A micro ISV (abbr. mISV or μISV), a term coined by Eric Sink, is an

independent software vendor An independent software vendor (ISV), also known as a software publisher, is an organization specializing in making and selling software, in contrast to computer hardware, designed for mass or niche markets. This is in contrast to in-house softwa ...

with fewer than 10 or even just one

software developer Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

. In such an environment the company owner develops software, manages sales and does public relations. The term has come to include more than just a "one-man shop," but any ISV with more than 10 employees is generally not considered a micro ISV. Small

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

-funded software shops are also generally not considered micro ISVs. Micro ISVs sell their software through a number of marketing models. The

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

marketing model (where potential customers can try the software before they buy it), along with the

freeware Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...

marketing model, have become the dominant methods of marketing packaged software with even the largest ISVs offering their enterprise solutions as trials via free download, e.g. Oracle's

Oracle database Oracle Database (commonly referred to as Oracle DBMS, Oracle Autonomous Database, or simply as Oracle) is a proprietary multi-model database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation. It is a database commonly used for ru ...

Microsoft and other micro ISV outreach efforts

Microsoft has a dedicated MicroISV/Shareware Evangelist, Michael Lehman. Part of the Microsoft micro ISV technical evangelism program includes Project Glidepath, which is a kind of framework to assist micro ISVs in bringing a product from concept through development and on to market. Although not specifically targeted at micro ISVs, the Microsoft Empower Program for ISVs is used by many micro ISVs. Microsoft Empower Program members are required to release at least one software title for the Windows family of operating systems within 18 months of joining the program. The Microsoft Action Pack Subscription is similar to the Empower Program in some ways. Alternatively, rapid application development

PaaS Platform as a service (PaaS) or application platform as a service (aPaaS) or platform-based service is a cloud computing service model where users provision, instantiate, run and manage a modular bundle of a computing platform and applications, w ...

platforms like Wolf Frameworks have partner programs specifically targeted towards Micro ISVs enabling them with software, hardware and even free development services.

Industry shows

The

Software Industry The software industry includes businesses for development, maintenance and publication of software that are using different business models, mainly either "license/maintenance based" (on-premises) or " Cloud based" (such as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, ...

Conference is an annual event in the United States attended by many micro ISVs. The European Software Conference is also attended by many micro ISVs and is held in various locations throughout Europe. ISDEF ( Independent Software Developer Forum{{cite web , url = http://www.isdef.org/ , date = 2007-03-01 , title = Independent Software Developer Forum , accessdate = 2007-03-01 ) also hosts an industry event in Russia with many micro ISVs attending.

References

#
Exploring Micro-ISVs
, Eric Sink, Founder o
SourceGear
accessed January 5, 2006 #

, Bob Walsh # " ews://comp.software.shareware.authors, Scott Kane Moderator comp.software.shareware,

External links

The MicroISV Show: A microISV Channel 9 podcast from Microsoft with host Michael Lehman and co-host Bob Walsh
Software industry

Microsoft and other micro ISV outreach efforts

Industry shows

See also

References

External links