Arun Jain, a first generation entrepreneur and the director of A & S Software Group (ASG), was standing by the window in his office in New Delhi, recalling his entrepreneurial journey. It was August 2013 and almost 16 years since he founded the organization. Jain had seen the evolution of the company’s flagship product — enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for educational institutes — and a variety of business models associated with it. Jain had been successful in building a good clientele for this flagship product. He had also successfully addressed the challenge of a typical small-to-medium enterprise in the software business: how to quickly enhance and enrich a software product with regard to functionality and technology, using a relatively small development team and at a low cost.

Jain had solved this puzzle by conceptualizing the Blue Print Software product, which was a tool that enabled the software developers at ASG to capture a business process and quickly develop a software application to implement that business process. That was in 2009, and by 2013, Jain had seen the success of his idea through its internal use. Looking out the window in his office, Jain was wondering what was next. What were the possible options for making the flagship product richer and more mature? Could it be offered as a service? Could he take Blue Print Software to the market to open up another revenue stream for ASG?