This thesis is aimed at finding out how integration of IT systems creates value for companies and is conducted as a qualitative case study, where six companies are interviewed about their integration solutions. The interviewees were five CIOs and one Managing Director. Four of the companies interviewed have genuine Application Integration solutions, where a middleware platform is the hub of the integration system, while the remaining two used solutions based around a system of point-to-point integrations. The value of an integration solution will be considered a combination of the benefits an integration solution provides, openness aspects, and the price models used to pay for the system. Value is defined as what the company gains, in monetary terms, in exchange for what it pays for an offering (Anderson, Kumar, & Narus, 2007). This definition further defines the attractiveness of an offering as the value minus the price. When discussing the value of an IT system, it is important to consider the difference between the potential value, which is the maximum the system can deliver with an ideal environment and usage, and the realised value, which is some fraction of the potential value that a company actually gains, of the system (Davern & Kauffman, 2000; Smith & Nagle, 2005). Affecting the realisation of potential value are certain factors, called conversion contingencies, which are things like preparation of implementation projects or efforts at using all aspects of a system. Benefits are analysed according to a framework that divides IT systems benefits into five categories: operational, managerial, strategic, IT infrastructure, and organisational benefits (Shang & Seddon, 2000). These categories are focused around, respectively, productivity gains, enhanced planning capabilities, new strategic capabilities, better IT administration, and process improvements. We conclude that most companies gain several large benefits in the operational and managerial types, while the other three types have fewer reported benefits. We conclude that there seems to be quite a lot of unrealised potential value in the integration solutions, if the view of the potential of integration from the technological side is used. We also conclude that companies in certain environments and with more complex organisational structures seem to have a larger value potential than others, meaning they have more to potentially gain from an integration solution. For openness, five aspects of open source software are studied: lock-in, cost, security, flexibility/modifiability, and community. These aspects are mainly derived from literature on open source. The first conclusion we make regarding openness is that most of the CIOs seems not to be fully aware of what the term truly entails. Companies’ opinions regarding open source can be seen on a range between two extremes: those who want to modify or develop software and those who only want to use standard systems. The former category has more to gain from the aspects of cost and modifiability than the latter, but both categories can gain from the lock-in, security, and community aspects. The combination of factors that creates the price of an offering can be described as a price model. To study the value of price models of integration solutions, the SBIFT model (Iveroth, et al., 2013) is used, where the price model is divided into five dimensions, scope, base, influence, formula and temporal rights. None of the interviewed companies were satisfied with the alternatives for price models currently on the market. It was concluded that the dissatisfaction mostly stemmed from the facts that the companies had little opportunity to affect the price model, meaning they could not adapt it to better fit their internal conditions, the complexity of the license agreements, and that it was hard to get vendors to cite a price for a system. Price models that would be more attractive are e.g. models with a larger variable part, like transaction-based ones, or models that affect the time scale of the contract, even though no single model seemed more attractive to all companies.

Cloud computing is a new paradigm that is changing the way we consume IT resources. One of the major changes is related to the pay-as-you-go pricing model. There are several kinds of cloud services being offered and the best option for software developers are Platform as a Service (PaaS). Even with cloud computing beeing a buzzword nowadays, there are few studies being developed to cover the way it will impact the software development. This thesis intents to contribute to fill this gap and provide the basis for new detailed studies about this subject. It presents an analysis about the main aspects in software delevopment that must be afected by the pay-as-you-go cloud model and highlights some of theses changes trough a case study. We noticed significant changes in the following areas: software pricing, performance benchmarks, software development estimation and requirements engineering. These changes are related to a new paradigm in which the IT resources used by software systems will directly impact the software price at all. This should also generate changes in how we deal with software optimization improvement. There is a large research field to be explored and this thesis contributes to point ou some directions. / Cloud Computing é um novo paradigma que está mudando a forma com que consumimos os recursos de TI. Uma das grandes mudanças está relacionada ao modelo de cobrança pay-asyou- go, em que se paga conforme o volume de recursos efetivamente consumidos. Há vários tipos de serviço oferecidos no ambiente cloud e a opção mais natural para os desenvolvedores de software são as Plataformas como Serviço (PaaS). Apesar de o tema cloud computing estar em evidência, há pouco ou nenhum estudo abordando o impacto deste modelo no desenvolvimento de software. O objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir para preencher esta lacuna e servir de base para que estudos mais detalhados sejam desenvolvidos. Para isto foi feita uma análise dos principais aspectos do desenvolvimento de software que serão afetados pelas plataformas pay-as-you-go de computação em nuvem, apontando itens específicos que sofrerão mudanças e evidenciando algumas destas mudanças através de um estudo de caso. Foram constatadas mudanças significativas em áreas relacionadas a precificação de software, benchmarks de desempenho, estimativas de desenvolvimento e engenharia de requisitos, sendo que esta última foi a que ficou mais evidente a partir do estudo de caso. Estas mudanças estão relacionadas a uma nova realidade em que o consumo racional dos recursos de TI tem impacto direto no preço do software, o que também deve gerar mudanças na forma como é tratada a otimização de código. O campo para novos estudos é vasto e este trabalho contribui para apontar alguns dos caminhos a seguir.

