You’ve identified an area in your business that you think you can improve with a software system.
Most peoples staring point would be to look in the market place for something suitable and to effectively, try and buy an off the shelf solution.
Depending upon the problem, that is very often the most sensible approach and it has many advantages.

Costs are generally lower as the developer can recoup their costs over a wider customer base.
Support is generally more readily available as is documentation and even books etc
Compatibility with people you need to share information may be easier as they have access to the same software.

If you were considering buying a word processing package (just imagine you didn’t have one..!), then this approach would be far more sensible than employing a software development company, to write you one from scratch.

There are, however a few disadvantages to buying off the shelf, again depending upon your specific issue you are trying to resolve.

Imagine you have identified a need for a document control system. You could go down the off the shelf route, there are many good products out there and you could realise some of the advantages listed above, however, in a specific (even critical) business area, you may end with a few disadvantages.

You may have to change how you do things in order to fit in with what the software developers had in mind. Some software comes with tool kits to allow you to develop the software away from the standard functionality and more towards your specific needs. Excel is a common example of this, in its own right it’s a very competent spread sheet package, but with the addition of Microsoft’s vba development language, you can develop very complex tools and utilities with it. But you obviously have to have the necessary skills, experience and time to do so.
Often, off the shelf software is highly complex and although overall, the product suggests excellent value for money, if you only use 10% of its functionality, not only have you paid for something you don’t need, it can also make it a more complicated than necessary to learn and to use, obviously costing time and money.
You may have to compromise on certain items and accept that the system cannot do specific things.

So, you employ a developer instead and get yourself a bespoke system….?

Well you may well end up doing that, but there some issues you need to consider.

On the up side, you have:

A system doing exactly what you want it to do that integrates tightly with your existing workflows, procedures and existing systems.
As it’s designed around your needs, users should find it more intuitive and ‘user buy-in’, will be higher, resulting in quicker return on investment.
You will own the code (make sure you do, some developers don’t include the source code as standard) meaning that you can employ anyone you like to make changes to the system to meet the future needs of the organisation. It also means that you can sell it to other companies if desired. This may reduce your business edge over your competitors, but it’s an option that’s open to you to help recoup your development costs.
You will have direct support from the system developers that know your system inside out and have a good knowledge of the business issues you are managing.
A good development company can add additional value to your organisation by bringing to the table ideas about your other systems and workflows etc that you may not have considered.

On the potential downside though:

If you pick the wrong developer, you will almost certainly end up with a poor unreliable and inefficient system. You may even end up not owning the source code of the application you have purchased, leaving yourself exposed and dependant upon them for all future revisions. A good development company not only should be experts in the system creation side of things, but also very strong on business knowledge.
It will cost more. Unfortunately not only in money paid to the development company, but also in time to your organisation as you go through the specification, testing and implementation phases of the project. In life, you generally get what you pay for though.
A bespoke package, by default, will not have a large network of support available. You will (especially in the beginning), be dependant on the development company for support.

To summarise, depending on your business need, a bespoke system developed to exactly match your requirements and that mesh in with your workflows, could potentially give your organisation a competitive edge and be easier to use. You should however, expect to pay more for it, over an off the shelf product.

Seek impartial advice from a good business system developer, it should be free (it is with Focus on the Solution). Prepare a detailed cost analysis and business case and calculate the benefits and anticipated payback, remember though, that not all advantages are money related.

Don’t instantly dismiss off the shelf, it could be the best thing for you, but equally, don’t instantly dismiss bespoke, thinking it’s too expensive, you may just be surprised...John Dowson, principal business consultant