Based on collaboration rather than competition, Open Source Software provides a new dynamic in the development and use of software systems. As such it has the potential to make a significant legal, social and economic impact on the industry. While its origins trace back to the start of the software industry, the recent success of the Linux operation system, Apache web server or the Mozilla Firefox Internet Browser provide impetus to the growth of interest in this movement. However, while a number of studies have been conducted on its development, few have provided empirical evidence of its adoption within the South East Asian context. This study aims to investigate factors leading to the adoption of Open Source Software in Singaporean Organisations. The research has found that the adoption of Open Source Software is driven by the perception of a cost advantage. The organisations interviewed have acknowledged cost as being one of their biggest concerns and top priorities. While costs were stated to be of major concern to the organisations, objective measures of cost such as Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (ROI) were rarely used by the organisations studied. This perception of cost saving is found to be led by industry sources such as publications, conferences and websites. The next significant finding is the need for increased open source software skills in the industry. One of the major drivers of Open Source Software Adoption in the organisations is that they posses pre-existing skills in Open Source Software use. This enables them to better mitigate risk and to lower their training costs. The final principal finding is that Open Source Software appears to be used mainly in systems infrastructure applications. Organisations reported a large degree of satisfaction including increased stability, scalability and cost effectiveness. Issues remain with Open Source Software’s manageability, its quality of support and ease of use.

This thesis examines the various impacts of the new revenue recognition accounting standard on software companies. It begins by explaining why the FASB and IASB updated the existing revenue recognition standard and then compares and contrasts the legacy GAAP to the upcoming GAAP standard. It then moves into a detailed analysis of the key changes affecting the software industry, specifically: intellectual property, the elimination of vendor specific objective evidence, and the principal versus agent consideration. Additionally, it examines software as a service in comparison to the historical model of software as a product and how the new standard will impact the direction of the software industry. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of investor considerations and how the standard will impact users of the financial statements. While there is abundant knowledge of the accounting change within the accounting industry, there is less knowledge and almost no quantifiable information for the public, which based on the various changes detailed, will result in a surprising material effect on software company financial statements.

<p>Background: In recent research literature, some researchers mean that companies in fast changing markets have to act proactively while others find that companies have to adapt to conditions and to react. This makes it interesting to study how software companies act strategically and also to study to what extent a flexible organisation is required by companies who proact and by those who react. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is the study how different types of software companies act strategically and what this requires of the company in terms of flexibility. </p><p>Delimitation: The study treats only Swedish software companies with more than ten employees. Proceed of the Study: Representatives from four case companies as well as a consultant have been interviewed. As a complement to the case study, a survey has also been conducted where 36 companies have participated. </p><p>Results: Only one of the four case companies can be said to act proactively. Among the survey companies, there are principally young companies, companies with a leading position on the market and companies that experience high growth that act proactively. Companies that work proactively value to a greater extent than reactive companies a flexibility that is created by visions.</p>

Background: In recent research literature, some researchers mean that companies in fast changing markets have to act proactively while others find that companies have to adapt to conditions and to react. This makes it interesting to study how software companies act strategically and also to study to what extent a flexible organisation is required by companies who proact and by those who react. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is the study how different types of software companies act strategically and what this requires of the company in terms of flexibility. Delimitation: The study treats only Swedish software companies with more than ten employees. Proceed of the Study: Representatives from four case companies as well as a consultant have been interviewed. As a complement to the case study, a survey has also been conducted where 36 companies have participated. Results: Only one of the four case companies can be said to act proactively. Among the survey companies, there are principally young companies, companies with a leading position on the market and companies that experience high growth that act proactively. Companies that work proactively value to a greater extent than reactive companies a flexibility that is created by visions.

