XUMA is a Silicon Valley startup that builds customized e-business software packages for its corporate customers. This market is full of big players, including large consulting and systems integration. To date, the construction of these apartments was very labor-intensive process that starts from scratch with each new client. As a result, suites, and time-consuming to develop, and the companies that build them operate mainly in the "body shops." XUMA trying a different approach. Its founders believe that the software components that make up an e-business suite looked like the hardware components that make up the computer, self-contained, modular and easy to connect. Therefore, they tend to make XUMA "assembly line" for the e-business solutions, together these components (using proprietary software "glue") quickly and cheaply. If they succeed in doing this, they separated the price they can charge for their solutions of the construction cost them. "Hide
by Andrew McAfee, Kerry Herman Source: Harvard Business School 14 pages. Publication Date: April 20, 2001. Prod. #: 601170-PDF-ENG
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