What is a software house?

In addition to software and hardware products, a software house also offers complete IT solutions and acts as the middleman between end customers and manufacturers. Companies that depend on a high-performance, secure IT landscape can count on the IT solutions that software houses provide. They adapt to current changes in the IT industry and keep your systems up to date.

A software house is also known as an IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) and is often equated with regular IT service providers. In fact, the range of services offered by modern software houses goes far beyond setting up and offering software and hardware. Software houses are commonly defined as IT companies that, in addition to software products and separate hardware, offer coordinated, ready-to-use all-round IT solutions for companies.

This means that a software house not only provides suitable IT components for your company, but also ensures that they are properly managed after installation, handles updates, and remains your personal contact in the event of IT problems. Depending on whether companies have their own IT department and only want to hand over individual IT processes or whether all IT tasks need to be outsourced, the range of services offered by the software house adapts to customer needs.

The IT industry is changing and therefore so are the tasks and responsibilities of a software house. While a classic software house was primarily an IT provider and supplier, the self-image of software houses is changing to an all-round IT service for companies. Since today's business world is no longer conceivable without powerful IT systems, more and more companies are dependent on an optimal IT infrastructure and, to a large extent, on the accompanying service it offers. Instead of merely providing IT systems and hardware components, a software house today serves as a full-service IT supplier, supervisor, and contact partner. Whereas IT service providers used to operate on the break/fix principle, which meant they were called in by companies to help in the event of a system failure, many companies now use complete IT outsourcing instead.

The services of a software house depend on the requirements and wishes of the customer. The core task is basically always the same and that is to support companies in implementing and maintaining an optimally coordinated, modern, and highly secure IT infrastructure. Which specific tasks are included here depends on the IT provider's portfolio and specialisation.

In addition to the installation of complete IT solutions, a software house offers the following services:

• IT emergency help and support: If a network or server failure occurs, companies contact the software house and can have problems analysed immediately remotely or arrange for a thorough fault analysis and rectification on site.
• Managed services and monitoring: To prevent IT emergencies and security gaps, software houses carry out an analysis of the company's internal IT system. Based on this, they create an IT strategy and various security measures. Here, monitoring software solutions and cloud services such as cloud disaster recovery can be used to prevent failures or recover data.
• IT security: With regular load and security tests, software houses check the security of computer systems and take care of implementing antivirus software, automatic backups, and firewalls.
• Maintenance and update: In order to keep implemented software and hardware up to date and to guarantee the highest security, a software house takes care of system maintenance, either remotely or on site.
• IT consulting: Companies that lack an overview of innovations in the IT sector can consult software houses to identify potential for optimisation in the company's internal IT department.
• Customisation of existing applications: If companies already have software applications, e.g. ERP or CRM solutions, software houses help to efficiently adapt applications to customer needs and train employees.
• Setting up and managing network services: Smooth business processes depend on high-performance network services. Software houses set up suitable network services for customers and take care of the administration.

Companies that don't have an IT department or only a small one especially benefit from software houses. With a comprehensive IT service, they optimise business processes, the security of company and business data as well as emergency response and hazard defense.

All advantages at a glance:

• Robust, modern IT infrastructure in which software and hardware components are coordinated and optimally implemented
• Set-up of PC workstations, telephone services, servers, and network services
• Reliable IT support for questions and problems
• Emergency IT assistance in the event of cyberattacks to fend off attackers, eliminate malware, and recover or restore data
• Switching to secure cloud services, for example, to archive emails and business data in encrypted form and for the long term
• Audit-compliant backups in accordance with legal data protection requirements
• Services and benefits tailored to companies that are more cost-effective than setting up your own IT department