As pricing is vital for an organization’s marketing strategy, it is a significant area to consider for companies offering new products where Artificial Intelligence as a service (AIaaS) is provided. The purpose of this study was to investigate possible pricing models for an AIaaS product. The study was delimited to the edtech industry. The main research question to be investigated was “What pricing model should an AI-company have for its B2B personalization product to correspond to the value delivered by it?”. Sub-research questions consisted of how perceived value can be related to price, what factors the organization should consider for the pricing model and the implications of implementation. The exploratory research was carried out through a literature review, a survey where Van Westendorp’s Price Sensitivity Meter was applied, as well as in-depth interviews to gather qualitative data. The quantitative results showed that the price sensitivity depends on the number of monthly active users a platform has, where there is a negative relationship between the number of monthly active users and the price willing to pay per learner. The qualitative results showed that the perceived value depends, amongst other factors, on which segment the buyer belongs to. The primary results were discussed with the findings from the literature review, which mainly consisted of pricing model for Software as a Service (SaaS) products, that resulted in a designed pricing model for AIaaS providers. The conclusion of the study is that pricing an entirely new product is complicated as the buyer does not know the value of the product. Also, there does not exist one single value which can be quantified and translated into price; the price must be adjusted according to the segment’s perceived value. The pricing model presented accounts for adjustable variables needed to be considered by an AIaaS provider before determining a price. Key-words: AI, AIaaS, edtech, education technology, personalization, price, pricing, pricing strategies, pricing models, pricing tools, pricing AIaaS, software pricing, pricing for new / Då prissättning är viktigt för en organisations marknadsstrategi, är det ett betydelsefullt område att ta hänsyn till för organisationer som erbjuder nya produkter baserade på Artificiell Intelligens as a Service (AIaaS). Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka möjliga prismodeller för AIaaS produkter. Studien var begränsad till edtech industrin. Den huvudsakliga forskningsfrågan var “Vilken prismodell borde ett AI-bolag ha för att dess B2B personifieringsprodukt ska motsvara det levererade värdet ?”. Delforskningsfrågor bestod av hur uppfattat värde kan relateras till pris, vilka faktorer en organisation bör ta hänsyn till för en prismodell samt implikationerna av att implementera den. Den utforskande studien genomfördes genom en litteraturstudie, en webbenkät där Van Westendorps priskänslighetsmätare applicerades, såväl som fördjupningsintervjuer för att samla kvalitativ data. De kvantitativa resultaten visade att priskänsligheten beror av antalet månatliga aktiva användare som plattformen har, vilket visar på ett negativt samband mellan antalet månatliga aktiva användare och priset en är villig att betala per elev. De kvalitativa resultaten visade att det uppfattade värdet beror av vilket segment köparen tillhör. De primära resultaten diskuterades mot resultaten från litteraturstudien, vilka främst bestod av prismodeller för SaaS produkter, och slutade i en framtagen prismodell för AIaaS leverantörer. Slutsatsen av studien är att prissättning av en ny produkt är komplicerat eftersom köparen inte vet värdet av produkten. Det finns heller inte ett enskilt värde som kan kvantifieras och översättas till ett pris; priset måste anpassas enligt segmentets uppfattade värde. Prismodellen som presenteras tar hänsyn till justerbara variabler som en AIaaS leverantör måste utvärdera innan ett pris bestäms.