I don't think you know how profitable software can be. Database,BI,Statistics,Reporting, Analysis tools are expensive, companies have to renew licenses after 1 to .. years for each computer these kind of software are installed. Heavy price tags for server and client sides. Which is why IBM can easily sell its pc division to Lenovo and now the server division as well. License and consultancy fee ain't cheap
I'm familiar with software/ consulting business. Barriers to entries to software business is a lot lower than manufacturing hardware. Besides banks, the top companies in the world have some form of manufacturing, not strictly service the types, ala software. As far as licensing, you can issue licenses to allow a third party to manufacture your products and take a big royalty.