To be able to compete these countries are highly depended on internet connectivity with the rest of world. It is important not only to have reliable connectivity but capacity is also important to keep standards and meet requirements and dead lines. In 2005, a problem with submarine cable, caused an interruption to communication services in Pakistan, Internet access was almost unavailable and caused losses to E-business and e-commerce sector, ISPs, Call Centres and software developers (2). This was a special case and lesson for many that how much important is this almost ignored infrastructure component generally called internet access. Many tried to switch to alternates such as satellite connections and faced yet another dilemma i.e. insufficient bandwidth to carry on business as usual. Bandwidth is required to deliver services involved data, voice or video communication such as streaming, conferencing, software and BPO, call centres etc.

Sothern Cross Cable Networks, an international bandwidth provider in the Pacific region, is delivering 295 GB/s and anticipates to grow it to 1.2 TB/s as demand is growing (3). It is a complex under sea submarine cable infrastructure from continent to continent and countries to countries as shown in figure below (4). Providers include Alcatel, Ericsson Cable, Fujitsu, Hitachi, OCC, Siemens and many others (5).   There are cables dedicated for scientific purposes (6) along those used for commercial purposes (7).

Satellite communication is another method of international internet connectivity. There can be more than 300 communication satellites in geostationary orbit ( 8), Intelsat, New skies, ITC Global and Eutelsat are few of international satellite services providers. Satellite communication has various drawbacks, nevertheless it is a good backup source for service providers highly reliant on internet bandwidth, moreover for countries which are landlocked such as in Africa (9), it is a cheap alternate.

International bandwidth has reached around 40 TB in 2010 with an increase of 13 TB in that year alone (10). By end of 2010, there were 2 billion internet users around the globe and 5.3 billion cellular subscriptions(11). With rise of mobile users around the globe, saturation of cellular market in developed world but a high growth rate in developing world, demand of international bandwidth will increase.

References:-

1. Achar, Arapna, ISPs expect bandwidth supply boom- Internet service provider- Industry trend or event, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0TLC/is_11_34/ai_67447054/, last viewed 20th May 2011

2. Afzal,Muhammad, Effect of fiber cut in Pakistan, http://www.sanog.org/resources/sanog6/idrees-pk-fibercut.pdf, last viewed 20th May 2011

3. Network, http://www.southerncrosscables.com/public/Network/default.cfm, last viewed 20th May 2011

4. The internet’s under sea world  http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/pictures/2008/02/01/SeaCableHi.jpg, last viewed 20th May 2011

5. http://www.kidorf.com/DBSuppliers.php, last viewed 20th May 2011

6. Scientific Cables, http://www.iscpc.org/cabledb/Scientific_Cable_db.htm, last viewed 20th May 2011

7. Cable Database, http://www.iscpc.org/, last viewed 20th May 2011

8. Satellite internet: broadband service providers and dish pointing – worldwide, http://www.satsig.net/, last viewed 20th May 2011

9. Why we need affordable international bandwidth, http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?conds[0][category........]=%27Why%20we%20need%20affordable%20international%20bandwidth%27&als[select]=4051582&als[MYALIAS6]=Why%20we%20need%20affordable%20international%20bandwidth, last viewed 20th May 2011

10. Now that’s bandwidth, http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/10/now-thats-bandwidth-international-net-links-add-13tbps-in-2010.ars , last viewed 20th May 2011

11. The world in 2010, ICT facts and figures, http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/material/FactsFigures2010.pdf, last viewed 20th May 2011

That writer was Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, considered to be the first ever programmer and a visionary who predicted how computers would be used. Her short life has many twists and turns, she was the only legitimate daughter of Lord Byron, famous English poet; she was never allowed to meet her father by her mother  as her parents were separated. And it was her mother who intentionally made her study mathematics and science as she wanted to keep her daughter away from arts and creative interests such as poetry. Now it is hardly doubted that the notes she added on her translation of Luigi’s paper were her genuine work (Dale, Weems &  McCormick, 200 p73), she was never acknowledged rightly by Charles Babbage (Ada Lovelace, 2010) still Babbage was full of praise for the Countess.  She died at age of 36, and was buried besides her father; despite all the efforts of her mother to keep her away from her father, she rests for good along side him.

