A micro ISV (abbr. mISV or μISV), a term coined by

Eric Sink Eric Sink is a software developer and writer. He is the author of ''Eric Sink on the Business of Software'' (2006), a collection of essays from his blog and the "Business of Software" column for the Microsoft Developer Network. He founded Sour ...

, 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, as opposed to computer hardware, designed for mass or niche markets. This is in contrast to in-house software, ...

with fewer than 10 or even just one

software developer Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, Computer programming, programming, software documentation, documenting, software testing, testing, and Software bugs, bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applic ...

. 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 (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

-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, most 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 f ...

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.

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 A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...

, 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 Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

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 category of cloud computing services that allows customers to provision, instantiate, run, and manage a modular bundle comprising a computing ...

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 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
,

, 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