Company specializing in software sales
An
independent software vendor
(
ISV
), also known as a
software
publisher, is an organization specializing in making and selling
software
, as opposed to
computer hardware
,
[1]
designed for
mass
or
niche
markets. This is in contrast to
in-house software
, which is developed by the organization that will use it, or
custom software
, which is designed or adapted for a single, specific third party. Although ISV-provided software is consumed by end users, it remains the property of the vendor.
Software products developed by ISVs serve a wide variety of purposes. Examples include software for
real estate
brokers, scheduling for healthcare personnel,
barcode
scanning, stock maintenance,
gambling
, retailing, energy exploration, vehicle fleet management, and
child care management software
.
An ISV makes and sells software products that run on one or more computer hardware or operating system platforms. Companies that make the platforms, such as
Microsoft
,
AWS
,
Cisco
,
IBM
,
Hewlett-Packard
,
Red Hat
,
Google
,
Oracle
,
VMware
, Lenovo,
Apple
,
SAP
,
Salesforce
and
ServiceNow
encourage and lend support to ISVs, often with special "business partner" programs. These programs enable the platform provider and the ISV to leverage joint strengths and convert them into incremental business opportunities.
[2]
Independent software vendors have become one of the primary groups in the IT industry, often serving as relays to disseminate new technologies and solutions.
[3]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]