In that age, when a woman was not supposed to indulge into such endeavours as pursuit of mathematics and science , it would not have been easy even for a countess to get involved in what Ada was able to, as mentioned by Stamhuis (2002, p118) that she kept a public life and was criticised for her involvement in activities such as gambling and her ignorance towards family and children (not an uncommon theme is some societies of today), though her mother and later her husband both supported her. She utilised her social life to get acquaintance with personalities such as Babbage which otherwise would have been a difficult task for a woman. She called herself an “Analyst” who was keen in pursuit of knowledge but who was also feeling that her mathematical studies were so strongly imaginative that she thought she would eventually become a poet  (Batchen, 2006, p72). Wonderful, so despite all the efforts of her mother, she was still a poet in her own terms. No wonder why Babbage called her “Enchanter of Numbers”

So this was my introduction (belated) to Ada, daughter of Lord Byron and an imaginative mathematician, first ever programmer and someone who correctly understood how computers will evolve.  US Department of Defence gave tribute to her by branding their high level language on her name. 24th of March has been commemorated as ‘Ada Lovelace Day” to accept and encourage role of women in science and technology (Ada Lovelace Day, 2010).

References:-

• Bradley Michael J. , 2006, “Foundations of Mathematics: 1800 to 1900″, Infobase Publishing,USA
• Bunch Byron & Hellemans Alexander , 2004, “The History of Science and Technology: A Browser’s Guide to the Great Discoveries, Inventions, and the People Who MadeThem from the Dawn of Time to Today”, Houghton Mifflin, NY, USA
• Dale, Nell B. , Weems Chip, McCormick John W. , 2000,  “Programming and problem solving with ADA 95″, John and Barlett publishers Inc, Ontario, Canada
• 2010, “Ada Lovelace” , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace, last viewed 27/12/2010
• Stamhuis, Ida H., 2002,  “The changing image of the sciences”, Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands
• Batchen, Geoffrey , ” Electricity made Visible” in Chun KyongWendy & Keenan, Thomas, 2006, “New media, old media: a history and theory reader” , Rutledge Taylor and Francis Group, NY, USA
• 2010, “Ada Lovelace Day”, http://findingada.com/, viewed 27/12/2010

Not bad.

SAP is intended to create strategic partnership with hardware vendors such as HP to design a hardware architecture which is capable of supporting IDMS in the real world (support for complex and large database systems) which will be eco friendly as well (1) . They also need to come up with a practical sell and support model which can (specially) cater to the licensing challenges (2).

On the other hand, Oracle already had a product “Oracle times ten in-memory database” (3) which is capable to support traditional Oracle RDBMS databases as an in-memory cache to increase the throughput and performance. So, this will not be right to say that Oracle is not moving forward towards this direction; it is true that they are not after it as a competitive advantage (at present).

So what is in pockets of IBM? solidDB is the answer (4) , and well it is designed on the principles of IDMS and its data structures. Not only this, but they have a software “IBM Solid DB Universal Cache” (5) which is supporting the industry leading relational databases to increase their throughput.

Worth noting that Times Ten (6) is one of the acquisitions of Oracle and so is SolidDB which was acquired by IBM in 2007 (7). Interesting, isn’t it? Vmware’s Spring Source is preparing to buy GemStone (8), another in-memory database vendor. It will also be interesting to note that Sybase (which is now acquired by SAP (9)) announced support for all in-memory options to its Sybase ASE 15.5 (10). Almost same time SAP has announced its plan to build new in-memory database appliances (11); it is HP with whom SAP is working for the hardware platform. It was with HP that Oracle actually started its Exadata offering, before Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

It is very interesting IT market development taking place around IDMS, it will not be good to say that SAP is the only player keen to support IDMS, looks like a lot more is happening in the industry along with alliances and acquisitions. Why is that so? because if a good, practical, sellable and appealing IDMS product is developed; it will surely change the outlook of the market, not only RDBMS market will be impacted but Server and Storage market at large will be changed and so as the data centres we see today.

