Vertical Integration due to Software Systems' Modularity

In their product portfolio, OSS/BSS software vendors make products pre-integrated with each other as well as with other related OSS/BSS products. Prior to the full-scale development and integration, it is vital for these vendors to assess which products are reasonable to integrate. Such integration of software may be aimed at achieving different goals, such as: Reducing software integration efforts. Software vendors aim at maximizing their profits, whereas their customers (i.e., CSPs) aim at minimizing their costs by avoiding the integration job. As a result, to approach a win–win scenario, vendors provide already integrated products or subsystems (pre-integrated modules). Sharing similar k…

Modeling software integration scenarios for telecommunications operations software vendors

- Telecom operators deploy a vast number of software systems to support their operations. Vendors of these systems often integrate such software in their products in order to enable innovations, minimize the customer's integration efforts, etc. Different integration scenarios can be envisioned, and the issue of identifying more beneficial scenarios is of a great importance to the vendors. This paper focuses on analyzing different integration scenarios in the context of telecommunications operations software. For each scenario, the overall modularity of the set of software systems is evaluated, and the expected benefits of the scenario are modeled in terms of the modularity gain it provides.…

Evolution of Secondary Software Businesses: Understanding Industry Dynamics

Primary software industry originates from IBM’s decision to unbundle software-related computer system development activities to external partners. This kind of outsourcing from an enterprise internal software development activity is a common means to start a new software business serving a vertical software market. It combines knowledge of the vertical market process with competence in software development. In this research, we present and analyze the key figures of the Finnish secondary software industry, in order to quantify its interaction with the primary software industry during the period of 2000–2003. On the basis of the empirical data, we present a model for evolution of a secondary…

Comparing the applicability of two learning theories for knowledge transfer in information system implementation training

This study reviews two traditional learning theories from the viewpoint of knowledge transfer in information system implementation training. The main goal of this study is to determine which is more applicable from the view of knowledge transfer in this context. In this study, behaviourist learning theory is found suitable for the transfer of data and information. Being more learner-centered, constructivist learning theory suits better for information system implementation training, as it enables combining system specific knowledge with knowledge of the existing organisational processes. This creates new organisation-specific knowledge necessary for the effective use of the information syst…

Analyzing the Current Phase of the OSS/BSS Software Market

In this section, the evolution of the OSS/BSS software industry is described, and the current phase of the OSS/BSS software market is analyzed using quantitative data. The first analysis uses the viewpoint of the general industry lifecycle stage models. This is followed by an analysis from the viewpoint of the vertical software market evolution model. The last section analyses the mergers and acquisitions of the OSS/BSS market from the last few years.

Towards enabling privacy preserving smart city apps

Smart city applications are increasingly relying on personally identifiable data. A disclosure of such a data to a platform provider and possible 3rd parties represents a risk to the privacy of the application users. To mitigate the privacy risk, two-layer privacy-preserving platform architecture is introduced, wherein the personally identifiable information is dealt with at the inner layer (executed in a trusted environment), whereas only generic and personally unidentifiable information is made available to the apps at the outer layer of the architecture — e.g., in a form of app-specific events. The essential requirements for the platform are described, and the architectural implications …

Online Expression, Personal Cybersecurity Costs, and the Specter of Cybercrime

The internet is used increasingly as a platform both for free expression and e-commerce. The internet has unique security and privacy risks. Such risks include the threat of criminal cyberattacks, including hacking and doxing. Internet users have a variety of attitudes towards the security and privacy risks involved with using the internet and distinct concerns and behaviors with regard to expressing themselves online. In order to mitigate the security and privacy risks of the internet, some internet users spend valuable time thinking about and configuring the security settings of their devices. They may also have different attitudes towards personal spending of money for cybersecurity prod…

Analysing software integration scenarios: the case of telecommunications operations software

Telecom operators deploy a vast number of software systems to support their operations. Vendors of this software often integrate in their products several software systems, in order to enable innovations, minimize customer's integration efforts, etc. Different integration scenarios can be envisioned, and the issue of identifying more beneficial scenarios is of a great importance to the vendors. This paper aims at analyzing different software integration scenarios from the viewpoint of their support for innovations, and focuses on the context of telecommunications operations software. For each scenario, the overall modularity of the set of software systems is evaluated, and the expected bene…

Market entry decisions of US small and medium‐sized software firms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate market entry decisions of the US software SMEs by analyzing the impact of the most obvious factors (cultural distance, geographical distance, country risk, and three market size variables) in traditional internationalization theories to target country selection. By investigating the influence of these commonly cited macro‐level factors, this study proposes the best indicator for market entry decisions of the US small and medium‐sized software firms.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a quantitative research approach applied to a sample of 100 US small and medium‐sized software firms.FindingsEmpirical findings in this study indicate t…

