The SoftwareBusinessLab

Software Business Lab

Mission

The mission of the Software Business Lab is to create new knowledge on software based business. The research of the group is focused on the mechanisms of innovation and new business creation and development. SBL relays this knowledge back to practice through teaching and direct collaboration with software firms.

SBL conducts research on the management of entrepreneurial software firms and the creation and commercialization of innovations. To achieve this, SBL does qualitative and quantitative research and participates in discourses on entrepreneurship and with smaller priority to information systems and strategic management. SBL is particularly interested in the internationalization dimension of these research areas. Research is mainly focused on the software industry, but also encompasses the importance of software in value creation in other industries. SBL collaborates with Finnish software engineering and software technology research groups, and participates in national research consortia, such as the ICT SHOK. The practical reach of SBL is carried out through a masters program in high-tech venture management and various clinic programs offered to software firms.

Research Focus

The focus of SBL?s research is on high-tech entrepreneurship. In particular, SBL seeks to find factors and mechanisms that enable the growth and internationalization of software SMEs. In addition, SBL studies the role of software in value creation in other industries. This second research focus seeks to find how and by whom the value provided by software is created and appropriated in value networks. SBL?s research is based on the perspectives of information systems, strategic management, and technology and innovation management.

Current Projects

CLOUD BUSINESS RESEARCH - CLOUD SOFTWARE PROGRAM

The Cloud Software Program (2010-2013) has 27 partner companies and universities in Finland. Aalto University is one of the partners. The Software Business Laboratory (SBL) at Aalto university conducts the research on the Cloud Business.
The program aims to significantly improve the competitive position of Finnish software intensive industry in global markets. Most significant factors of competitiveness are operational efficiency, user experience, web software, open systems, and security. Cloud software ties these factors together as software increasingly moves to the web. Cloud Software program especially aims to pioneer in building new cloud business models, lean software enterprise model and open cloud software infrastructure. The vision is that by 2015 the Finnish software industry will substantially increase the value of its software assets due to it’s world-class capability and know-how to efficiently and competitively develop, deliver and use software competencies with a focus on defining, building and utilizing software assets and new ecosystems that have the largest sustainable value add for the global business.
Cloud Business Research (2010-2013) in the Software Business Laboratory (SBL) focuses on cloud business through the Oskari database, on new business models, and on customer perspective to the cloud offering.
The cloud business models use open networks to offer software-based services on demand to the internal and/or external value network. Open interfaces, web technology, distributed processing and storage over the Internet, and open source software are used. Cloud Business research studies how the could technology impacts business models and business environment on supplier and customer side. Using software as a service i.e. SaaS over the Internet shifts emphasis from high cost software and project delivery to pay-as-you-use revenue models.
Changes in the business environment require ICT companies to develop their offering. Naturally the customers will face new offerings. Use of external providers for processing and storage capacity relieves software vendors and service users from secondary IT maintenance. Providing service through the Internet lowers the sales and deployment costs. Cloud technologies make it easier for the foreign sw companies to enter the Finnish market and for the Finnish ICT companies to service international markets. IT integration business will change and value added services as a revenue stream generator will increase. Companies need strategies to change traditional software assets to support the new business models.
The research focus area involves the modern software business strategies and models, and value creation networks.
The project is funded by Tekes and about 25 companies and universities, see www.cloudsoftwareprogram.org

GrowthMan - More information forthcoming in May 2010.

OSKARI

OSKARI (http://www.softwareindustrysurvey.org) is a survey project of the software industry in several European countries. The project is based on the annual Finnish Software Industry Survey that has for the last twelve years followed the development of the Finnish software industry.

The International Software Industry Survey expands the Finnish Software Industry Survey to a number of European countries this year. The survey's objective is to provide information about the current state of the software industry and companies in European countries.
The main focus of the 2010 survey is on the impact of recession on software firms. Additionally, analyses of firm level growth and business models are included in the final report.
As an additional goal, the project serves as a powerful data collection vehicle. The data that are combined across years and augmented with third-party sources provide a valuable resource for those researchers working at SBL who are interested in statistical analysis.
The project has been during its 13 year history closely tied to notable funding partners, such as Federation of Technology Industries (Teknologiateollisuus ry), The National Technology Agency (Tekes), The Centre of Expertise Program, Software Entrepreneurs Association, The Finnish Centre for Open Source Solutions (COSS), Microsoft Oy, Culminatum Ltd Oy, and The Finnish Information Processing Association (FIPA) to mention a few. Other partners offering their expertise to the use of the project have been e.g. The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) and Statistics Finland.
The project has produced each year a final report both in PDF and printed book format. Examples of these and other project publications can be found at: http://www.softwareindustrysurvey.org/node/13.html. During the past three years, each participated company in a survey has received a mass-tailored company specific report, which compares the company with the whole industry. The report has been found to be very useful by the respondent companies. An example of the last year's report can be found here: http://www.softwareindustrysurvey.org/sites/default/files/Firm_report_example.pdf.

DYADS - More information forthcoming in May 2010.