REFERENCES:-

1. Kanaracus, Chris, “SAP Readying In-memory Database Appliances”

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/196428/sap_readying_inmemory_database_appliances.html, last viewed 19 June 2010

2. Moore, Dennis, “Why in-memory database is important to SAP?”  http://dbmoore.blogspot.com/2010/05/why-is-in-memory-database-important-to.html, last viewed 19 June 2010

3. Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database 11g http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/timesten/index.html, last viewed 19 June 2010

4. http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/soliddb/soliddb/features.html, last viewed 19 June 2010

5. solidDB product familyhttp://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/soliddb/, last viewed 19 June 2010

6. TimesTen, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TimesTen, last viewed 19 June 2010

7. SolidDB, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolidDB, last viewed 19 June 2010

8. VMware’s SpringSource to Buy In-memory Vendor GemStone, http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/195782/vmwares_springsource_to_buy_inmemory_vendor_gemstone.html, last viewed 19 June 2010

9. SAP to Acquire Sybase, Inc. http://www.sap.com/press.epx?pressid=13202

10. Kline, Kevin, “In-Memory Databases Push the Envelope”,  http://www.information-management.com/newsletters/in_memory_database-10017825-1.html, last viewed 19 June 2010

11. SAP to build new in-memory database appliances http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/sap-build-new-in-memory-database-appliances-392?source=rss_infoworld_news, last viewed 19 June 2010

This is the new home of my blog. It contains all of my old blog entries from Sun: Sun’s blogging policy gave blogger rights to their own works. The few more recent blog entries that I did at blogs.sun.com were written under somewhat more strict policies “
source: http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/time_to_move_on.

Business world is different then the world of innovators and when corporates support R&D, it is for the purpose of continuity and profits not to support an human’s quest for innovation (they can satisfy themselves though ). Sun was able to bridge that gap between innovation, freedom of work and business realities, and perhaps that is one more reason why they failed and not appreciated in the IT industry.
Keep your fingers crossed for future of Java, it will survive and prosper but with more commercial outlook

One sensible reply which still is an spam:
“From: Irfan
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 5:35 PM
Cc:
Subject: RE: Required Quotations

Makarts should delete this mailing list ASAP, this will black
list your domain, your reputation and worst way of marketing, there is
an option in the mailing list where only Administrator can route email to
the list members, Please learn how to operate eBlast in ethical way.

Thanks and
Best Regards,
Irfan”

And this was the culprist:

“

To: <admin@makarts.com>, <cstmr1@makarts.com>
Subject: Required Quotations

Dear Sir,

I need some quotations for brand new laptops/notebooks with similar to below configurations and limits.

Hard drive = 500GB 5400RPM

Ram=3 to 4GB DDR-2

Processor = Intel Core 2 Duo

Or

Limit = 40,000 to 45,000

Regards”

NO APOLOGIES FROM MAKARTS SO FAR, which again is a mistake. Customer relationship is very necessary in Cyberworld, where you are really in a one-to-one relationship, make it or break it, your choice.

“You do not know about Sun?” It was both with disappointment and disbelief,

“No” I said

“Do you know about Java?” he asked, “it is from Sun, just one product by Sun, we offer both hardware and software”

Of Course I knew Java, and I have heard about Sun in this context as well, but at the time of interview especially when you are a novice entering in to the market, you forget or overlook many important things (I did not do any home work before appearing for interview). I guess I got that job because he did not want me to repeat this again to anyone that I do not know Sun. That was start of my long affair with Sun Microsystems, and I was handed over a couple of just the facts and white papers to read and understand what Sun is all about, and I familiarized myself from Ultra10 to E10k and from Java to Jini.

Those were the days when .com was bubbling up and no one in the market was anticipating a bust; in Pakistan that was the time for ISP start-ups and I still feel proud to say that I was part of the team which introduced Sun in Pakistan. By the time when I got offer from US for an H1 visa, the bubble was meeting its fate, my job offer was never realized and now when I think about it, I feel how pre-mature that whole affair was, myself with just an introduction with Unix platform (I had worked on Solaris and Sun servers for just more than an year), the people who interviewed me in hurry to fill the benches, the industry which was hungry for human resources to keep on building new .com ventures. This was the characteristics of IT industry at that time, fast growing, promising and immature. Sun was one of the prominent stakeholders of that industry, and with the bust of .com bubble, it faced the consequences like all major stakeholders. At that time financial instability was associated with Sun, and it never again gained the confidence of investors, the root cause of its takeover by Oracle.

