Hacker News Reader

Comment by irrational | Hacker News Reader

> Is your company selling something else that has a software component or that software enables (pretty much every other company)?

I'm not sure this is true? If my company sells food or clothing or shoes, they don't have a software component. I'm not sure what the breakdown is, but my gut feeling is "pretty much every other company" is wrong.

I work for a company that makes clothing and shoes. We have an enormous tech organization, but we aren't a consulting company, don't sell software, and don't put software into our products.

View on HN

Your shoes and clothes don't have a software component (well, most don't), but in most producers, software enables their production.

Inventory management, production automation, order management is software at pretty much every company now, because doing it with paper or in people's head is error prone. I imagine your tech organization is in an enabling role.

> If my company sells food or clothing or shoes, they don't have a software component.

E-commerce? I can't think of any chains without a website, or any large enough that 'company' seems apt that don't sell via it.

> I work for a company that makes clothing and shoes. We have an enormous tech organization, but we aren't a consulting company, don't sell software, and don't put software into our products.

Ok that's the 'or that software enables' isn't it?

I guess we are interpreting the third bullet point differently. I interpreted "Is your company selling something else that has a software component" as something like a car that has software built into it. And, I interpreted "or that software enables" as something like a board game that requires the use of a mobile app (like The Search for Planet X). In other words, the products are not useable without the software. Whereas, a t-shirt doesn't have a software component and isn't enabled by software (though, I could imagine a t-shirt with a QR code that is enabled by software, but that isn't the norm).

Ah, sorry, when I wrote "that software enables" I meant you use some kind of software tool to help ship your product or service. That could be excel macros, SAP, custom POS systems or anything else. If it is customized or built in-house, you'll need developers.

Sorry I wasn't clearer.

This is an article about software engineering - for software engineers. In this context it should not be hard to reason that companies that do not employ any software people are out of scope. Of course they exist.

But, my company does employ thousands of software people. We just don't sell consulting, sell software to other people, or sell products that use software.

I'm guessing GAP.

Zara, Zalando...?

You misunderstand. The third group is not only companies that sell software-based products, the third group includes companies that use software to sell their products or manage other aspects of the business. Having an in-house online store is an example.

That presumably puts your company in that group, just like mine (or else I have no clue what thousands of software people would be doing on the payroll).

I bet our two companies have very different reliances on technology, but we're both in the same group, because all of our software supports our sales of our actual goods and services.

Logistics and e-commerce is a component of commerce (aka selling)

That said, you will absolutely be a cost center.

Not every company hires software developers of course. But every type of business will when they get big enough. They may not call them developers but I bet you have some people doing business process automation that are basically developers.

Pepsi's hiring Elixir developers for their backend and logistics systems. Pretty much every company of significant scale realizes they can either save money or gain some advantage from using custom software.

Very much this.

What ever is being manufactured, the real product is data for process improvements, improve product quality.

Retailers of all kinds employ enormous amount of data analytics, data engineers and software engineers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com