Cost benefits of flexible hybrid cloud storage : Mitigating volume variation with shorter acquisition cycle

The hybrid cloud storage is investigated as a case of concurrent sourcing.The paper introduces an analytical model for hybrid cloud storage costs.We study the role of acquisition cycle and volume variation in hybrid cloud costs.Shortening the reassessment interval reduces the volume non-stationarity.Shortening the reassessment interval reduces the total hybrid costs. Hybrid cloud storage combines cost-effective but inflexible private storage along with flexible but premium-priced public cloud storage. As a form of concurrent sourcing, it offers flexibility and cost benefits to organizations by allowing them to operate at a cost-optimal scale and scope under demand volume uncertainty. Howeve…

Designing for performance - a technique for business model estimation

The companies are actively using business modelling to investigate new business opportunities. They are also applying various planning tools to design their processes. Unfortunately, there is a lack of techniques that would link these two planning levels. In this article we propose a technique for operational modelling. The technique aims to analyse the business model from a resource-based viewpoint. It lists the service components and provides means for analysing the extra resources and capabilities needed for producing the service. Operational model also helps in estimating the feasibility of the business ideas: It explicitly defines the metrics for measuring the success of the business m…

Market entry decisions of US small and medium-sized software firms

Purpose: This paper investigates market entry decisions of the U.S. software SMEs by analyzing the impact of the most obvious factors (cultural distance, geographical distance, country risk, and three market size variables) in traditional internationalization theories to target country selection. By investigating the influence of these commonly cited macro-level factors, this study proposes the best indicator for market entry decisions of the U.S. small and mediumsized software firms. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses quantitative research approach applied on a sample of 100 U.S. small and medium-sized software firms. Findings: Empirical findings in this study indicate that verti…

Revenue models in cloud computing

Cloud computing brings new possibilities, allowing software firms to sell their software products using the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. SaaS provides opportunities for flexible pricing but creates challenges on how to achieve a profitable revenue stream. In this multicase study, the revenue models of five SaaS providers were examined. The main interest of the study was to investigate the different revenue models and the reasons for using particular revenue models. The revenue models were found to be mainly based on software renting, with a variety of pricing strategies. For SaaS providers, software renting generates a steady and predictable stream of revenue. The software renting mo…

Improving Smart City Design : A Conceptual Model for Governing Complex Smart City Ecosystems

Smart city concept is a viable nominee to solve the dilemmas urbanization creates globally. By means of digital technologies like Internet-of-Things, artificial intelligence and data analytics cities aim to optimize city performances like mobility, environment, security, health care and social services. Furthermore, cities actively endorse usage of digital technologies to foster digitalization and new business innovation to nurture local economy and social well-being. Smart city market is growing, but simultaneously fragmented smart city markets and initiatives face challenges with governance, ecosystem orchestration and continuity. Transformation to smart city is a complex long-term proces…

Assessing Cloud Infrastructure Costs in Communications-Intensive Applications

By deploying cloud infrastructure services, companies strive at achieving faster time to market, improved scalability, lower up-front costs, and lower IT management overhead, among other benefits. However, in longer term, the use of cloud infrastructure may incur significant costs; furthermore, these costs depend both on the required infrastructure resources and on the mode of infrastructure deployment. Therefore, the choice of a particular deployment mode should be justified with a systematic analysis of the associated costs. In this paper, a model for assessing the costs of alternative cloud infrastructure deployment scenarios is introduced. This model decomposes the infrastructure costs …

Economic Aspects of Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure: User Organization Perspective

Adoption of cloud infrastructure promises enterprises numerous bene- ts, such as faster time-to-market and improved scalability enabled by on-demand provisioning of pooled and shared computing resources. In particular, hybrid clouds, by combining the private in-house capacity with the on-demand capacity of public clouds, promise to achieve both increased utilization rate of the in-house infrastructure and limited use of the more expensive public cloud, thereby lowering the total costs for a cloud user organization. In this paper, an analytical model of hybrid cloud costs is introduced, wherein the costs of computing and data communication are taken into account. Using this model, a cost-e c…

Software Business in the Telecommunications Sector

Operations and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS) software of Communication Service Providers (CSP's) can be developed internally within the CSP or acquired from a Software Vendor. The software industry lifecycle model hypothesizes that software development is internal in the beginning of the industry's lifecycle, and that the share of external products increases when it matures. Empirical evidence shows signs of the OSS/BSS software industry approaching maturity. Current and future developments of the industry include the possibilities of utilizing the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model and Open Source software (OSSw). Both have gained increasing interest by the CSP's. However, the relativ…

