In today's era of SMAC -Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud based solution, Pay-Per-Use licensing and Dev Ops software development methodology, Independent Software Vendors (ISV) are facing major challenges on many fronts. ISVs strive to differentiate from their competitors and gain new customers, as well as retain existing customers and generate additional revenue from them. This shift is happening throughout the software developer market and has surfaced technological and business changes for ISVs.

Due to my past roles as a software developer, system integrator and web based ISV, I am familiar with many business considerations that are changing in today's fast moving, social, mobile and Cloud solutions with Dev Ops metholdogy. This understanding is enhanced by my current role in Cisco as product manager for Cloud services, which has given me both a better understanding of Cloud and access to multiple discussions with customers. For this, I would like to share some of my thoughts on the impact of today's market environment to ISV.

ISVs can be broken out into two general categories: small startups and larger, established companies. It might be easy to understand why a small company with limited resources might want to be agile. They are open go mobile, do faster development using available APIs, consider open source and build on top of the third party platforms such as Salesforce.com. For larger players with their own established customer base, these transformative changes can mean making tough business decisions and changing well-run operations. It can even lead to sacrificing existing revenue streams to retain customers or gain new customers and market opportunities.

Regardless of company size, the Software as a Service (SaaS) enables ISVs to reduce costs of software delivery, expand market reach and enter new markets quickly. But changing from existing on-premises applications to a multi-tenant SaaS model with mobile and social strategy is not simple. In a short period of time, ISVs are forced to reconsider what they once knew about application development business.

As highlighted in my previous blog on Cisco Domain Ten Framework for IT Transformation ,  businesses can use Cisco Domain Ten Framework to discuss all ISV considerations for running their SaaS business. This framework is designed to help businesses of all sizes succeed in today's changing market, and provides an avenue of support for almost any situation.

There is no question that ISVs of all sizes are beginning to see need of transformation in today's SMAC environment. And they are in many ways incentivized to begin their transformation journey now. However, if ISVs are too quick to begin transformation process without properly evaluating all business and technical challenges and establishing a plan, they could find themselves in a counterproductive situation. In my next blog I will dive deeper into above Cisco Domain Ten Framework for ISV and how it can help evaluate various challenges for ISV's Transformation efforts.