But financial instability was not the only problem; I started working from Netscape products like web, proxy and directory servers. Soon they became ‘iPlanet’ which was then changed to Sun One in hardly few years, which was then renamed to Sun java Suite. This of course pose a problem for me whenever I write me CV ; as if I shall repeat them all or just write the latest name from which same good old products is now identified (every product grows and different versions come, but it is not renamed like these otherwise sophisticated applications). For sure my CV was not the only one affected by these changes, it was the customer who faced the real challenge; what Sun was doing was against the practices of branding, and it never created the right image of these software products for the customer. They  (Sun) failed to capitalize on their acquisitions like Cobalt Networks, StorageTek and Mysql. They also failed to formalize consistent services and support policy, throughout the time, I saw them, giving extra ordinary favors to both their resellers and customers in day to day operations, they were providing value added services sometimes at no cost, which the market failed to acknowledge. I have worked in ME in a very humble capacity both as a customer and as a partner, I can say they relied more on their resellers then it was due. Reliance on your reseller sometimes can be counterproductive especially if you fail to keep check on the capabilities. It is very simple, you can ignore, forgive and forget but market is a very cruel place, it never forgets nor forgive. With partners who cannot understand the demands of the growing and rapidly changing market, you are doomed to fail. Sadly, I have witnessed Sun failing in the ME.

They were one of the best companies ever existed in terms of the technology they created and human resources they developed. I have cherished working with Sun Professional Services, Consultants, Support and Hardware Engineers, and Managers. Many of them are my mentors, the inspiration I needed to continue and learn. Sun has contributed to the industry, perhaps in an unmatched and unprecedented manner, protocols such as TCP/IP or LDAP. A processor such as SPARC, servers like E10k, SF6800, E25k, language like JAVA, and an operating system like SOLARIS which changed the outlook of Unix forever and much more, different projects, forums, learning exchange, blogs, sun blue prints, sun docs, developers’ connection; it was a wonderful platform for those who seek to progress, never to be matched by any of its contemporaries. This is what Oracle has sought from the acquisition of Sun.

Scot McNealy mentioned in his last message to Sun employees, that he is a capitalist and so as Larry Ellison. Both men have taken the right steps in line with the rules of capitalism; acquisition is a characteristic of capitalism which acts like circulatory system, it helps supply of healthy blood to the organs without which system cannot survive. This acquisition is creating a big threat for many industry giants like IBM and HP, which is also a healthy sign for capitalism as it will promote competition.

The cost will be human resources, R&D and learning initiatives made by Sun, because Oracle has a different policy then Sun, there will not be much for free any more  it is anticipated. Human resources from both Oracle and Sun will suffer, but fair share will be from Sun employees. So there will be impact on SLAs, and support mechanism. This will impact the market as customer will have to deal with a stricter Oracle now; eventually this will benefit the customer in long run with better agreed upon services, hence a set and defined expectation level which they sometime missed with Sun.

And I will remember Sun   as first love cannot be forgotten; Sun was my first love in professional life.

Software Industry comprises of large, medium and small businesses involved in development, publishing and maintenance of computer software.

“According to market researcher DataMonitor, the size of the worldwide software industry in 2008 was US$ 303.8 billion, an increase of 6.5% compared to 2007. Americas account for 42.6% of the global software market’s value. DataMonitor forecasts that in 2013, the global software market will have a value of US$ 457 billion, an increase of 50.5% since 2008” (Software Industry, 2009)

Challenges in traditional business model

Increased demand from customers (as they are competing in demand driven markets) and rapidly changing business scenarios have made it difficult for software providers to meet and incorporate changes with the same pace (Bennett  et al, 2009).

It is also important to note that traditional model results in hybrid software and hardware environments which Allen calls a ‘legacy jungle’ (Allen, 2006 p7). These legacy systems can not fit to requirements as communication and interaction demand (information sharing) is increasing between an organization with its partners and customers.

Another imperative for software providers is an increasingly global software market which is not bound by geography any more due to advancement in telecommunication around the globe and an increasing trust on e-commerce (Internet/E-Commerce Statistics, 2009). To prevail and compete in this market, it is necessary to find more efficient ways of customer support and services for competitive advantage.

Yet another challenge is strategic use of Internet and Information Technology advancement for competitive advantage hence transformation of the business model which involves reviewing customer management, product and service portfolio, processes and activities, financial viability, supplies and business networks along with resources, capabilities and assets (McKay & Marshall,  2004 p26)

New Trends and Business Models in Software Industry

To meet the challenges and ever increasing pressure on the software providers, software industry has come up with various solutions and models. Most notable are outsourcing services, managed hosting services, web services and software services (or software as a service).