How to Sell SaaS: A Model for Main Factors of Marketing and Selling Software-as-a-Service

Software-as-a-Service providers have been growing fast while the contemporary research literature has neglected analysis of their business-critical marketing and sales processes. In this paper we collect the key factors characterizing how to market and sell SaaS to business customers into an eight dimensional model. We also use an explorative multi-case study to observe six SaaS providers and validate the model. The interviewed providers emphasized use of the Internet for marketing communication while personal direct sale was the dominating sales approach. Customer acquisition cost was the key performance indicator for marketing and sales while customer lifetime value and churn were the KPI…

Vertical Software Industries

The software industry (SWI) was born only a few decades ago, and is still relatively young compared to other industries. Its origins can be traced down to the decisions to unbundle some secondary parts of IBM computer development to independent software companies (Campbell-Kelly 2004). The software development was then considered a secondary activity serving the core business, which was at that time computer hardware manufacturing. This focus on hardware is still visible in the brand names of both the global information and communication technology (ICT) giants, such as IBM, and the major professional and scientific establishments of the field, such as the Association for Computing Machiner…

Developing cloud business models: A case study on cloud gaming

Cloud computing offers new ways for firms to operate in the global market so that even small firms can compete in markets traditionally dominated by multinational corporations. A case study considers how, over ten years, a small firm developed a successful business model to compete in computer gaming. peerReviewed

Role of Acquisition Intervals in Private and Public Cloud Storage Costs

The volume of worldwide digital content has increased nine-fold within the last five years, and this immense growth is predicted to continue in the foreseeable future to reach 8 ZB by 2015. Traditionally, organizations proactively have built and managed their private storage facilities to cope with the growing demand for storage capacity. Recently, many organizations have instead welcomed the alternative of outsourcing their storage needs to the providers of public cloud storage services due to the proliferation of public cloud infrastructure offerings. The comparative cost-efficiency of these two alternatives depends on a number of factors, such as the prices of the public and private stor…

Entry Barriers of Small and Medium-sized Software Firms in the Japanese Market

The Japanese software market size was 131,773 million U.S. dollars in 2004. Due to limited domestic software production, Japan is highly dependent on imported software products. Despite the market potential for foreign software firms in Japan, almost no research exists on what kind of challenges foreign software firms encounter when they are entering the market. To fill this gap, this paper investigates the entry barriers of small and medium-sized software firms in the Japanese market by using a multi case-study. The findings suggest that most of the barriers are firm-specific and mainly related to firms’ resources and capabilities to operate in the market. The entry barriers encountered al…

Yliopiston nelikätinen strategiamalli?

Identifying opportunities for AI applications in healthcare — Renewing the national healthcare and social services

A vast variety of artificial intelligence techniques have been deployed to specific healthcare problems during the last thirty years with varying levels of success while there is a shortage of systematic matching of AI capabilities with the breadth of application opportunities. In this paper, we describe the process of identifying opportunities for deploying artificial intelligence to healthcare and social services on regional and national levels in Finland. The project involved a large number of stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds ranging from governmental agencies to entrepreneurs. The process described includes idea generation of an application or solution and its elaboration in w…

Role of Data Communications in Hybrid Cloud Costs

Rapid adoption of cloud services in recent years has been driven by multiple factors, such as faster time-to-market and improved scalability enabled by public cloud infrastructure. Hybrid clouds, combining the in-house capacities with on-demand capacity of public clouds, achieve both the increased utilization rate of the in-house infrastructure and the limited use of more expensive public cloud, thereby lowering the total costs for the cloud user. In this paper, an analytical model of hybrid cloud costs is introduced, wherein the costs of computing and data communication are taken into account. Using this model, the costefficient division of the computing capacity between the private and th…

Manager's Toolbox for OSS/BSS Market Analysis

The purpose of this section is to provide a set of quick tools for analysts and managers to analyze the status of the telecom operator software market.

