Keep Your Brand’s Value with White Label Software

Like grocery stores and their private label cereal, white label business intelligence software helps retain an ISV's own branding. Walk down the cereal aisle the next time you go grocery shopping. Once you wade through all of the name-brand cereal boxes, take a look at the generic section. You will probably see something there that is the same kind of cereal box but at half the cost and bearing the name of your local store, or a special store brand name, such as Lucerne at Dominick’s/Safeway, Albertsons’ Wild Harvest, Costco’s Kirkland Signature, Whole Foods’ 365 Everyday Value and Walmart’s Great Value brands.

What does this have to do with software? Well, it’s exactly how white label software works. Food distributors supply these products not under their own labeling, but with the stores’ own brand names.

White Label Software

Simply put, white label software is software that is written by one company who has no intention of selling or distributing it directly to end users. Instead, their intention is to sell the software to other ISVs who will brand it as their own and sell it under their own name. This is the same way the grocery store cereal works.

This is very easily seen within the gaming industry. One developer will come up with an engine that they sell to other game developers. Then the game is “powered by” the engine that the independent house developed. It is to their advantage because they can focus on the development process and leave the branding and marketing to someone else. Business intelligence is another industry in which ISVs often purchase a white label solution to fulfill their customers’ ad hoc reporting.

The Advantages of White Label Software

If you were considering developing an application in-house, you may want to reconsider. Choosing a white label solution over an internal development project can offer several advantages:

Faster Time to Market – Software development is often a lengthy process. It means hiring a team of developers to design, program, test and finish the software. All of the time that could be spent marketing and selling the product is instead spent waiting on the development process. Cutting any corners leads to a shoddy product that will make users unhappy. White Label software needs only a limited time to brand, and then it is off to market, ready to sell.
Customers Remember Your Brand – Do you think your customers can tell the difference between an internal solution to a white label solution? Odds are they can’t, particularly if you choose a quality white label software solution to market. The extra time that would be spent in development is now spent putting your application where it belongs: into your customer’s hands.
Retain Your Business Focus – Your business’s primary function won’t cover every type of software development. Many requirements customers want as part of your application might fall outside of your company’s expertise. Instead of venturing into unknown territory where you may experience many pitfalls, a white label solution lets you focus on doing what your business does best. It also allows the software developers to do what they do best. Having a white label provider you trust in can be a success for everyone involved.