Should industrial software focus on products or projects?
Should industrial software be a product or a project? The question itself is wrong. AutoCAD is naturally a product; smart factory general contracting is naturally a project—they're different businesses. Industrial software falls into four types: tools, platforms, industry software, and enterprise digitalization projects. The real question isn't product vs. project, but which capabilities can be di
Many people ask: should industrial software be a product or a project?
The question itself is wrong.
Because different industrial software products are fundamentally not the same kind of business.
Would you ask why AutoCAD does not do projects?
No.
Because it is inherently a product.
Would you demand that a company doing turnkey smart factory projects sell only a standard piece of software?
No.
Because every factory is different.
So.
CAD and smart factories were never the same kind of industrial software to begin with.
01Industrial Software Can Be Divided into Four Categories
First, tool software.
Highest commonality, suitable for standard products.
Second, platform software.
Such as MES, SCADA, IoT.
What is sold is the platform; what is delivered is configuration.
Third, industry software.
For example, lithium battery MES, steel MES.
The more mature the industry, the higher the degree of productisation.
Fourth, enterprise-level digitalisation projects.
Different organisations, different processes, different management styles.
This type of software is inherently a project.
So.
The real question is not product or project.
But rather:
Which capabilities can be deposited into products?Which capabilities must remain with projects?
An excellent industrial software company.
Is not one with fewer projects.
But one where, after every project is completed,
the platform grows a little.
the components increase a little.
the industry knowledge accumulates a little.
In the past.
What industrial software deposited was code.
In the future.
What industrial software deposits is knowledge.
After AI arrived.
What is truly valuable is not just software.
But rather:
process knowledge, equipment experience, business processes, failure cases.
These things that used to be hidden inside projects.
Will gradually become the enterprise's knowledge assets.
So what the future competes on.
Is not who has more projects.
Nor who has more products.
But rather:
who can continuously deposit the knowledge from projects into platform capability.
Industrial software is not selling code.
It is depositing industry knowledge.
Products are merely the carrier of knowledge.
The most valuable industrial software in the future may not be the product, but the industry knowledge behind the product.