Software business

This article is about selling software, for information about software made for business: Business software.

Software Business is the commercial activity of the software industry, aimed at producing, buying and selling software products or software services. The business of software differs from other businesses, in that its main good is intangible[1] and fixed costs of production are high while variable costs of production are close to zero.[1][2]

Types of software businesses

Cusumano [3] and Nambisan [4] divide software companies (supplier-side) into service and product companies according to how they conduct business. Popp and Meyer give a more detailed analysis of different types of business models of software companies.[1]

Software product business

In the Software product business, Software is licensed for installation and execution on a user- or customer-supplied infrastructure. In the software product business, revenues typically originate from selling software upgrades to the customer.

Software service business

Software services business is a strategy of a software company whose offering consists mainly of services or consulting relating to software development.

Characteristics of software services business

Generally business model of a software company can be categorized as product company, services company or a hybrid between these two models.[5] Software service business can also refer to offering Software as a Service.

Software services business can be categorized into following categories:

Service Operations

Characteristics of Service Operations [6] that are relevant to software services industry:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Karl M. Popp and Ralf Meyer (2010). Profit from Software Ecosystems: Business Models, Ecosystems and Partnerships in the Software Industry. Norderstedt, Germany: BOD. ISBN 3-8391-6983-6.
  2. D.G. Messerschmitt and C. Szyperski, Software Ecosystem: Understanding an Indispensable Technology and Industry, MIT Press, 2003
  3. Cusumano M. (2003) Finding Your balance in the Products and Service Debate, Communications of the ACM. Vol. 46:3
  4. Nambisan S. (2001) Why Service Business are not Product Businesses, MIT Sloan Management Review. Vol. 42:4
  5. Cusumano, Michael A., The business of software, Chapter 2., New York : Free Press, 2004
  6. Bitran G. & Logo, M. 1993, A Framework for Analyzing Service Operations. European Management Journal 11 (3):271-282
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, March 19, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.