Quality culture boosts agile transformation : Action research in a business‐to‐business software business

Agile methodologies are sometimes adopted, with the assumption that benefits can be attained by only using a set of best practices, which can sometimes work to a degree. In this paper, a case is discussed where a software-producing organization of seven teams achieved significant improvements. The goal of the research was to answer two questions: how an already agile organization could improve its performance further and what is the impact of promoting quality aspects? The questions were answered by implementing interventions based on prior literature and data emerging from semi-structured interviews. The context was an established business with a complex revenue stream structure, meaning t…

From Agile Software Development to Mercury Business

The rapid downfall of the Nokia software ecosystem has radically altered the landscape of software industry in Finland in recent years. There has been a shift from largely corporate driven way of working, which is often dominant in large companies, to more agile practices, and in general software organizations are seeking new, leaner ways of composing, delivering, and using software also inside already established companies. To accelerate this transformation in large scale, a collaborative research program has been created, called Need for Speed (N4S). In this paper, we give an insight to the joint goals and concrete actions of the program and discuss the motivations of individual companies…

Tekoälyn soveltaminen terveydenhuollossa ja hyvinvoinnissa

Impact of psychic distance to the internationalization behavior of knowledge‐intensive SMEs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the internationalization behavior of knowledge‐intensive small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) by using macro‐level psychic distance indicators and managers' perceptions of psychic distance.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In the quantitative approach, the impact of psychic distance to the internationalization behavior is analyzed by using bivariate correlation analysis. The qualitative case study approach is employed to investigate managers' perceptions of psychic distance as regards market entries.FindingsFindings of this study indicate that psychic distance has an impact on the …

A Model for Digital Archival of Municipal Documents

While outsourcing IT infrastructure and various IT functions is common, outsourcing the digital archival of municipal documents has not been realized. The reasons for this include the complexity of operations, the lack of models complying with governmental regulation on archival as well as conflicting requirements on the security of sensitive information and public access. This paper presents a case where a municipality aims at outsourcing in a pilot project supported by researchers in project Kunda. Project Kunda applies a model utilizing a combination of contemporary standards, technologies and research results to achieve a replicable way to outsource the digital archival of municipal doc…

Market Entry and Priority of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Software Industry: An Empirical Analysis of Cultural Distance, Geographical Distance, and Market Size

This paper investigates the influence of cultural distance, geographical distance, and three market size variables to the target country preference of SMEs in the software industry. In addition, we examine the shift of priorities in SMEs’ country selection by analyzing how these factors impact the selection of the first, second, and third target countries. Empirical findings of this study suggest that almost 70% of country choices can be explained by software market size and geographical distance alone. The findings adduced also that entry priority of SMEs shifts very fast from countries within a short geographical distance to countries with high purchasing power and within a greater geogra…

Business Models and Market Entry Mode Choice of Small Software Firms

So far the critical choice of the entry mode for a target country has been examined ignoring the special features of firms. Particularly, the impact of the wide variation of business models of software firms has been ignored. This multi-case study investigates the relation between the business model and the entry mode of eight software firms. The results imply that the product strategy and the service and implementation model of a software firm are closely connected to the entry mode choice, while the distribution model of intangible software products does not seem to have impact on the operation mode. peerReviewed

Agora Center on yliopiston monitieteinen projektitoimisto

Agora Centerin missio on ihmistä palvelevan teknologian sovellusten ja yhteiskuntaa hyödyttävien innovaatioiden kehittäminen ja tutkimus. Kansainvälisiä läpimurtoja tai vaikuttavia tutkimustuloksia on saatu mm. oppimisvaikeuksiin, teollisiin prosesseihin, sosiaali- ja terveyssektorin kehittämiseen sekä turvallisuuteen liittyvillä alueilla. Tutkimuksen kohteena ovat maailmanlaajuiset ihmiskuntaa koskettavat toimintamallit ja innovaatiot. nonPeerReviewed

Vertical Software Industry Evolution: The Impact of Software Costs and Limited Customer Base

ContextSoftware systems are commonly used in a variety of industries as a means of automating organizational business processes. Initially, such software is often developed in-house by the vertical organizations possibly with the support of professional IT service providers; however, in many cases, internally developed software is eventually replaced with the software products provided by independent software vendors. These vendors often use license fees to recover their software development investments, as well as to gain some margin. However, if the vendor's customer base for a specific type of software is limited, then either the license fees are too high and hence the customers may pref…

Introduction to the Enterprise Content Management and XML Minitrack

Content management in contemporary enterprises concerns a variety of information resources: documents in different forms, databases, and metadata such as ontologies, annotations, and indexes. XML and the web are important technologies used to support both resource integration and distribution.