O mundo dos negócios hoje em dia está cada vez mais competitivo e os consumidores buscam de forma acelerada a satisfação de suas necessidades imediatas. Na sociedade do conhecimento, caracterizada pela alta competitividade e pela necessidade inerente de informações, torna-se necessária a adoção de estratégias que permitam a manutenção das vantagens competitivas sustentáveis adaptadas a cada modelo de negócio das corporações. A reorientação de um modelo de negócios utilizando os conceitos de Inteligência Estratégica Antecipativa é foco deste trabalho. Em relação aos procedimentos metodológicos, realizou-se um estudo de caso com uma pesquisa exploratória em um banco de dados interno no CRM da empresa estudada e em paralelo uma coleta de fichas de captação com clientes desta empresa. Estes dois bancos de dados foram inclusos no software Sphinx®. O resultado deste estudo foi a geração de três exemplos: O primeiro com o objetivo de testar se um grupo de palavras com destaque de aparições pode trazer pistas de serviços a serem criados pela empresa. O segundo tinha o objetivo de testar se palavras com aparição nas fichas de captação podem ter algum tipo de relação com aparições destas mesmas palavras na base de CRM dando assim pistas de novas tecnologias a serem aplicadas/desenvolvidas pela empresa. O terceiro tinha o objetivo de testar se um grupo de palavras vinculadas ao tema “serviços” e agrupadas por região do país poderiam sinalizar prioridade de investimento da empresa para geração de serviços adicionais aos usuários de seus softwares através de uma rede de representantes. A aplicação dos conceitos de IEA em situações reais de uma empresa de software buscando auxiliar o gestor nas decisões estratégicas de uma possível reorientação de um modelo de negócios foi o resultado final apresentado neste trabalho. / Nowadays the world of business is becoming each day more competitive and the consumers are looking at a fast pace to satisfy their immediate necessities. At the knowledge society, characterized for the high competitiveness and the inherent necessity of information, becomes necessary the adoption of strategies that allows the maintenance of the sustainable competitive advantages to each model of business of the corporations. The reorientation of a business model using the Anticipatory and Collective Environmental Scanning concepts is the focus of this work. Related with the methodological procedures, a study case was made with an exploratory research in an internal data base in the CRM of the studied company and in parallel was become fulfilled a collection of captation fiches with customers of this company. These two data bases had been enclosed in the Sphinx® software The result of this study was the production of three cases: The first one with the objective to test if a group of words with prominence of appearances, it means, a great number of events, in a CRM database, can bring clues from services to be created by the company. The objective of the second was to test if words with appearance in the captation fiches can have kind of relation with appearances of these same words in the CRM base, thus giving clues of new technologies to be applied/developed by the company. The third had the objective to test if a group of words entailed to the subject “services” and grouped by region of the country could sign priority of investment of the company for the generation of add services to the users of its softwares through of a net representatives. The application of the concepts of IEA in real situations of a software company searching to help the manager in strategic decisions of a possible reorientation of a business model, was the final result presented in this work.

O mundo dos negócios hoje em dia está cada vez mais competitivo e os consumidores buscam de forma acelerada a satisfação de suas necessidades imediatas. Na sociedade do conhecimento, caracterizada pela alta competitividade e pela necessidade inerente de informações, torna-se necessária a adoção de estratégias que permitam a manutenção das vantagens competitivas sustentáveis adaptadas a cada modelo de negócio das corporações. A reorientação de um modelo de negócios utilizando os conceitos de Inteligência Estratégica Antecipativa é foco deste trabalho. Em relação aos procedimentos metodológicos, realizou-se um estudo de caso com uma pesquisa exploratória em um banco de dados interno no CRM da empresa estudada e em paralelo uma coleta de fichas de captação com clientes desta empresa. Estes dois bancos de dados foram inclusos no software Sphinx®. O resultado deste estudo foi a geração de três exemplos: O primeiro com o objetivo de testar se um grupo de palavras com destaque de aparições pode trazer pistas de serviços a serem criados pela empresa. O segundo tinha o objetivo de testar se palavras com aparição nas fichas de captação podem ter algum tipo de relação com aparições destas mesmas palavras na base de CRM dando assim pistas de novas tecnologias a serem aplicadas/desenvolvidas pela empresa. O terceiro tinha o objetivo de testar se um grupo de palavras vinculadas ao tema “serviços” e agrupadas por região do país poderiam sinalizar prioridade de investimento da empresa para geração de serviços adicionais aos usuários de seus softwares através de uma rede de representantes. A aplicação dos conceitos de IEA em situações reais de uma empresa de software buscando auxiliar o gestor nas decisões estratégicas de uma possível reorientação de um modelo de negócios foi o resultado final apresentado neste trabalho. / Nowadays the world of business is becoming each day more competitive and the consumers are looking at a fast pace to satisfy their immediate necessities. At the knowledge society, characterized for the high competitiveness and the inherent necessity of information, becomes necessary the adoption of strategies that allows the maintenance of the sustainable competitive advantages to each model of business of the corporations. The reorientation of a business model using the Anticipatory and Collective Environmental Scanning concepts is the focus of this work. Related with the methodological procedures, a study case was made with an exploratory research in an internal data base in the CRM of the studied company and in parallel was become fulfilled a collection of captation fiches with customers of this company. These two data bases had been enclosed in the Sphinx® software The result of this study was the production of three cases: The first one with the objective to test if a group of words with prominence of appearances, it means, a great number of events, in a CRM database, can bring clues from services to be created by the company. The objective of the second was to test if words with appearance in the captation fiches can have kind of relation with appearances of these same words in the CRM base, thus giving clues of new technologies to be applied/developed by the company. The third had the objective to test if a group of words entailed to the subject “services” and grouped by region of the country could sign priority of investment of the company for the generation of add services to the users of its softwares through of a net representatives. The application of the concepts of IEA in real situations of a software company searching to help the manager in strategic decisions of a possible reorientation of a business model, was the final result presented in this work.

