It’s a dream come true to have a company of my own and the day is not for away, the horizon is at my hand’s reach and this world waits to witness the success of a new Entrepreneur and his Entrepreneurship. Yes, if I get funded for a Start-up Product Company – The concept that I would bet on is unanimous– its OPD(Outsourced Product Development) complemented with another emerging model called SaaS(software as a service) and any technology that makes this endeavor reach to customers and organization, that envy to make this world a better place to live in.

The one-liner to my dream come true is - An OPD provider with SaaS modeling. Yes, and if u ask me to put this techie crunch in a simple way, I can rephrase this to something like, having a sandwich. Yes, the bread on either side is the OPD and the masala inside is the SaaS, I am very sure that once, people have this combination, they will feel the taste and realize what difference it can make to their meal. My friends, don’t forget that you are in a fast-food world, where u don’t find time to eat your meal with great leisure in a hotel lawn, but to have sandwiches, burgers, pizzas on the drive. This is an era where even the tortoise have adopted running fast, to win the race of market capitalization and customer satisfaction (The old granny’s story of hare & tortoise has gone obsolete with the fast changing time).

To make my stand crystal clear, and the reason why my firm will combine the power of OPD and SaaS, I wish to drill down the technical aspects of these powerful weapons (Emerging Markets) which will rule the software industry in the years to come.

My first stand of justification, as why I would prefer to root with Product development rather than being a services company is, I “Think Product”. Yes, software and any application for that matter, is all about “Generics” that would cater the needs of a wide variety of users, whereas application /service oriented approach will be “custom-built” for a single organization or targeting a set of users only. Moreover with application development it is just enough, if the functional requirement of the client is met, but for a product to sustain in the market and to met the ever changing needs of different customers, it has to be well architected with a solid and robust framework, to support building new features on top of it for attracting the customers with newer versions and enhancements. This is the most challenging part of “Product Development”. Myself being a product developer and an emerging entrepreneur, I would like to take up industrial challenges and want my co-owners (the emerging Technology Evangelists of my Dream) to stand by me in winning customer satisfaction.

Why OPD:

The advantages what the ISV (Independent Software Vendor) enjoys when their product development is given to a OPD provider are,

1. Release multiple versions of their product with newer enhancements every year.(Helps them to sustain in the competitive market)

2. Crashing the product road map by releasing newer versions well ahead of planned dates (Quick to Market), there by capturing new markets and business.

3. Helps focus more on product management and leave ample time in ideating newer products (foreseeing emerging markets).

4. Minimizing their development cost.
So, my company being an OPD provider, I will be granting all the above advantages to my client (ISVs) there by winning his goodwill and revenue.

Now, let me come to my second weapon, the most powerful of all, and the reason why I need this to win customer satisfaction. Before getting functional on this, I wish to share my thirst on why and what for, I wish to start a firm of my own. Yes, the lifeline of my dream is to “Have, What you Want”. Henceforth the slogan of my company is “We Deliver your Desire”. The time has come for each of us, an individual or an organization for that matter, to have what they want and own what they wish. No one will be forced to buy an elephant just because he/she desired to have one pleasant, memorable ride on top of it. All you have to do is pay the cost for one pleasure ride and enjoy yourself. I hope this little example would have given a brief note on my second weapon – SaaS (software as a service). Readers please don’t confuse this term “service” with the one that I was opposing in the being of my post. The term “service” in this context, altogether holds a different meaning. Here the service refers to a part of functionality that can be used independently. In the above example Elephant is the Product, which can offer multiple services like

a) A pleasure ride.

b) A mode of transport.

c) Helps to move massive trees and logs from one place to another.

d) A symbol of pride and prestige (a Jumbo welcome to their guests –The King’s way).

So it’s with the person to choose his need out of the product. You can own one, if you require all the services all the time, or just make use of the needy service at the needed time by paying the cost for the usage, it’s as simple as that.

Why SaaS:

Also known as On-Demand software or Web delivered software, which is hosted by vendors and accessed over the web.

SaaS focus more on what the customer wants rather than what the vendor can provide.

SaaS rules out the scope of ownership and procurement model and provides scope for outsourced and subscription services model.

This method of software delivery eliminates the risk and large expense associated with a system purchase and the cost of maintenance of hardware and huge servers at the end-user level.

SaaS model is mostly centered on MDA – Model Driven Approach, which offers customizable product that can be easily upgraded as technology changes.

As we have seen the advantages of both the models - OPD and SaaS now let me justify

Why Both:

To give life to my ideology and make my dream come true, I wish to start a firm which combines both the models (OPD and SaaS) and serve the world with better prospects and greater opportunities. I firmly believe that, this combination will be a trend-setter for the aspirants to follow upon.

With this new product development model, I not only serve my client (ISVs) with a single unit of product what he asked for, but with an end-product which compose of multiple loosely coupled components which can serve their end-users as independent services, based on their need.

This model will open up new opportunity for the end-users and will provide them freedom to choose between the either of

1) To acquire the entire product in order to enjoy all the services the product is capable of. Or

2) Just make use of the service that is needed to him by offering the cost for the level of usage.

This freedom of choice paves way to newer paradigm and will take technology to the deepest level, to the common most man and address all his needs, thereby making this world a better place to live-in and grow rapidly.

This paragraph is not to indicate the end of my post, but here to address you, about the birth of a new entrepreneur, beginning of a fresh software era, growth of the world to a greater horizon. That day I will walk with great pride, prestige and privilege; for which I know,

“I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep”

Sethuram Ragunathan Coffee House, Life at Aditi Idea Innovation Thoughts