From Regulatory Barriers to Business Model Requirements: Case of Finnish Software Firms in Japan

In the existing literature, the Japanese market is often characterized with different barriers to entering and doing business. Although these barriers are well documented and researched, earlier investigations focus mainly on barriers related to manufacturing firms, conflicts with distribution channels or give only a general description of the barriers. Most of the previous studies are also cross-industrial and they lack an industry-specific focus. However, almost no research exists on what kinds of challenges foreign small and medium-sized software firms have encountered in the Japanese market. In this research, a multi-case study method was used to investigate the kinds of challenges four…

Best practices in the Japanese software market

Globalization of software markets is driving software firms to seek market share and growth opportunities from leading software markets in the world. As the second largest software market, Japan offers high growth potential for foreign software firms. In Japan, the information and communication technology industry is the largest market sector, and the size of the software market in Japan was US$131.8 billion in 2004. Despite great opportunities in the Japanese market, entering the market and conducting successful business there can be difficult due to cultural differences between Japan and Western countries. In this multi-case study we focus on nine software firms in order to examine the be…

Effect of Software on CSP Performance

In order to verify how (if at all) CSP's investments in software affect their business performance, the relationship between (i) CSP's spending on software and (ii) its key performance indicators (KPIs) is considered below. The investments in software are represented by internal, external, and total software spending a year or two years prior to the KPI values, while the KPIs include average revenue per user (ARPU), revenue, net income, EBIDTA, and change in revenue (as an indicator of company growth). Besides, Opex and Capex along with R&D expenses are used as control variables. We use the data collected for the years 2004–2007 (revenue, net income, EBITDA, market capitalization, R&D, CAPE…

Generic Data Models for Semantic e-Government Interoperability : Literature Review

Interoperability of e-government systems is suggested to increase transparency, efficiency, effectiveness, and customer service in the public sector. Generic data models are often seen as a way for achieving especially semantic interoperability. To assess how the contemporary data models support semantic egovernment interoperability, we reviewed literature on data models suggested for the public sector in light of four features: standard modelling language, entityrelationship modelling, vocabulary for data exchange and methodology. The review contributes previous research by introducing a four-feature framework for assessing capability of e-government data models to enhance interoperability…

Impact of Storage Acquisition Intervals on the Cost-Efficiency of the Private vs. Public Storage

The volume of worldwide digital content has increased nine-fold within the last five years, and this immense growth is predicted to continue in foreseeable future reaching 8ZB already by 2015. Traditionally, in order to cope with the growing demand for storage capacity, organizations proactively built and managed their private storage facilities. Recently, with the proliferation of public cloud infrastructure offerings, many organizations, instead, welcomed the alternative of outsourcing their storage needs to the providers of public cloud storage services. The comparative cost-efficiency of these two alternatives depends on a number of factors, among which are e.g. the prices of the public…

Vertical Integration due to Small Market Size and High Product Development and Integration Costs

An independent software vendor (ISV) recovers the costs of software development and configuration through license fees. However, if the number of ISV's customers is limited, then either the license fees needed for recovering the software development investments may be too high (and hence the customer would prefer to develop the software internally), or the ISV's margin may have to be decreased. Given the costs of development and configuration, as well as the margins set by the ISVs, it is possible to estimate how many customers an ISV has to have in order to recover its costs. Furthermore, given a market of a specific size and the minimum number of ISV's customers, it is possible to assess …

Marketing software in Japan: Success factors in different product strategies

This paper investigates small and medium-sized software firms’ success factors in the Japanese market. Findings of this study suggest that, due to the immaterial nature of software products, distribution and packaging has a less important role, while understanding Japanese business practices is ranked high along with customer satisfaction, honesty, and characteristics of a product. The findings also highlight the importance of distinguishing different kinds of software businesses based on their product strategies when analyzing success factors in a target country. For instance, the Japanese language assumed an important role in enterprise solution firms and in mass market software business,…

Change in Human Technology's Publisher: Continued Focus on Open Access Human-Technology Research

Market Entry and Priority of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Software Industry: An Empirical Analysis of Cultural Distance, Geographic Distance, and Market Size

This article investigates the influence of cultural distance, geographic distance, and three market size variables in the target country preference of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the software industry. In addition, the authors examine the shift of SMEs’ priorities in country selection by analyzing how these factors affect the selection of the first, second, and third target countries. The empirical findings suggest that approximately 70% of country choices can be explained by software market size and geographic distance alone. The findings also show that SMEs’ entry priorities shift quickly from countries within a short geographic distance to countries with high purchasing …

Innovation as a driver of internationalization in the software industry

Innovation and internationalization are two important factors for growth. This study analyzes whether innovativeness has an effect on the internationalization of software firms, and if so, how strong this effect is. Innovation and internationalization have rarely been studied together, with research tending to focus more on the relationship between innovations and growth. However, internationalization is a key prerequisite for growth for companies operating in small domestic markets. This paper analyzes the innovativeness and internationalization of firms, using data from the Software Industry Survey conducted in Finland. Since the speed of firm growth and internationalization are dependent…

How Digital is Communication in Your Organization?

