When an off-the-shelf program is enough
- When the process works the same in every company: accounting, payroll, invoicing, email. Here the off-the-shelf program always wins.
- When the program does what you need without forcing it, and what is missing is minor.
- When you need to start tomorrow and the process is not yet defined: first you need to know how you work.
When custom is worth it
- When the process is your advantage: the way you quote, prepare orders or serve customers that makes you different.
- When you pay for three programs and a spreadsheet acts as the bridge between them all, and someone spends hours on it every week.
- When the program’s customizations and extra modules already cost more than building what you need.
- When your customers or suppliers have to use it (a portal, an ordering tool) with your logic and your brand.
The middle way: connecting what you already have
Many companies don’t need to change programs: they need the ones they already pay for to talk to each other. Orders from the shop that go into the ERP on their own, stock that flows out to the shop, the dashboard that reads from every system at once.
It is custom software, but small: what works stays, and only the missing piece is built. It is often the project that pays for itself soonest, because it removes manual work from day one.
Five questions to decide
- How many hours a week are lost copying data by hand from one place to another?
- Does the off-the-shelf program force you to change a process that works well?
- What will it cost three years from now, with per-user licenses and the extra modules?
- Is the data yours, and can you take it out whenever you want, in a readable format?
- Who will adapt it when the business changes?