Recent Projects

Software Business Foundations - ?Laying foundations for research, creating business impact through industry co-operation"

Software Business Foundations is a three-year research project (2006-2009), for which a central goal is to build foundations for an international researcher community interested in software business. The project follows a three-pronged approach: First, the project charted the existing research on several sub-disciplines of management and to establish a research agenda of the issues that might be most potential for people interested in the business of software. Second, the project conducts statistical research and publishes research findings utilizing the data on the Finnish software industry collected by SBL over the years. Third, the project has established a virtual community website http://www.swbcommunity.org for software business researchers. A visiting professorship has been established for this project. Professor David G. Messerschmitt, University of California, Berkeley spends four months per year at SBL to actively contribute to the project. An international advisory board, comprising leading scholars across different research areas also advises the project.
The project has been funded by Tekes, F-Secure Oyj, Ixonos Oyj, Tekla Oyj, Mermit Oy, Nexit Ventures Oy, Proha Oyj and Ravensoft Oy. The output of the project, SWBCommunity web site, has been funded by the Fisher Information Technology Center of Berkeley University.
SBF project has promoted virtual interaction by establishing and running SWBCommunity (http://www.swbcommunity.org) web site, which it founded together with Fisher Information Technology Center of Berkeley University. This web portal serves the global community of researchers and practitioners interested in software business.

VERGO

The focus of the VERGO research project is to study how services, networks and internationalization can be used to improve a software firm?s growth, competitiveness and market power. The main practical results provided for the Finnish vertical software industry during this project are models and best practices for managing internationally competitive and growing vertical software businesses.
This three-year project consists of practical and academic research related to vertical software business. Particular theoretical viewpoints considered include finance, strategic management, innovation management and marketing in an international and networked business environment. Research is conducted in collaboration with industry partners, and employs both qualitative and quantitative methodology. The project is funded jointly by Finnish software firms and Tekes. In addition to the immediate practical impact through research collaboration with industrial partners, the project has produced approx. 20 conference papers related to the various research topics of the project.
The project has been funded by Tekes, Tekla Oyj, Spexcel Oy, Biocomputing Platforms Oy, Mylab Oy, SysOpenDigia Oyj, Aureolis Oy, Digium Oy and Rank&Share Oy.

VASPO

VASPO is a 3 year project, funded by industry partners and TEKES to improve the Software development and change management practices in Finnish companies.

VASPO has been started in 2006 as a collaborative effort of the Helsinki University of Technology, the University of Oulu, Jyväskylä University of Technology and TEKES. The funding of the Vaspo project has been supported by Powerwave Technologies, Ixonos, Basware, Nethawk, and Outpost24.
VASPO combines the work of 4 research streams: 1) Management and improvement of software (development) processes, 2) Organizational change management, 3) Value-based software process improvement and 4) Software process metrics. The project produced results such as a Comparison of Time Tracking Tools for Software Developers, reports on Learning and Organizational Change in SPI Initiatives and prototypes of value based decision support tools for software product managers.
More information on VASPO is available at vaspo.org or at the poster (enclosed PDF, it can place on the web site and hyperlink can be created to it).
The project has been funded by Tekes, Basware, Outpost24, Softability Oy, BookIT Oy, Powerwave Technologies (University of Oulu), Ixonos (University of Jyväskylä) and Nethawk (University of Oulu).

Growth Forum 08 & 09

Growth Forum project is a national level joint initiative aiming to promote the growth and internationalization of the Finnish software industry through a public debate on the industry's key challenges, and by providing the industry members funding and networking opportunities.
Growth Forum 08 was organized by the Finnish Software Entrepreneurs Association and Microsoft Finland. The work by the forum was done in three large seminars, in steering group meetings and in numerous working group meetings, where managers from the industry, researchers from universities and other research institutes, as well as public officials collaborated.
The National Software Industry Survey 2008 project acted as a research partner for tge Growth Forum initiative in collaboration with ETLA. The quantitative and qualitative research performed during the project focused on determining the challenges of growth and internationalization of Finnish software firms. The main deliverable was a report aimed for the Finnish government and other public sector. The purpose of this report was to provide an up to date report on the current state of the Finnish software industry and to give recommendations on how the public sector could help the growth of the industry. The final report can be read here: http://www.ohjelmistoyrittajat.fi/files/documents/kasvufoorumi08_loppuraportti.pdf.
In 2009, the work done in 2008 project is continued on the more practical level. The main focus areas of this year?s project are 1) Software business related competence development in the Finnish universities on the areas of teaching & education, innovations and research, 2) Growth strategies and venture capital markets and 3) International sales and marketing. More information about the Growth Forum 2009 project can be found here: http://www.ohjelmistoyrittajat.fi/toiminta/kasvufoorumi09.
The main funding partners of the Growth Forum 08 project were Microsoft Finland and the Finnish Software Entrepreneurs Association. The corresponding partners in 2009 are The Federation of Technology Industries (Teknologiateollisuus ry), The National Technology Agency (Tekes) and the Finnish Software Entrepreneurs Association.
The research efforts conducted in the GF08 project provided important input and impact into the national growth and internationalization policy development. The Growth Forum 08 initiative utilized the central results of the research on determinants of growth and internationalization in high-tech firms conducted by BIT's Software Business Lab (SBL). Some of the recommendations made in the final report could later even be seen as real activities on the governmental level.