An Independent Software Vendor (ISV) is a computer-business term for companies specializing in making or selling software, like applications for real-estate brokers, or time-scheduling for health-care personnel, or bar-code scanning, stock maintenance and so on.

There will always be businesses and organizations which can do better with a specialized software product than with e.g. an ordinary spreadsheet.

Microsoft, among others, has special programs for "ISV"s.