Software Companies

Software companies are helping businesses cut costs, improve productivity and boost revenues. According to a recent survey of 500 tech-savvy companies, average spend on information technology touched 3% of revenues. Indeed, corporations worldwide are using products and services of software companies to run and grow businesses.

Enterprise resource planning software companies such as SAP help firms streamline supply chain and accelerate product development. A customer relationship management company such as Salesforce.com helps companies strengthen relationships with customers. Software companies are having equally profound influence on the quality of human life. Software companies have helped transform mobile phones into pocket personal computers or smart phones that help consumers make calls, access email, listen to music and surf the web. Indeed software companies are beginning to have enormous influence on business and personal life.

Software companies can be broadly divided into two categories:

• Products
• System Software
• Application Software
• Services.

Software Companies Products:- System

Systems software comprises operating systems, compilers and utilities. It helps in managing the computer resources. An operating system manages the hardware and software of a computer.

The operating systems can be broadly divided into four categories:

Unix-based operating systems
Open-source operating systems
Microsoft Windows family
Special-purpose operating systems.

The Unix-based operating systems include Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger, IBM’s Aix 5L, HP-UX 11i and Sun’s Solaris 10 among others. The use of Unix operating systems is, however, limited to businesses and academe.

The open source software, where source code is in public domain, includes mostly Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and FreeBSD.

Microsoft Windows Family is the most popular operating system in both business and personal computing space. Microsoft Windows Family includes operating systems such as Windows XP for home and professional users.

The special purpose operating systems include systems software such as IBM’s z/OS for mainframes and QNX, eCos and PalmOS for embedded devices.

The systems software space is limited to large players such as Microsoft, Sun and Apple as the development of an operating system is both time-consuming and costly.
Products:- Application

The application software includes a wide range of products for both individuals and corporations. Typically, application software includes end-user programmes such as databases, word processing packages and spreadsheets. In recent years, the definition of application software has broadened to include a number of new categories such as security, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and business intelligence among others. While major software companies in the security space include Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro, leading companies in the enterprise resource planning space include SAP and Oracle. Leading software companies in the customer relationship management segment include Siebel Systems, Aspect Software, Salesforce.com and Witness Systems. Oracle has recently announced plans of taking over Siebel Systems.

Software Companies - Services

For software companies the services business is also a big market. According to research company Gartner, global information technology services market grew by 6.7% from US$569.6 billion in 2004 to US$607.8 billion in 2005. Software services include services such as infrastructure/network management/performance; application development and support; migration; and system integration among others.

In recent months, ABN Amro outsourced its information technology operations to IBM, Accenture, Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services and Patni Computer Systems in a deal valued at US$2.2 billion. According to Computer Business Review, top software services companies in 2005 include IBM Global Services, Electronic Data Systems, Fujitsu, Accenture, Computer Sciences Corporation and Hewlett Packard. Indian software companies such as Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and Satyam Computers, though small by global standards, figure among the fastest growing software companies(services) in the world.