Novel innovations in the area of digital media are changing the ways we communicate and organize. However, few practical measures exist for analysing the digitalisation of organizational communication as an intermediate factor in the initiatives to adopt new information and communication technologies (ICT). Building upon the genre theory of organizational communication, a categorization of communication forms, and quantitative measures we suggest such metrics and a measurement method. A case study applying them in an industrial organization suggests the method and metrics to be applicable for quantifying how new information systems affect to organizational communication as well as for antic…

Value Creation and Power Asymmetries in Digital Ecosystems : A Study of a Cloud Gaming Provider

Digital platforms connecting users and service providers have a central role in determining the value creation structure of ecosystems. Platform developers try to achieve a dominant position for the platform with a strong ecosystem around it. The size and attractiveness of the services can attract new users, and growing user volume can bring new co-operative service providers to the service partner network. An interesting question is how the presence of power and potential power asymmetry affect the value creation capability and the structure of a network around a platform? This chapter describes an example of value creation and the influence of power asymmetry in a digital ecosystem built …

Impact of psychic distance to the internationalization behavior of knowledge-intensive SMEs

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the internationalization behavior of knowledge-intensive small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by using macro-level psychic distance indicators and managers' perceptions of psychic distance. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In the quantitative approach, the impact of psychic distance to the internationalization behavior is analyzed by using bivariate correlation analysis. The qualitative case study approach is employed to investigate managers' perceptions of psychic distance as regards market entries. Findings: Findings of this study indicate that psychic distance has an impact…

A framework for IoT service experiment platforms in smart-city environments

Cities provide an excellent platform for gathering and detection of massive amount of data from cities and citizens. Emergence of new digital technologies inspires not only city governments but also city residents, researchers, companies and other stakeholders in discovering and creating new innovative solutions to solve urban challenges and improve peoples´ everyday life. Developing novel Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for cities and citizens requires facilities where IoT applications and services can be tested and experimented. The challenge for many smart-city test and experimentation platforms (TEPs), like living labs, has been the lack of sustainable value creation model. This has …

Cost Efficiency of Hybrid Cloud Storage : Shortening Acquisition Cycle to Mitigate Volume Variation

Hybrid cloud storage infrastructure, which combines cost-effective but inflexible private resources and flexible but premium-priced public cloud storage, allows organizations to operate cost-efficiently under demand volume uncertainty. The extant literature, however, offers a limited analytical insight into the effect that the variation of demand has on the cost-efficient mix of internal and external resources. This paper considers the storage capacity acquisition cycle, i.e. the interval at which the organization re-assesses and acquires additional resources, as a parameter shaping the optimal mix of resources. It introduces a model capturing the compound effect of the acquisition cycle an…

Market Polarization due to Difference in Interface Implementation Efforts

Another factor potentially affecting the evolution of the OSS/BSS software market is the high complexity of software interfaces. The software provided to a customer – a CSP – needs to be integrated with a number of heterogeneous subsystems deployed by the customer. If the number of integration interfaces is high, a vast amount of special knowledge is needed in the vendor organization. High integration efforts also take up the time of the compentent employees of the vendor organization, thereby reducing the number of customers which it is capable of serving. As a result, only few large vendors can compete in such market, and, due to a lack of competition, the evolution towards a horizontaliz…

Towards a Better Understanding of the Dynamics of Platform as a Service Business Models

Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions are changing the way software is produced, distributed, used, and priced. However, there has been little research into understanding the dynamics of PaaS business models and how these business models should be designed to establish a flourishing ecosystem around these platforms. Using design science research (DSR) we first identified the main design elements of PaaS business models as well as their relationships by investigating 24 PaaS providers. The resulting classification scheme as well as the qualitative systems dynamics model (in form of a causal loop diagram (CLD)) facilitates a better understanding of the adoption dynamics of PaaS business mode…

Managing Converging Content in Organizations

Content management is essential for organizational work. It has been defined as “a variety of tools and methods that are used together to collect, process, and deliver content of diverse types” (McIntosh, 2000, p. 1). Content management originates from document management. In fact, a great deal of contemporary content management system functionality has evolved from document management systems. Documents are identifiable units of content, flexibly structured for human comprehension (Murphy, 2001; Salminen, 2003). They have traditionally been considered as containers for organizational content. Document management considers the creation, manipulation, use, publishing, archiving, and disposal…

A framework for evaluating Internet-of-Things platforms: Application provider viewpoint

Widespread adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) applications assumes a sustainable ecosystem of firms creating, distributing, and using these applications. Such an ecosystem often forms around a platform that implements commonly used functionality and offers it to the members of the ecosystem for creating applications and services. In IoT, such a platform may be materialized in a form of a cloud platform that supports the management of connected devices, and the development and use of the applications based on them. A number of cloud platforms targeting IoT applications are available in the market; to prosper, they need to assist the providers of the IoT applications in designing and develo…

Content Management in Organizations

Content management may be characterized as “a variety of tools and methods that are used together to collect, process, and deliver content of diverse types” (McIntosh, 2000, p. 1). At least three differing approaches on content management may be identified: 1) Web content management, 2) Document management, and 3) Utilization of structured documents.

