Excerpt from Chapter 10: Five Situations Right for Outsourcing
The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply. - Kahlil Gibran
Several types of software development projects are well suited for offshore outsourcing. Low-cost and knowledgeable offshore teams are a great way to implement software in these examples, either as a one-time project or with your own team of programmers managed by a vendor in your offshore development center. Here are the five presented in this chapter:
- Transforming your software into a service
- Outsourcing data entry operations
- Implementing the latest technical craze
- Creating embedded software systems
- Developing version 1.0 of your software product.
Transforming your Software into a Service
Today, no one really wants to pay for software. Customers want the benefits that the software delivers at the lowest cost possible or even for free with open-source applications. For many commercial applications, the best way to achieve low cost is to use the software as a service (SaaS) model.
Software as a service is a model in which the software vendor provides an Internet-hosted version of their application (in-house or at a managed third-party site) that customers access via the web site and pay for on a per-use, per-project, or subscription basis. Salesforce. com is a leading example of the SaaS model. The SaaS model offers significant benefits to software vendors and their customers.
Some software companies design and deliver their software as a service. But many others still offer a traditional software license. They are being caught by the SaaS wave and face dwindling sales as customers refuse to pay high license fees.
For example, one software company in San Francisco offers their product for a hefty $300,000 license fee. On top of that, you have to pay another $300,000 for customization. Do they have customers? A few. But the new ones are all asking for a SaaS pricing model.
