With an aim to "establish overall advantage through pooling strength to co-develop the global market and expand Shanghai's software export scale", SOBUS focuses on: (1) positively responding to relevant policies about software industry development programs and communicating wishes and requirements of members and the software industry with competent government agencies; (2) undertaking tasks delegated by the government, convening international conferences such as the Global IT Outsourcing Forum (Shanghai), and offering a wide range of services including talent training, information communication and policy consulting; (3) encouraging our members to innovate and attain independent intellectual property rights; (4) safeguarding the interests of all members and assisting them in applying for policy-related programs and preliminary appraisal; (5) promoting enterprises to engage in international certification; (6) improving the overall competitiveness of outsourcing enterprises; (7) cooperating and exchanging with domestic and international counterparts to establish an internationalized software industry in Shanghai; (8) becoming a major platform for pushing forward software development in Shanghai.

SOBUS has held and sponsored the Shanghai Forum on Software Trade since 2003, during which selected excellent outsourcers are awarded the Golden Lily Prize since 2007. With the winning outsourcers and local software enterprises greatly inspired by the Prize, close cooperation between foreign outsourcers and local software enterprises has been promoted and established. The Prize is awarded every second year, and over ten internationally famous outsourcers have won the Prize. In 2009, SOBUS cooperated with KPMG to hold an outsourcing conference, offering an opportunity for enterprises and outsourcers to conduct face-to-face communication. At the Global IT Outsourcing Forum 2010, Shanghai, SOBUS signed cooperative agreements with enterprises from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. The Forum also held 12 "SOBUS-KISA" meetings for project exchange with the Kansai Information System Industry Association (KISA) from Japan.

In October 2007, SOBUS, for the first time, went abroad to attend the INVEX-DIGITEX 2007 in Brno, the Czech Republic, and the System 2007 in Munich. From 2008 to 2015, SOBUS also sent several delegation groups to visit software enterprises and organizations in countries and regions such as Japan, the United States, Russia, Australia, Germany, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In 2008, SOBUS, as a group of 9 exhibitors, attended the China International Software & Information Service Fair for the first time, with an exhibition area covering 108 square meters, as well as 21 display boards. Since then, SOBUS has attended every annual session of the grand Fair, with a focus on displaying the overall strength of Shanghai as “a famous software city of China”, presenting the development of the software industry in Shanghai, and introducing the Shanghai Forum on Software Trade.

In 2009, SOBUS rented an exhibition area of 144 square meters and brought about 20 exhibitors; in 2010, Shanghai Software Park as a major exhibitor demonstrated its development and construction. The exhibition stand of SOBUS presented a wide range of software-related contents through 3D television, multimedia video and web search platforms. In 2011, the major exhibitors changed to the suppliers of Expo.

Since 2007, SOBUS has held “Special Event on Cooperation with the Yangtze River Delta” at every session of the Global IT Outsourcing Forum (Shanghai) through cooperation with industry associations and enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta. Every year, the event also attracts many enterprises from other provinces and cities such as Shenzhen. In 2010, SOBUS organized several software enterprises in Shanghai to conduct field visits to cities including Zhoushan and Changzhou, and exchange with local governments and enterprises.

In 2009, software outsourcing was greatly depressed by the financial crisis, and some enterprises began to lower salary and reduce staff so as to avoid being influenced and save operation cost. In order to address the problem, at the annual conference of SOBUS on February 13, 2009, six major members launched the initiative of “ Working together to deal with the crisis and building harmonious employment relations to perform social responsibilities.” 18 enterprises responded to the initiative positively and submitted their proposals, which was considered as a highlight of the conference. The commitment made by these software enterprises to never reduce staff indicates their strong awareness of social responsibility and confidence in coping with the crisis. The initiative was recognized by the society and reported by various media agencies including the Xinhua News Agency.

In 2016, under the circumstances of “Internet Plus” and “Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship", SOBUS will integrate industry resources for sharing, and make efforts to build an innovative entrepreneurial ecosystem so as to enable enterprises, software parks, colleges, investment funds and makers to work together. SOBUS offers a wide range of core services, including organizing launch events for innovative products and maker camps regularly; inviting product managers and technical experts from large enterprises to offer talent training; constructing a favorable ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship, encouraging entrepreneurs to establish mutual symbiosis, and integrating them into open platforms of governments or big enterprises; carrying out cooperation and communication with institutions at home and abroad; providing various services such as vocational training, information exchange and industry resources sharing; advocating and promoting members to innovate and attain independent intellectual property rights; and selecting the best products, channels, services, and makers every year.

Supported by the Shanghai Municipal Government and competent committees and offices, SOBUS, based in Shanghai, will establish cooperation across China to promote the development of China’s foreign software trade through joint effort.

SOBUS, as a pioneer and symbol of software export in Shanghai, explores the global market as an enterprise group through leveraging one unified brand and overall advantage.

SOBUS also offers a comprehensive information platform, linking governments, enterprises and markets, and promoting cooperation and communication between them.

As an organization coordinating resources for software export, SOBUS fully leverages a variety of advantages in easy access to market and government resources, as well as in talent training, enterprise qualification and industry coordination, in order to achieve resource sharing and pool complementary advantages.