secretGeek.netISV: Independent of what?
The term ISV (Independent Software Vendor) is a funny one -- and it raises the question, independent of what?
I've seen three different answers to this:
- Financially independent
- Independent of Microsoft (or other large software vendor)
- Independent from any particular hardware manufacturer
I suspect the term has its roots in the third meaning -- independence from a hardware vendor -- as it recalls a time when most software was provided as a 'value added' component to the expensive, proprietary computers of the day.
But it's still an ironic and patronising term -- because an ISV is far from Independent.
If we had complete "financial independence" then we'd be able to give our software away, rather than selling it.
An ISV who makes software for Microsoft's operating systems (like, say... us) is naturally very dependent on the ongoing success of Microsoft.
Equally, an ISV who targets a specific platform -- Java, for example -- is dependent on that platform.
So the point is that when you strike out to build an ISV -- you might feel like an explorer, boldly going alone into the wilderness. But really you're a specialist insect, targeting in on a niche software habitat, created in part by large platform vendors (whether they're hardware vendors, operating systems, platforms like Java, ERPs like SAP, or other assorted trouble makers). And you probably also depend on specific 'vertical industries', on current social, economic and technological conditions... all sorts of phenomena which are utterly outside your control.
It's a shaky ecological niche you're headed for. Don't get zealous. Don't get attached, bambi. You can't control the niche you're in much more than an insect can control the elephant he's biting. But before you get stuck on any one elephant, you can be careful about choosing where to sink your teeth.
Bite wisely.
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Nic Wise on March 06, 2007 08:23 sez:
ISV is a microsoft word. Noone else uses it outside of the MS space (well, they may do now....)
It ment "any development shop that's not microsoft". So Quest, where I work, which is approx the #8 (on size, I think) software developer in the world, is an ISV.
So I think the answer is "independant of microsoft" :)
Ta for the great articles :)
lb on March 06, 2007 14:52 sez:
>ISV is a microsoft word.
IBM, Oracle and others have 'ISV programs'.
But it's origins may well be with microsoft.
Nick Hebb on March 06, 2007 22:37 sez:
I read a forum post once by a guy who worked at IBM in the 60's and 70's. According to him, the term ISV predates Microsoft. (The guy seemed straightforward, so I had no reason to doubt him.)
The "independent" part means independent of the platform. So when Microsoft sells Office they're not an ISV, but when they sell Office for Mac they are an ISV.
The Wikipedia definition is along those lines:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_software_vendor
lb on March 07, 2007 15:44 sez:
hi nick -- i'm not surprised -- the term could certainly go back to IBM.
i guess they would've called microsoft an isv, back in the day.
Leeor Geva on March 24, 2008 00:58 sez:
ISV means you are a very small company that writes software. You specialize in a niche because large companies usually cannot focus on micro sections of the economy. For example, while SAP can create an ERP system for businesses, you specialize in augmenting their system for the Fishing industry.
Clearer examples are software companies which make products that help run Golf courses, Dentist offices, Law offices.
Remember, the software enables business processes. While companies such as Microsoft, Sun, and Oracle, can capture a wide audience with macro software (vague software such as _a database_ _a web server__, this gives independent companies the opportunity to exist whilst not pose a direct competitive threat to the enabling company. ISVs build on top of the platform provided by the giants.
The word independent here means more of the first two definitions found in meriam webster online, as a company:
(1): not subject to control by others : self-governing (2): not affiliated with a larger controlling unit.
Hence, Vending Machine Management, Inc. which writes a java vending machine management software, is not controlled by Sun. Yet Sun would see it as an ISV leveraging their macro product, a vague framework which enables solutions to be written against it.