their Korean workforce, but mandate overseas operations cut employment, budgets, etc.
2. As a caveat, what countermeasures can global subsidiaries recommend to their Korea-based / HQ organization as an alternative to drastic global cuts across the board? ( I always try to suggest 3 options) [Same goes for western operations in Korea for a western-based / HQ company who may be pondering cutting backs.]
3. How can western-based teams and organizations with new and/or ongoing ventures in Korea ensure their Korean partners do not pull back amid the uncertainty? (This has been common in the past with recessions, the China boycott, etc.)
4. Noting Korea’s cross-cultural high-risk avoidance, how do we structure re-assurances?
5. Noting western cross-cultural frankness, how do we structure constructive Korea facing dialogue and conversations dealing with the Crisis?
6. As a partner, service provider, or vendor, how can I mitigate Korea-facing / HQ budget cutbacks in programs and services?
As always, all communication is kept private and confidential.
Hancom Group in the news. Heading up their global PR, I look to share Hancom news with the world.
Korean media reports that South Korea’s Hancom Group plans to launch a drone pilot training academy in Korea in collaboration with Chinese drone maker DJI.
The Chinese partner, DJI is a leading drone maker, which currently owns roughly 70 percent of the world’s market share.
Under the joint agreement, the two companies will be tasked with developing new drones for public safety purposes together with new technologies used for unmanned aerial vehicles.
Hancom WITH division an online security arm of Hancom Group, which will be responsible for the education business, will also utilize Hancom’s virtual reality technology-based drone simulator.
DJI technicians control drones used to spray disinfectant in public areas in an attempt to control 2019-nCoV in China, Feb. 17. The Chinese drone maker said Monday it signed a partnership with Hancom to launch a drone pilot training school in Korea. / Courtesy of DJI Korea
South Korea Hancom Group Unveils Hancom Office 2020 —Their Newly Feature-Enhanced Office Productivity Suite
In a move set to advance operations and support the company’s aggressive growth, Hancom Group, South Korea’s leading ICT company has announced the North American release of flagship product ‘Hancom Office 2020.’
Previously, Hancom has been most well-known internationally for the default mobile office suite experience in Samsung Galaxy/DeX devices and a long-time technology partnership with AWS WorkDocs supplying a cloud-based collaborative document editor.
More cost-effectively than with any other office suite available today, and a smart alternative to Microsoft 365, new enhancements for the Hancom Office 2020 product lineup include word processor Hancom Office Word, spreadsheet Cell, presentation Show, and PDF. Most importantly, as a part of ongoing efforts for enterprise customers, this update facilitates interoperability by improving the spreadsheet’s Excel compatibility significantly by adding advanced support for pivot tables, charts, formulas, and macros.
Setting the stage for collaboration, Hancom Office 2020 also strengthened its link with Hancom Space, a cloud-based storage and web office. Hancom Space, a cloud service that allows you to edit Hancom Office documents via Internet access, even on a PC without Hancom Office, allows users to save and share documents created on Hancom Office 2020 directly in Hancom Space. In turn, you can edit a document you created in Hancom Space on Hancom Office.
Adding value, too, a cost-saving and a new feature of the suite, Hancom Office 2020 now offers a new built-in PDF application that provides an essential tool for PDF use and includes annotation, merging, and extracting. It also allows you to convert any existing PDF documents into Word, Excel or PowerPoint files and then edit and reuse your PDF files. With this feature, there is no need for a separate PDF editor required by other products in the market as users can edit and author all common office documents formats.
Regarding the product launch, Sungjun Byun, Chief Executive Officer of Hancom, said, “Building upon decades of experience supplying the office productivity suite to Korean enterprises, SMBs, educational institutions and government, Hancom Office 2020 is built to meet the diverse demands of global customers regardless of size or sector.”
Dr. Peter Wonsok Yun, President of Global Business, Hancom Group notes, “With the New Normal Post COVID-19 workplace, Hancom Office 2020 will unleash your creativity and enhance your productivity more cost-effectively than with any other office suite available today.”
A free 30-day trial version is available for download at office.hancom.com. And the subscription license and a lifetime license are available for purchase now.
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