Comments on: Vote! Vendor, company, publisher… what term do you prefer?

By: Frank Mangini

Frank Mangini — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 02:53:56 +0000

Vendor sounds like a vending machine to me. I always thought vendor sounds kind of sleazy, like a hawker.

Publisher sounds like books, newspapers and magazines. Not he right image here.

I think Provider has the feel of caring about what they supply and gives the feeling they are part of the value chain. Provider conveys respect and a feeling of warm relations. I just saw this warm relationships theme throughout your three company videos. Makes me want to move back to Goleta.

Provider also covers almost any kind of product or service and is not tied just to software or hardware or whatever. Provider is the classy way to go to give your “vendors” recognition and status in your value chain. Whatever is decided, definitely get rid of Vendor.

By: jane

jane — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:50:04 +0000

Definition

software house noun n [C]
a company which writes and sells software

(Definition of software house noun from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)

Definition

house noun ( BUSINESS ) /haʊs/ n (plural houses/ˈhaʊzɪz/)
a business or organization of the stated type, especially one that produces books or designs clothes
a publishing house
a fashion house

I vote Software publisher then.

By: janet

janet — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:17:18 +0000

After reading all the posts, I had an aha moment when I read the term “software producer”. My first choice before reading “software producer” was publisher and my second choice was provider. Now, if there were “software producer” as a choice I would choose that.

By: Bob Cole

Bob Cole — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 11:27:00 +0000

Generator pod is an interesting synonym for Vendor. : )

lynda.com is a boon for me and my business !

By: Martin Ader

Martin Ader — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:01:11 +0000

Publisher is the correct term, the one that packages to software in a form that can be distributed tu users.
Company has no specific meaning! You might say owner (of the copyright)
Vendor is an old fashionned way of caracterising companies in the IT area software vendor, hardware vendor …

If you want to go a step away in the future, use Publisher.
(Author might also be used, knowing that the author company, might not be the publisher company, that might be different from the vendor company)

By: 10k training

10k training — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:08:46 +0000

Hi There,

If I am going to choose, It is better to use the word companies than the word vendors. All of the software are made by the companies not a vendor. It is not really important to be more specific in recognizing the owner or who builds the software.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:21:24 +0000

Why not use a different term “software producer”? I find the other terms too general. The company I work for is a publisher/company/provider , but we don’t produce software > Adobe or Microsoft did not come to mind when I first saw the discussion of “Vendor”.

By: Christian Nelson

Christian Nelson — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:32:03 +0000

Not a big deal either way, but I say go with “company.”
Publisher sounds like a book publishing outfit.
Vendor sounds like a vending machine or a guy who comes around selling stuff out of his truck.
Provider sounds like the person who bought the software and is giving it to you.
Manufacturer sounds like “the factory.”
Company says it best.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:01:16 +0000

I disagree with the majority here.

‘Companies’ is too broad a term and would confuse me as to what the options on the pull-down would be.

I agree with Carl Bechtold’s input.

By: jude

jude — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:00:21 +0000

They are nothing more than COMPANIES who publish, vend, provide and/or manufacture stuff, like a million other COMPANIES who publish, vend, provide and/or manufacture stuff. There’s no need to sugar coat a definition beyond that.