Online expression and spending on personal cybersecurity

The Internet is used increasingly as a platform both for free expression and e-commerce. Internet users have a variety of attitudes towards the security and privacy risks involved with using the Internet; and distinct concerns and behaviors with regard to expressing themselves online. Users may have controversial viewpoints that they may express online in various ways. Controversial viewpoints or artwork by their nature may not be as well received as positive or polite expressions. In the online environment, users with controversial viewpoints may be reluctant to express the viewpoints due to concern about possible consequences resulting from the expressions. Consequences may be imposed by …

A Genre-Based Method for Information Systems Planning

Currently, corporations implement diversified computer-based information systems (IS). These include organization-scale solutions such as enterprise resource planning systems, inter-, extra-, and intranet applications, product data management, and enterprise document management systems. At the same time, the end user is ever more capable of rapidly developing and tailoring small-scale applications for groups, organizational units, and personal purposes independently (Grover, Teng, and Fiedler, 1998). Furthermore, corporations are investing in information technology infrastructures that take full advantage of global networking and business process re-engineering (Broadbent and Weill, 1997; G…

Developing Solutions For Healthcare : Deploying Artificial Intelligence to an Evolving Target

—The pace of deploying artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to healthcare has been speeding up. Many of the initiatives have been technology driven aiming at finding problems matching the new technology while systematic, demand driven search for solutions has been limited. Here we describe the process of identifying opportunities for deploying artificial intelligence to healthcare and social services on regional and national levels in Finland. The process includes idea generation and elaboration using a design thinking method complemented with architectural design for identifying required AI capabilities for the 34 best use cases. In this paper, we focus on the development of use case “M…

Evolution of secondary software product businesses: Momentum of concurrent enterprising

A growing part of commercial software production is provided by the so-called secondary software industry, involving both software products and services offered by other industries than the actual software industry, i.e. the primary industry. We have been investigating the evolution of businesses in the secondary software industry in two phases, first by developing a framework to analyse the change of host industries from closed and vertical to open and horizontal especially in terms of software products. Secondly, we have studied a set of selected industries in a pivotal era called the momentum of concurrent enterprising in this paper. The key finding is: the value creation is moving towar…

Current Software-as-a-Service Business Models: Evidence from Finland

This paper characterizes the business models of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) firms based on their value proposition, customer segments, revenue streams, and customer relationship, and analyzes interconnections of these business model elements. The target set of 163 Finnish SaaS and ASP firms was first compared to other software firms and then clustered into four clusters based on indicator data of their business model elements. The comparison reveals that the SaaS and ASP firms have smaller customer and transaction sizes than software firms in general. The resulting classification reveals two different configurations, a pure-play SaaS model and an enterprise SaaS model, and the typical fact…

Value networks in cloud computing

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine value networks in cloud computing. It demonstrates the kinds of value offered by such networks to firms within a given network, and considers how and why the network may change over time.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports on a longitudinal case study, including a total of seven semi‐structured open‐ended interviews, conducted with five informants from the case firm.FindingsIt was found that cooperation in value networks provides not merely financial benefits, but also knowledge, among other intangible benefits. Value networks should be evaluated as a whole, since there may be indirect connections – i.e. the value comes not directly fr…

Does time spent on device security and privacy inhibit online expression?