Service Orientation

Service orientation in a nutshell is an approach of assigning the task to the one who can do it the best, for an organisation it means getting services from service providers for the functions which can be better performed by them (service providers) and utilizes its own energy and resources on its core competencies to be able to better serve the customer. It means an organization can become more efficient, flexible and expandable to gain competitive advantages by becoming ‘service oriented’ (Allen, 2006 p3).

Software services or Software as a service (SAAS) Model

To meet the challenges mentioned earlier in this essay, the software providers are adopting this new business model of providing software services utilizing IT and web technologies with a reliance on internet as a delivery medium. Model is to provide the software as a service as and when required by the client hence the customer gets a cost effective solutions to its needs by avoiding initial infrastructure investments and licensing costs (Software as a service, 2009). This is an e-business model which effectively and efficiently utilizes the capabilities and competitive advantage of Information Technology as defined by McKay and Marshall (McKay & Marshall, 2004 p37).

The software as a service solution offers the opportunity for companies to select their information technology priorities and then choose from the growing menu of applications now being offered via service providers. (Software as a Service: Strategic Backgrounder, 2001)

By adopting service oriented approach, an organization (customer for software services) can streamline its IT function by aligning it with the business objectives (Allen, 2006 p8), they can ask for and utilize services to meet these goals, hence they can meet the challenge arises from the gap between business demands and legacy software’s capabilities.

There is an attraction and a potential business advantage in this SAAS business model for small and medium sized enterprises (For a review on SMEs see McKay and Marshall, 2004 p95) which gives them access to enterprise class software services at low cost without having to bother about infrastructure,  licensing and support issues.  SMEs can increase their efficiency and capabilities by incorporating software services in to their business processes.

Adopting the service oriented model however is a complex task which needs both service provider and the customers to understand the necessity of alignment between business objectives and IT strategy, this will need them to redefine, evolve and improve their business processes.

Difference between SAAS and Outsourcing Models

Outsourcing can be defined as the transfer of an entire business function to a supplier (McIvor, 2005 p7) this might include the transfer of human resources and other assets. Outsourcing can be partial where some of the functions are transferred while others are kept like in IT operations the Infrastructure capability and management along with operations can be outsourced while keeping the software management (for example ERP software) in house.

Software Services or SAAS on the other hand emphasize on utilization of a software application as a service which is managed centrally in contrast to the outsourcing model where each customer is managed separately (Software as a Service: Strategic Backgrounder, 2001) by allocation of resources.

Mechanics of SAAS and Outsourcing models are totally different, and they cannot be mixed or confused with each other.

Industry Review

“Gartner’s 2008 survey of 333 enterprises in the US and UK found a low level of approval from customers, describing overall satisfaction levels as “lukewarm”. Respondents who had decided against SaaS cited high cost of service, difficulty with integration, and technical requirements” (Software as a service, 2009).

This however is not a mediocre response and SAAS model is going to progress  as there are promising big players like Microsoft offering SAAS services to developers interested in developing SAAS application (Software as a Service, 2009) . There are initiatives like SAAS.com an SME, offering a range of SAAS products.

SAAS Model Framework

Software services providers have to meet the challenges of application design and development (Allen, 2006 p16); following should be the core components of the SAAS model:

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

In essence SOA provides a guideline for development and integration of software systems that can create service oriented functionality. Interoperability is a necessary characteristic of software services (Service-Oriented Architecture, 2009). SOA helps create a loose coupling between software services.

Loosely coupled software can be plugged together in different ways, depending on requirements, at run time. (Allen, 2006 p12)

Service Delivery Framework (SDF)

While SOA provides the overall guideline for development and integration, SDF is the operational guideline within a specific business context, in other words SDF provides the guidelines on how to customize services to meet a specific customer requirement.

SDF is a set of principles, standards, policies and constraints used to guide the design, development, deployment, operation and retirement of services delivered by a service provider with a view to offering a consistent service experience to a specific user community in a specific business context (Service Delivery Framework, 2009).

