Products vs Solutions
Y’day I was engaged in a free-wheeling discussion with a friend when he said that his company would offer a range of software products and solutions. When I asked him to clarify, he said with a lot of conviction that anything that is off-the shelf is a product whereas things that are developed for specific user requirements is a solution.
Then I innocently asked him if products that are available off-the-shelf would solve some problem, will they be considered as a solution and he emphatically said “No way. A Product is a Product and can never be a solution”. And despite sharing a dozen of examples, he refused to budge from his position.
There are perhaps many amongst the Industry, Media and the user community who share this perspective of my good friend and hence I thought of writing this post.
Imho, anything (regardless of whether it is custom-developed or off-the-shelf) that would solve a problem is a solution and better be one. There is no space for a piece of code that does not solve an intended user’s problem. Period.
I am looking for the day when this person tells me that his company would offer a range of ready-to-use and customized software solutions!!!
