Trade-Offs

New software must not only be ready for use in a reasonable timeframe, but it must also match the requirements and, of course, keep the costs in the proper range. Time must correspond to the value for money. This is a trade-off that you cannot solve without compromises.

Just a few changes...

Because each company is unique, there are always special requirements that software vendors cannot predict. If a company is unable or unwilling to adapt to the software, then the software has to be changed --
whereas change is an extensible term.
In many cases, what begins as a small change emerges into a substantial extension. Depending on the degree of perfectionism, this could lead to years of development. The resulting effort needs to be calculated as accurately as possible, like in ordinary projects.
But that's not the whole story.
Very often, the standard packages require fundamental modifications as well. When reaching this point, one must ask the following important questions:

1. How will improvements and bugfixes from the standard packages be merged into the individually modified software branch?
2. How will this affect the running costs?
3. Or, at worst, are you left sitting on a dead branch?
4. And last but not least: who owns the source code?

The last question will lead to far-reaching consequences when it comes to debates regarding the source code. The reason for this is because the sources only make sense as a whole, expressively including the individualized parts and the standard packages.
However, the access to the source code is a hot potato in general, especially if the company has its own IT department at hand, which is not only capabable of doing modifications, but is also willing to do so. Software vendors usually don't like these kind of customers and are reluctant to grant them access to the sources. They argue over the risk of liability and keep on playing the cards close to their heart.

So let's do it on our own

Sometimes the idea of an individually developed software is a very tempting one. However, there are a few risks.
The biggest risk is the lack of experience. While larger companies usually don't run into those kinds of problems, the situation with medium-sized and smaller companies is rather varying. For those companies that need support for their own software development, we provide proven concepts that lead to successful projects.