Build Or Buy Your Software?

Companies looking to use software to help run aspects of their business are typically presented with three main choices:

  • Simple COTS Software - such as Excel, HubSpot, OneDrive, Xero, which is typically used as-is.
  • Hybrid COTS Software - such as Dynamics 365 or SAP which will usually be used as a base and tailored to your needs.
  • Bespoke Software - as the name suggests - is software that is specifically designed to meet the needs of your business.

Why Choose Simple COTS Software?

  • Initial cost - COTS software tends to be far cheaper to purchase than a hybrid or bespoke system, which might require significant up-front development costs.
  • Free upgrades - most well-used software gets upgraded on a regular basis, either adding new features or simply keeping up with the latest security features.
  • Known quantity - It’s easy to determine whether it meets your needs. You can often try a free demo and see how it performs.
  • Generally reliable - popular applications written by professional companies and used by millions of users tend to be well tested and robust.

Why Choose Hybrid COTS Software?

  • Shares many of the benefits of the simple COTS software, such as reliability and free upgrades.
  • The software is designed to be extended or modified and can form the basis of robust automated enterprise solutions, unlike consumer-grade COTS packages such as Excel.

Why Choose Bespoke/Custom Software?

Control

You have complete control over how the software looks, behaves and performs.

The key features that you rely on won’t be changed or removed from the software; this is important if you are relying on the software to handle critical parts of your business.

You also control the upgrade schedule of the software and any hardware that it might be hosted on, so you won’t unexpectedly need to retrain staff, or find that maintenance has been scheduled for an inconvenient time.

Simplicity

If there is a feature in the software, it’s because you asked for it.

The software contains everything you need, but nothing more. This helps enormously with the effort involved to onboard staff, as they are a very limited number of things they are allowed to do.

Extensibility

Although it is possible to extend many COTS software systems via plugins and extensions to provide new functionality, there are usually still limitations in terms of what can be achieved. Bespoke software has no such limits.

Agility

Since you have control over the feature-set and release cycle, it means you can gain a competitive advantage over your peers if the business landscape changes, by more quickly adjusting the software to respond to new challenges.

Cost

The cost of extending the system can be lower than the Hybrid COTS systems, since SAP or Dynamics developers generally command a premium.

Pricing for licences and training for systems such as Dynamics or SAP can be prohibitive, especially if the number of seats required is quite large.

Summary

In short, we tend to believe that for very small and simple operations or where budgets are very limited, it is probably desirable to use simple COTS software to manage your business.

However, once your business gets to a certain size and complexity, these consumer-grade systems like Excel can start to restrict how you operate and can become an impediment to growth and efficiency.

For businesses with big budgets, it could be that a hybrid solution based on SAP, Dynamics 365 or similar is worth considering, especially if there is a strong match between their feature set and the required functionality.

For many SME’s though, we feel that bespoke software is a compelling offer. When you consider the efficiency savings gained by stripping out manual processes, streamlining other workflows and providing more accurate reports and data to key decision makers so that better strategic decisions can be made then the cost of development can be more than recovered.

If you have any questions about how a bespoke solution could help your business, and how much it might cost, please get in touch for a no-obligation chat.