Service Delivery Automation (SDA)

Service Delivery Automation is the process of creating a service delivery framework utilizing IT tools based on service oriented architecture. Service delivery automation provides necessary leverage and agility to the service providers and enable them transform their business processes towards a service oriented model.

Standard Operating Environment (SOE)

SOE can be described as the final outcome of service delivery automation. In a standard operating environment, the leveraged services are coupled together along with the business processes to enable software services providers ensure quality of services while meeting service level agreements with their clients.

Management of standard operating environment should be a continued self evolving process in which conclusions gained from the outcomes shall be applied to reassess and modify the services and processes.

Creation of a Standard Operating Environment for Software Services Providers

Following the framework of the SAAS model, the road map towards a standard operating environment can be prepared. In a SOE the policies and procedures should be agreed upon under SOA, and services be delivered as per SDF for individual customers in line with the SLAs. Loosely coupled services can be tied together (Bennett et al, 2009) as per individual customer’s SDF to meet the requirements.

In a standard operating environment, both service provider and the customer agrees on certain business procedures and practices to be followed which includes the finance (billing), operations (service utilization and monitoring, incident and problem management, change and release management, capacity analysis etc. ) and service level agreements (monitoring for QOS).

Following are few important aspects of an SOE which shall be considered while providing software services:

Business Process Redesign

Business process redesign and management is an essential step towards achieving the capabilities as a software services provider. It means transformation of business processes in line with service-orientation. An alignment between business practices and IT capabilities is required so that the resulting services will meet both ends. Service-orientation therefore introduces a cultural shift within the organization (Allen, 2006 p42)

Allen also describes the overall approach for process redesign (Allen, 2006 p68) as:

• Scope process redesign with measurable goals
• Redesign the processes focusing on using existing assets or external services
• Plan and implement incremental process improvements

Service Design

As described by Bennett et al (2009):  “services are supplied through a services supply chain, at the top of the chain are the customers with needs followed by a chain of services suppliers”. In this complex chain it is necessary to clearly describe and distinguish a service. Hence service models can be developed to identify and structure services (Allen, 2006 p114).

Different attributes can be assigned to each individual service and a service model to distinguish it. While designing a service, its specification, dependencies, interfaces, and software units shall be identified and recorded (Allen, 2006 p159). A Services Catalogues can be maintained for this purpose.

Quality of Service (QOS)

Quality of service refers to the level of service that is satisfactory to a user (Dobson, 2004) following are some of the attributes which can be monitored to evaluate QOS.

• Dependability (including availability, reliability, security and safety)
• Accuracy of operation
• Speed of operation
• Failure Semantics

For services providers, QOS is directly related to the SLA they sign with the customer and vice versa; both provider and the customer judge the SLA based on QOS parameters they agreed to look after during the services life cycle.

Service Level Management

SLM is the process of managing the software services to ensure their delivery as per SLA with the customer. (Dobson, 2004)

In a service-based approach to software, service-levels agreements are bound to individual software services,  which can be procured, linked, executed and subsequently replaced on an individual basis, but without needing to renegotiate an entire service-level agreement bound to a single, assembled system. (Bennett et al, 2009)

Role of ITIL in creation of standard operating environment

As Allen says “There are aspects of IT service management such as problem and incident management, change management and financial management that are absolutely vital”. The most noteworthy example (which covers these aspects) is ITIL approach.” (Allen, 2006 p220)

ITIL is literature on best practices originally developed by UK government; it emphasizes on a view of IT not as a support but a line function within an organization hence alignment of IT objectives with the business objectives of the organization “Service Management is a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services. The core of Service Management is transforming resources into valuable services” (The ITIL and ITSM Directory, 2007). Most of organizations today follow ITIL recommended best practices for service delivery and service support.

Hence it is imperative for software services providers to incorporate ITIL guidelines in their service delivery and support functions. ITIL version 3 encompasses guidelines on (The ITIL and ITSM Directory, 2007):

• Service Strategy
• Service Design
• Service Transition
• Service Operation
• Continual Service Improvement

ITIL also concentrate on financial management of IT services which enables organizations better estimate their cost, prices and return on investment.

Service Delivery Automation Tools

There are many solution providers with products addressing service delivery and processes automation. For example IBM is providing its Tivoli suite of software for organizations to improve service management (Service Delivery and Process Automation, 2009). This is just an example; there are many other vendors in the market with products for service delivery automation. It is noteworthy here to emphasise that creation of a standard operating environment is based on SOA developed by the organization itself based on industry best practices such as guidelines provided by ITIL, or based on business needs and demands. The tools provide a way for automation of those processes, they enable interface between different components of service delivery architecture.

