The IT productization and commercialization processes of an consulting company

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School of Science | Master's thesis
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Date
2010
Major/Subject
Tietokoneverkot
Mcode
T-110
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
(8) + 81
Series
Abstract
For many small companies outsourcing represents a way to acquire new assets without losing focus on the core business. This thesis studies how outsourcing can be used in product development and how a service-focused company can commercialize the developed products. The case company is Synocus Platforms Oy. The two research questions of this study are: How should Synocus utilize outsourcing in future IT product development? What type of business approach should Synocus use when launching IT products? The problem is approached through analyzing the experiences from a pilot project that focused on outsourcing IT productization to China. This case project is presented in the thesis from the project management perspective. One of the projects aims besides developing the product was to examine what roes in product development could be outsourced to the Chinese outsourcing supplier and on examining how Synocus could use outsourcing in future project. Synocus could not find a way to cost-effectively outsource without supplying a detailed technical design. To successfully outsource to China, the Chinese need to be supplied with detailed technical design specification, as they may not be expected to fully understand business requirements in the form of functional design alone. In addition, to gain sufficient information about different business approaches in the Microsoft ecosystem, five different companies are interviewed. The interview focuses on examining the company's business model and offerings. The pilot outsourcing project and the identified business approaches are analyzed through a framework depicting possible business priorities. As a result of the analysis, one business priority is recommended for Synocus Platforms Oy. Furthermore, lessons concerning future outsourcing projects are summarized in a list and documented for future use. This study is a case study. Action research as a study method is implicit, because the author worked for the case company and worked in a key position in the pilot outsourcing project. This experience combined with the literature review on the subject of outsourcing and product strategy provides sufficient knowledge to answer the first research question. In addition to the findings from the case studies and the literary review, Synocus' unique position in the Microsoft ecosystem and Synocus Platforms Oy's productization processes are examined. In contrast to traditional IT companies in the Microsoft ecosystem, Synocus' background is deeply rooted in consulting, which is taken into account in the analysis. As Synocus already provides hosted services, Software as a Service is identified to be a natural way for Synocus to commercialize the products. The findings from the analysis of the five case studies along with literary review on commercialization provide an answer to the second research question.
Description
Supervisor
Ylä-Jääski, Antti
Thesis advisor
Luukkainen, Sakari
Tiirikainen, Sami
Keywords
outsourcing, externalisering, software as a service, SaaS, offerings, utbud, productization, produktutveckling, business priority, affärsprioritering
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