TmaxSoft signs database deal with FSS

By Kim Yoo-chul

TmaxSoft, a leading provider for database management systems (DBMS), said Monday that it has started operating pension portals for the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

“The company’s Tibero systems are available for pension portals run by the FSS,” company spokeswoman Lee Ji-hye said.

Lee, however, declined to unveil financial details about the deal citing the sensitivity of the issue. Tmax was in discussions with other government agencies to sell its database systems.

TmaxSoft previously won a license to construct the portals initiated by the financial regulator. The portal will be used as the source of information for estimated pension amounts per person by using financial services from private firms. The project started in late August last year.

“The Tibero management system was praised for its stability and efficiency by the FSS as a person’s pension data should be connected to pension information providers such as the Korea Federation of Banks and Korea Insurance Development Institute,” said the spokeswoman.

Tmax, established in 1997 with a 40 percent market share in Korea, is on track to bolster its presence beyond the peninsula by providing simplified and easy-to-change database management systems, threatening Oracle, its biggest rival.

Lee said its Tibero system has become a “global standard” in terms of accessibility, ease of use and price competitiveness.

The Tibero database system includes a database link function, supporting connections with other database systems and that helps customers cut costs and build systems easily.

TmaxSoft is eyeing overseas markets. In the United Kingdom, for example, it recently launched a recruitment drive for UK channel partners by appealing to them with better reliability compared to the amount of service fees.

It hopes to position itself as the “right alternative” without the headache of “complicated licensing structures,” said officials and market experts.

As part of its overall strategy to be market leader, product offerings also include the Tibero 6 DBMS, released in the first quarter of this year, which has a wider range of functionality and greater stability, they said.