Stake Holders and Key Performance Indicators

In a service model it is both provider and customer having equal stake and responsibilities because service orientation needs a cultural change in the organization, it means both software vendor and its customers are supposed to work together for this cultural shift.

From software services providers’ perspective, it is but not limited to:

• Development and redeployment of the software hence a change in software engineering, development and quality assurance approach, so that software can be presented as a service to customers, with ability to be agile and structured in way that changes can be incorporated quickly
• Re-organization of assets and resources to better align them with service oriented approach, the functions within organization like IT, finance, marketing, sales and human resources will be coupled together to align business objectives throughout the organization
• IT department of the service provider will be responsible for management of infrastructure and communication services (if not outsourced)
• There will be operations service desk and help desk functions closely aligned with the customer, hence operation staff will be involved in design and test process as well
• Service level managers will be required to align themselves with availability and capacity management teams to ensure right quality of service is delivered

From Customer’s perspective

• Their MIS staff will be concentrating more on strategic use of IT rather than simply managing it
• Change and release management will be an added function within IT, responsible for effective communication with the service provider to avail services as needed
• The functions which will be using software as a service, need to be trained to be able to use the services efficiently, for example users of a payroll system will be required to understand new interfaces, problem escalation processes
• Service level management will be required to ensure that targeted objectives related to quality of service are achieved so that the cost can be justified

Conclusion

Software as a service model is increasingly getting momentum in software industry, and it is going to get more industry share with increased virtualization and adoption of new market offerings such as cloud computing.

In this paper, we have recommended creation of a standard operating environment for service delivery automation, which will provide software services providers with a strategic e-business model to enable them gain competitive advantage with reduced cost, best industry practices, processes and tools, and better customer service capability. They will be able to estimate their cost, asset and resources, which is a critical requirement for any business to be profitable.

By adopting the practices recommended, software service providers will also be able to calculate and mitigate the risk associated with their value proposition. By adopting ITIL best practices, they can address security and risk issues related to service delivery by industry accepted procedures.

As in this model, participation from customer to improve business practices is an essential requirement; this model will be helpful for customers as well to better align their IT resources, save cost and resources to concentrate on their primary business skills and objectives.

References:

• Allen, Paul 2006, Service Orientation Winning Strategies and Best Practices, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK

• Australian Government report for OECD KISA project, Knowledge Intensive Service Activities in the Software Industry in Australia 2002, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/61/34/34608992.pdf, viewed 30 December 2009

• Bennett, Keith, Layzell, Paul, Budgen ,David, Brereton, Pearl, Macaulay, Linda, & Munro, Malcolm, Service-Based Software: The Future for Flexible Software, http://www.bds.ie/Pdf/ServiceOriented1.pdf, viewed 25 December 2009

• Dobson, Glen 2004, Quality of Service in Service Oriented Architectures, http://digs.sourceforge.net/papers/qos.html, viewed 30 December 2009

• Internet/E-Commerce Statistics, 2009 , http://www.witiger.com/ecommerce/ecommercestatistics.htm, viewed 28 December 2009

• McIvor, Ronan 2005, The Outsourcing Process, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK

• McKay, Judy & Marshall ,Peter 2004, Strategic Management of eBusiness, John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, Milton Queensland Australia
  • Service Delivery Framework, 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_delivery_framework, viewed 26 December 2009

• Service Delivery and Process Automation, 2009 http://www-01.ibm.com/software/tivoli/solutions/service-delivery/, viewed 30 December 2009

• Service-Oriented Architecture, 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_Oriented_Architecture, viewed 27 December 2009

• Software as a Service, 2009 http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/saas/default.mspx, viewed 30 December 2009

• Software & Information Industry Association 2001, Software as a Service:Strategic Backgrounder, http://www.siia.net/estore/ssb-01.pdf, viewed 25 December 2009

• Software Industry, 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_industry, viewed 26 December 2009

• Software as a service, 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service, viewed 27 December 2009

• The ITIL and ITSM Directory, 2007 http://www.itil-itsm-world.com/index.htm, viewed 30 December 200