Embracing the Software Service Economy
Stanford professor and former Oracle president of on-demand business, Timothy Chou, discusses his perspective on the software economy's future in his new book Seven, the follow-up book from his previous work, The End of Software (2004).
Within the last ten years, many Software as a Service (SaaS) companies that were once small private firms have become large corporations.
- Traditional: Software is licensed with a one-time fee. Maintenance and support carry separate charges.
- Open Source: The software is free, and the support usually comes from an open-source community or a developer company.
- Outsourcing: Offers third party management of software for a monthly fee.
- Hybrid: Provides traditional licensing, with service from a vendor instead of in-house staff.
- Hybrid Plus: Software and service are provided on demand, as needed.
- SaaS: Both software and service are offered online.
- Internet Software Business: The software is the uniqueness of the business.
Another element Chou discusses is "expansion" of software as a business model. Each industry has specific software services necessary for particular purposes whether the industry is tech, medicine, or finance.
Chou states that every business is a software business. With more efficient, on-demand software, a company can focus on the core of its business.