Alliance strategy for embeded software vendors

Abstract

Software industry is one of the youngest industries which have grown considerably within a short span of time. Today, microprocessors and associated software enter our daily lives improving the working of cars, planes and washing machines. The software which is embedded in other equipments is known as embedded software. Embedded software is getting one of the fastest growing segments in the software industry today. Indian software industry is trying to capture this business space by leveraging its strength in software services. But there are challenges: 1. The software is not sold stand-alone in this market. On the contrary, software, hardware and other related systems (as a package) is delivered to the end customer. 2. Since it is a network based competition, having right partners is the key to success. 3. The market space is diverse and the success factors are different in different domain. Vertical and horizontal integrations are different options tried out here. This report is divided into 3 major themes, namely Software Industry, Alliance Theory and Technology Development Centre of Wipro. In the first theme (section 3), the software industry, as a whole, is analyzed to understand the forces shaping this industry. The second theme (section 5) deals with Alliance theory to understand the fundamentals of alliances in any domain. In the third theme (section 6), I have analyzed the position of Technology Development Centre of Wipro and proposing an alliance strategy for this group. The report has explained the objectives of the project in the beginning in section 2. The report ends with the summary of the key points discussed in the report.