GERMAN VERSION

Motivation for Software industry and ecosystems

The software industry is one of the most promising industries. Software companies make widespread use of partner business models like resell. Some software companies create and manage partner ecosystems around them. Each ecosystem is created for a purpose and often you find network effects in an ecosystem.

Today there are only a few sources in the literature on the forms of cooperation between software companies and on the objectives, structure and forms of cooperation in so-called ecosystems (e.g. referral.). For software companies, this is a crucial problem, since the decision to join or to create an ecosystem or to partner is not easy. All issues around business models, ecosystem leverage and software partnerships are roughly summarized in the term "Software Economics".

Based on my experience with SAP and other software companies, my research interest is on the following topics: the software industry as such, ecosystems of software companies, business models of software companies in an ecosystem and how a software vendor can leverage ecosystems and partners for their advantage.

Just a few books on this ecosystem topic have been published so far. Here is a selection:

Software Economics


One bright spot is the creation of the Software Economics Group, which investigates scientific issues such as pricing in the software industry, the size of companies in the software industry and related issues. There are important topics of basic research on the software industry and on an ecosystem in the area of microeconomic issues.

New book on ecosystems and partnerships in the software industry

What are the existing ecosystems and forms of cooperation between partner companies in such an ecosystem? This is the key question of a new book that is in preparation. If you are interested, just drop me an email titled "Ecosystems, Business models and Partnerships" to  karl_popp@hotmail.com and i will let you know as soon as the book is published. Here is an excerpt from this book on forms of cooperation in the software industry and on ecosystem properties:


Ecosystems of software companies

A software vendor sells software to its customers. The companies in the ecosystem interact with the software vendor or its customers or partners in the following ways:

  • they sell products or services to the software vendor´s customers.These products or services might be related to or integrated with the software vendor´s products or services,
  •  they sell the software vendor´s products, e.g. as Value Added Resellers (VAR) ,
  •  they sell services to the software vendor, to the customers or to the software vendor´s partners,
  •  they purchase or license the software vendor´s products,
  •  they sell or license software to the software vendor (suppliers),
  •  they align on standards with the software vendor to create bigger markets based on standardized products or
  •  And last but not least, companies are potential candidates for acquisition by the software vendor.




Types of ecosystems of a software vendor

Large software vendors typically engage in a formal way with each of the following ecosystems: Supplier ecosystem, Partner ecosystem and customer ecosystem. In addition there are standards bodies and competitors.

More information in a new book to be published


I am working on a new book that will investigate the forms of cooperation in the software industry and the goals and structures of software ecosystems. It will be called "Ecosystems, Business models and partnerships in the Software Industry" So stay tuned.

This is THE reference if you are a professional in the software industry and you are considering to leverage ecosystems and partnerships for your success.

In its no-nonsense approach it reveals hidden goals of large software vendors with their ecosystems, tells  you how to create your own ecosysten or how you can be successful in another software vendor´s ecosystem. With examples from Microsoft´s and SAP´s ecosystem it is a great source of ecosystem knowledge.

If you are interested, just drop me an email titled "Ecosystems and Partnerships" to  karl_popp@hotmail.com and i will let you know as soon as the book is published.
For the SAP ecosystem, Ralf Meyer´s book is a perfect source of information. Here is the link to the SAP ecosystem book:

Partner models in the software industry

The forms of cooperation between software companies still cannot be found in the literature. From a pragmatic point of view, following forms can be found in an ecosystem: Resell, Revenue Share, Referral Program, OEM, Certified Solution, Development Cooperation. 

see all the detail on the next page: click here.


(C) Dr. Karl Popp 2009