What is the difference between a Product and a Solution?
kenl...@hotmail.com
industry, particularly the software industry?
One example can be found at http://software.emc.com. The website has a
link to products while another to solutions.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
James Bond 007
<kenl...@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:1168977064.2...@38g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Phlip
> What is the difference between a Product and a Solution in the IT
> industry, particularly the software industry?
A Product is what the users ask for, and a Solution is what they actually
need.
;-)
--
Phlip
http://www.greencheese.us/ZeekLand <-- NOT a blog!!!
Vivekanandan M
> kenl...@hotmail.com wrote:
> What is the difference between a Product and a Solution in the IT
> industry, particularly the software industry?
>
> One example can be found at http://software.emc.com. The website has a
> link to products while another to solutions.
A product is a software which can be used to create solutions for
any business need! Eg. Websphere - U can develop n number of
applications using Websphere! its a product.
A solution is a software, which addresses a specific business
problem! Eg. Employee payroll application using Websphere is a
solution, which is used for Payroll processing!
Best Regards,
Vivekanandan M
kenl...@hotmail.com
Just to check how much my understanding is.
In OO lingo, can I say that a solution is a specialization of a product
where the solution addresses a problem while a product may not? In
terms of multiplicity, can I say that zero or more products make up a
solution in the solution-product relationship as a solution may not
make use of any product at all?
Vivekanandan M
> kenl...@hotmail.com wrote:
> In OO lingo, can I say that a solution is a specialization of a product
> where the solution addresses a problem while a product may not? In
Yes, this is true.
> terms of multiplicity, can I say that zero or more products make up a
> solution in the solution-product relationship as a solution may not
> make use of any product at all?
Yes, a solution can be developed using single or multiple products!
Also you can develop a customised solution without using any product!
Best Regards,
Vivekanandan M
editormt
a solution is developed by a salesman ;o)
bela...@gmail.com
A solution could be more than a product... a complete offering to end
user.
For example, when you buy a Ford, the Ford car is the product. But is
that all that you buy? No, you also get one year free servicing,
discount for the next two years etc. A combination of all these makes
it practically more useful to the end user. That's a solution.
In software field, for a large scale installation, it is not uncommon
to bundle a software usage training and periodic visits to client sites
along with the product delivery. Then that's a solution.
All this said and done, a product (or a service also for that matter)
may stand alone as a solution.
/Ashish
bela...@gmail.com
the product page, it lists quite a few things (probably a mix of
products and solutions) and so the solutions page has nothing left for
it. I wonder what prompted this kind of design. To me it looks like a
basic design flaw.
/Ashish
H. S. Lahman
> What is the difference between a Product and a Solution in the IT
> industry, particularly the software industry?
>
> One example can be found at http://software.emc.com. The website has a
> link to products while another to solutions.
In the link context a product is a specific software application while a
solution is some combination of products used to solve a bigger problem
than any one product solves. IOW, the Big Picture solution glues
together individual products in a useful way.
However, solutions in other contexts do not necessarily involve gluing
products together or even specific products. Thus consultants/mentors
provide <methodological> solutions for their clients that often don't
depend on particular software products.
*************
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not be cured by a capful of Drano.
H. S. Lahman
h...@pathfindermda.com
Pathfinder Solutions
http://www.pathfindermda.com
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Vivekanandan M
> editormt wrote:
> a solution is developed by a salesman ;o)
This is not true!! The solution will be engineered by business
application team/support team! and not necessarily by the development
team.
Best Regards,
Vivekanandan M
Vivekanandan M
> bela...@gmail.com wrote:
> A product is one entity that can be exchanged (for money or for free).
> A solution could be more than a product... a complete offering to end
> user.
>
> For example, when you buy a Ford, the Ford car is the product. But is
> that all that you buy? No, you also get one year free servicing,
> discount for the next two years etc. A combination of all these makes
> it practically more useful to the end user. That's a solution.
This is not a good example! When u buy a product, u also look for
long term maintenance/service, thats not a solution!!
Best Regards,
Vivekanandan M
Vivekanandan M
> H. S. Lahman wrote:
> However, solutions in other contexts do not necessarily involve gluing
> products together or even specific products. Thus consultants/mentors
> provide <methodological> solutions for their clients that often don't
> depend on particular software products.
If a solution is offered by consultants (methodological solution),
that is consulting service and not a solution! I am not sure if you are
trying to say "Software Solution" is same as "Methodological solution"
(Process).
Best Regards,
Vivekanandan M
H. S. Lahman
>>However, solutions in other contexts do not necessarily involve gluing
>>products together or even specific products. Thus consultants/mentors
>>provide <methodological> solutions for their clients that often don't
>>depend on particular software products.
>
>
> If a solution is offered by consultants (methodological solution),
> that is consulting service and not a solution! I am not sure if you are
> trying to say "Software Solution" is same as "Methodological solution"
> (Process).
My point was that if the consultant provides a solution for a specific
customer problem, it is a solution whether it involves a product or not.
For example, suppose the customer needs to allocate advertising budgets
in various media nationally, regionally, and locally. For a large
company that is a very large, potentially np-Complete problem. The
Operations Research consultant comes in and says, "You need to use
linear programming for this. Here is how you would define your input
data for the constraint matrices." The customer may implement that
solution by creating an in-house lp product or may choose to purchase an
OTS lp product. The consultant clearly provided a solution to the
customer's problem and that solution is independent of particular
software products.
As another example, suppose a customer is having problems with
reliability where asynchronous processing is necessary. A consultant
comes in and identifies the main problem being the customer's developers
don't have experience with asynchronous processing. So the consultant
teaches the developers how to design state machines and manage
handshaking protocols. That is a purely methodological solution for the
customer's development problem and the reliability improves as a result
even though the consultant didn't touch the products.
In practice, companies rarely hire a consultant unless they have a
specific problem that they can't solve in-house. So consultants almost
always provide a solution for the customer. IOW, consultants are
selling solutions just like product vendors; the difference lies in the
nature of what is being sold.
[BTW, I'll bet a substantial sum that whenever EMC provides a "solution"
for the customer it involves a bundle of consulting to glue the EMC
products together in the customer's specific environment.]
Vivekanandan M
> H. S. Lahman wrote:
> Responding to M...
Thanks for the wondeful reply.
Best Regards,
Vivekanandan M
bela...@gmail.com
> > that all that you buy? No, you also get one year free servicing,
> > discount for the next two years etc. A combination of all these makes
> > it practically more useful to the end user. That's a solution.
>
> This is not a good example! When u buy a product, u also look for
> long term maintenance/service, thats not a solution!!
M, the bundle (of the product along with the services) is the solution
offered by the company for the buyer. I don't see why it's not a good
example.
/Ashish
Roberto Waltman
>What is the difference between a Product and a Solution in the IT
>industry, particularly the software industry?
>Any help would be very much appreciated.
Hint:
Group A:
Product.
Used car.
Used DVD.
Garbage collector.
Improve the user experience.
...
Group B:
Solution.
Pre-owned car.
Pre-viewed DVD.
Sanitation engineer.
Put more pictures in the damn web site.
...
Roberto Waltman
[ Please reply to the group,
return address is invalid ]
Roberto Waltman
Oops, these two were swapped (group A)/"miscategorized" (broup B):
> Improve the user experience.
> ...
> Put more pictures in the damn web site.
Roberto Waltman
Tom
Your software is a product.
His software is a virus.
kenl...@hotmail.com wrote in news:1168977064.225531.112420@
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