O mundo dos negócios hoje em dia está cada vez mais competitivo e os consumidores buscam de forma acelerada a satisfação de suas necessidades imediatas. Na sociedade do conhecimento, caracterizada pela alta competitividade e pela necessidade inerente de informações, torna-se necessária a adoção de estratégias que permitam a manutenção das vantagens competitivas sustentáveis adaptadas a cada modelo de negócio das corporações. A reorientação de um modelo de negócios utilizando os conceitos de Inteligência Estratégica Antecipativa é foco deste trabalho. Em relação aos procedimentos metodológicos, realizou-se um estudo de caso com uma pesquisa exploratória em um banco de dados interno no CRM da empresa estudada e em paralelo uma coleta de fichas de captação com clientes desta empresa. Estes dois bancos de dados foram inclusos no software Sphinx®. O resultado deste estudo foi a geração de três exemplos: O primeiro com o objetivo de testar se um grupo de palavras com destaque de aparições pode trazer pistas de serviços a serem criados pela empresa. O segundo tinha o objetivo de testar se palavras com aparição nas fichas de captação podem ter algum tipo de relação com aparições destas mesmas palavras na base de CRM dando assim pistas de novas tecnologias a serem aplicadas/desenvolvidas pela empresa. O terceiro tinha o objetivo de testar se um grupo de palavras vinculadas ao tema “serviços” e agrupadas por região do país poderiam sinalizar prioridade de investimento da empresa para geração de serviços adicionais aos usuários de seus softwares através de uma rede de representantes. A aplicação dos conceitos de IEA em situações reais de uma empresa de software buscando auxiliar o gestor nas decisões estratégicas de uma possível reorientação de um modelo de negócios foi o resultado final apresentado neste trabalho. / Nowadays the world of business is becoming each day more competitive and the consumers are looking at a fast pace to satisfy their immediate necessities. At the knowledge society, characterized for the high competitiveness and the inherent necessity of information, becomes necessary the adoption of strategies that allows the maintenance of the sustainable competitive advantages to each model of business of the corporations. The reorientation of a business model using the Anticipatory and Collective Environmental Scanning concepts is the focus of this work. Related with the methodological procedures, a study case was made with an exploratory research in an internal data base in the CRM of the studied company and in parallel was become fulfilled a collection of captation fiches with customers of this company. These two data bases had been enclosed in the Sphinx® software The result of this study was the production of three cases: The first one with the objective to test if a group of words with prominence of appearances, it means, a great number of events, in a CRM database, can bring clues from services to be created by the company. The objective of the second was to test if words with appearance in the captation fiches can have kind of relation with appearances of these same words in the CRM base, thus giving clues of new technologies to be applied/developed by the company. The third had the objective to test if a group of words entailed to the subject “services” and grouped by region of the country could sign priority of investment of the company for the generation of add services to the users of its softwares through of a net representatives. The application of the concepts of IEA in real situations of a software company searching to help the manager in strategic decisions of a possible reorientation of a business model, was the final result presented in this work.

Este estudo objetivou investigar as contribuiÃÃes das prÃticas de aprendizagem experiencial para o desenvolvimento de competÃncias de gerentes de projetos em empresas cearenses de desenvolvimento de software. Trata-se de uma pesquisa exploratÃria e descritiva, por meio de uma pesquisa de campo, de base qualitativa, em estudos de casos mÃltiplos em trÃs empresas cearenses de produÃÃo de software afiliadas ao Instituto Titan, com sede em Fortaleza-CE, e que possuem como principal atividade o desenvolvimento de software. A pesquisa bibliogrÃfica e documental, bem como a coleta de dados por meio de questionÃrios semi-estruturados foi orientada pelo estudo das prÃticas formais e informais de aprendizagem individual, em grupo e organizacionais, alÃm dos mecanismos de reconhecimento da capacitaÃÃo profissional dos referidos sujeitos. Os resultados da pesquisa mostraram que, nas organizaÃÃes pesquisadas, a aprendizagem e a capacitaÃÃo profissionais ocorrem preferencialmente pela via experiencial do peer learning e do autodesenvolvimento apoiado na internet. Embora as referidas organizaÃÃes estimulem as prÃticas experienciais identificadas e a troca de conhecimentos no contexto dos grupos de trabalhos, inexistem procedimentos formalizados e estruturados de planejamento, execuÃÃo, avaliaÃÃo de resultados e de legitimaÃÃo das competÃncias desenvolvidas experiencialmente. / This work shows a research about experiential learning on the field of companies that develop softwares in CearÃ-Brazil. The main goal is to investigate the contributions of experiential learning practices for professionals working in this kind of companies, starting with their politics, processes and formal practices of training, besides maping and analyzing the initiatives and strategies that individuals, groups and organizations held for this purpose. A literature review was done about the basis of education and experiential learning, the learning in the knowledge management area and in the total quality management, as well as the formal and informal aspects of learning, and formative experiences. Having the project managers as subjects, three companies were investigated through this study of multiple cases. In methodological terms, this research has a qualitative nature, it is characterized as explorative, descriptive and bibliographic. On the process of data collection, semi-structured interviews were used and, for the data analysis, the content analyses. The results showed that the professional development is helped by the use of experiential learning in these companies, but there is a need to improve the processes of learning evaluation and knowledge management. The employees of these companies prefer the experience-based learning and peer learning, they consider the internet their first source of knowledge; the groups develop their knowledge and learning mostly through the method of âconception proofâ; and the organizations encourage their employees to study and research for new technologies and methodologies at any time of the working shift and use team meetings as a way of transferring of knowledge.