Freedom of expression is a recognized human right. More recently, the UN has resolved that unrestricted access to the Internet is also a human right. A commonly accepted benefit of the Internet is that it serves as a platform for free expression. Usage of the Internet for free expression can be a way of circumventing censorship or other hindrances that prevent citizens' freedom of expression in more traditional publishing media. However, the Internet has unique security and privacy risks that may affect users' attitudes toward expressing themselves online. In the online environment, users with controversial viewpoints may be reluctant to express the viewpoints due to concern about possible …

Perspectives on Digital Content Markets: A Literature Review of Trends in Technologies, Business and Consumer Behaviour

In this paper, we focus on digital content markets (DCMs), which have typically been seen as an offspring of technological and business innovations. However, recent trends indicate that these two perspectives are not enough when attempting to understand how DCMs actually work. Technology is obviously a prerequisite for business innovations, which in turn provide new possibilities for consumers. Nevertheless, consumer behaviour is not only a result of technological and business innovations, but by itself a crucial factor of DCMs. In this paper, we attempt to clarify the general view of DCMs by carrying out a literature study that is based on the above mentioned three perspectives: technology…

Introduction to the enterprise content management minitrack

Enterprise content management (ECM) focuses on the management of textual and multimedia content across and between enterprises, emphasizing the coexistence of technical and social aspects within the content management. Methods and techniques applicable for managing textual and multimedia information with all sizes of content units, ranging from XML and database structures through web pages and documents to document collections, are studied as well as approaches focusing on specific content structures. In a piece of ECM research, multiple of the perspectives may be covered, or one of the perspectives is chosen as the major view to the area: • the technical perspective including the developme…

Model for Evolution of a Vertical Software Industry

The interaction of the primary and secondary software industries appears to follow a common pattern, which has been described in the model for evolution of a vertical software industry (Tyrvainen et al. 2008). The evolution is seen as iterating through several phases, shown in Fig. 1 and described below.

Metrics Framework for Cycle-Time Reduction in Software Value Creation

Agile software development methodologies driving cycle-time reduction have been shown to improve efficiency, enable shorter lead times and place a stronger focus on customer needs. They are also moving the process development focus from cost-reduction towards value creation. Optimizing software development based on lean and agile principles requires tools and metrics to optimize against. We need a new set of metrics that measure the process up to the point of customer use and feedback. With these we can drive cycle time reduction and improve value focus. Recently the lean startup methodology has been promoting a similar approach within the startup context. In this paper, we develop and vali…

Evolution of Telecom Operator Software Industry: Conclusions and Future

Analysis of software industry is a challenging task due to the inherent characteristics of software industry. This is not simply due to the immaterial nature of software, or to zero marginal cost of replicating software, nor it is due to knowledge intensiveness of the industry. Most software is vertical software and is developed for the purposes of some vertical industry, such as finance or telecom, whose business the software will support. The major challenge for analysing a vertical software industry comes from understanding the interaction of software technology and the business requirements of the vertical industry.

Following the Money: Revenue Stream Constituents in Case of Within-firm Variation

The idea of this paper stems from the perception that the concept of revenue stream requires clarification and further division to be applicable to businesses with high internal variation in their methods of capturing revenue. Current study sets out to investigate the concept of revenue stream through an overview of previous literature and a case study to demonstrate how revenue streams of a b2b (business-to-business) software service firm can be analyzed by elaborating the concept further. The aim is to answer the following research questions: 1) What are the relevant constituents of the revenue stream concept within a b2b software services firm? 2) How revenue stream as part of the busine…

Software Business Education for Software Engineers: Towards an Integrated Curriculum

All software is developed to create value to its stakeholders. Software engineering decisions and business value are closely linked with each other: technical decisions may have a profound impact on the business potential of software. Yet, software engineering education usually does not provide students with sufficient knowledge on business-related issues. We believe that the general business education is too abstract and unfocused to address the specific characteristics of software business. This paper suggests specific areas of business competencies that should be integrated into the software engineering curriculum. In addition, we compare these topics with software business curricula in …

Market scope of vendors in the OSS software market

This paper studies the market scope of vendors that produce software for telecommunications operators, i.e. the Operations Support Systems (OSS) market. The aim is to find out the strategies used by vendors in the OSS market. The market scope is studied on two dimensions: 1) the breadth of the scope in the OSS market; and 2) focus on the telecommunications industry. The breadth of market scope is divided into four categories: niche, vertical, layer and broad scope. We examine empirical vendor data from the years 2002 and 2005. Results show that all hypothesized strategies are present in the market. Most of the firms have either a niche, a vertical or a broad market scope, and they are speci…

Retrieving Monitoring and Accounting Information from Constrained Devices in Internet-of-Things Applications

Part 6: Monitoring Mechanisms; International audience; Internet-of-Things (IoT) is envisioned to provide connectivity to a vast number of sensing or actuating devices with limited computational and communication capabilities. For the organizations that manage these constrained devices, the monitoring of each device’s operational status and performance level as well as the accounting of their resource usage are of great importance. However, monitoring and accounting support is lacking in today’s IoT platforms. Hence, this paper studies the applicability of the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), a lightweight transfer protocol under development by IETF, for efficiently retrieving monito…

Software Business in the Telecommunications Sector