Every IT Project is first and foremost a challenge to evaluate the required capacity and expertise. Indeed, the Manager must constantly re-evaluate the adequacy of his Development team to deliver the next IT Project; both in terms of capacity and expertise.
Information technology tools and technologies play a key role in achieving the growth objectives of companies. More specifically, the automation of certain critical processes can generate a dizzying increase in productivity or a significant improvement in the quality of products and/or customer service.
Consequently, any decision in terms of IT development will have a major impact on the company’s competitiveness and profitability.
In this context, more than one IT Director will spontaneously turn to commercial software to meet the software development demand required to support the company’s growth objectives.
So, in many ways, it seems to us that this is an easy solution for the IT Director and we understand these reasons well:
- The IT Director believes he can quickly fill a capacity gap with a tool that automates certain processes
- The IT Director relies on a known and recognized solution to minimize the risk associated with a Development Project
- The IT Director hopes that the implementation of the commercial solution will be done in a shorter time frame
- The IT Director hopes to minimize his risk by using a solution already developed
While this all sounds very logical, we argue that there is another option that is just as viable and perhaps more profitable; that of the external software development firm.
The dilemma of any IT project: integrate a commercial software or develop a custom solution?
We therefore propose to review the previous points in the light of the perspective of a software development firm.
Adequacy of a commercial automation tool to your IT Project vs. adequacy of a custom developed automation tool
Despite all the promises of commercial software resellers, no commercial software already has all the functionalities required by all the companies on the planet; there will therefore necessarily be some development work to do.
Whereas for a custom development, the definition of the IT project (scope, priorities, requirements, etc.) should correspond in every way to the needs of the company.
Awareness of a commercial software solution vs. awareness of the software development firm
No one can dispute the weight of a brand such as SAP, Oracle or Microsoft in the decisions of IT managers. They rely on the years of experience and numerous achievements of these major software suite brands, in addition to their customer service and production capacity (development, evolution, etc.).
On the other hand, the Custom Development firm will need to have an equally impressive track record in order to compare in terms of years of experience, similar achievements, production capacity and customer service.
Not that this is impossible, but if there is one aspect where the advantage is clearly in favor of the big commercial software brands, it is in this area.
Integrating a commercial automation tool vs. developing a custom automation tool
No, it’s not all doom and gloom! On the contrary, considering that each company has a unique IT environment, it is not always easy to deploy a business solution in it. Two elements regularly get in the way: security and the version of the technology or the technology used itself, which is often outdated. It is obvious that a “real” Cloud solution will have a clear advantage in this respect, as long as the company accepts a Cloud deployment.
The development of a custom software will take into account from the beginning the environment to which it will be integrated and its implementation should therefore be smoother (normally).
Learning commercial software vs. learning a custom solution
Again, while users will have to learn to know and use the protocols and functionalities of a commercial software, in the case of custom development, the users themselves will have been part of the UI design process and of the definition of UX requirements (functionalities). The terms used, the fonts, the colors will be in the flavor of the company as well…
“I rest my case, your Honor”.
Conclusion
So, before you jump headlong into buying a commercial software solution for your next IT Project to support the growth of your business; make sure that the solution will truly meet your needs, because unfortunately, among the IT horror stories, there are those that report “customization” costs higher than the cost of the solution itself. And that’s not counting the other challenges that any IT Software Development Project presents.
So, in your selection process, a discussion with a Software Development firm may be worth its weight in gold; who knows!