The software industry loves labels. Product. Solution. Platform. Network. Control Tower. Offering. They’re often used interchangeably, but they don’t necessarily mean the same thing.

There isn’t a universally accepted definition for these terms, but there are some widely accepted perspectives in the software industry worth taking into consideration when you develop your go-to-market messaging. More importantly, using the right terminology helps set the right expectations with your customers.

It’s also important to recognize that these labels aren’t mutually exclusive. A product can also be a platform; a solution can incorporate products and platforms; a control tower can be delivered as a product or a solution; and any of these can be components of an overall offering. The terms describe different aspects of what you’re delivering, rather than mutually exclusive categories.

Product

A product is a piece of software (or hardware) that is generally usable by a market segment and has little need to be specifically customized for the end user. It can generally be sold and used as-is directly to the end user, who can access and benefit from the product quickly.

Examples: An iPad is a product; TurboTax is a product; Trello is a product.

Solution

Most products do not completely solve a customer’s problem by themselves. It might be necessary to combine professional services or the integration of multiple products to actually provide a solution. The ramp-up time for a solution is often measured in months, as there is typically a need for master data ingestion, custom configuration, or custom code to be developed and tested before the solution can be fully implemented.

Examples: An SAP S/4HANA implementation is a solution; a Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM implementation is a solution.

Platform

A platform is basically a solution that can be extended and improved upon significantly either by third-party vendors or by end-users themselves. Some platforms also provide relatively little end-user value on their own. Instead, most of their value comes from what other developers, partners, or customers build on top of them. Cloud platforms, for instance, are a good example of this.

Examples: Salesforce is a platform; Azure is a platform; AWS is a platform;

Network

A network is an ecosystem of various parties collaborating on the same set of data. Unlike traditional enterprise software, which is typically designed for use within a single organization, a network connects multiple organizations so they can collaborate using shared data, transactions, or business processes. In many cases, the value of the network increases as more participants join. Unlike products, solutions, and platforms, the value of a network doesn’t primarily come from the software itself. It comes from the number of participants connected to it and the quality of the data they share.

Examples: LinkedIn is a professional network. Ariba Network and Blue Yonder Network are supply chain networks.

Control Tower

A Control Tower provides a unified view and decision support across multiple products, solutions, platforms, and networks. It brings information from different systems and organizations together to provide end-to-end visibility, identify and prioritize exceptions, understand what is happening and what may happen next, and help determine what should happen next.

Examples: Blue Yonder, E2open, Kinaxis, o9 Solutions, and Infor provide supply chain control towers.

Offering

An offering includes products and solutions and has a price. Simply put, an offering is the combination of multiple points of value into a single component that can be assessed, analyzed, understood, and sold. Therefore, anything you propose and deliver to customers should be referred to as an offering. Offerings are often confused with packages or bundles, but a package or bundle is a group or subset of offerings.