In-house Implementation Pros and Cons.
Naturally, as a software development company that operates solely within the logistics
market, we believe that in most cases the most common sense and logical action is to
purchase “off the shelf”.
You may well think, “Well, they would say that wouldn’t they”, but if you do read the
document in its entirety, I believe that you will find it to be well balanced in its views.
A company usually develops in-house where the issue to be addressed is trivial or where
their requirement is ‘seen’ internally as complex or unusual – the ‘we do things differently’
comment, or where the IT department is seen as a fixed or sunk cost to the business and
therefore a ‘cheaper’ option.
If we ignore the first and move on to the complex or unusual, the realisation of software
project ranges from the totally in-house development through to the totally off-the-shelf
commercial offering.
With the totally in-house development, the requirement is defined, analyzed, programmed,
maintained and developed using the firm’s own resources, while in the case of the totally off the-shelf
commercial offering, you buy and effectively have to work with the package as it
comes out of the box. In reality the least likely total solutions for logistic software are in
those extreme positions.
Further developing the system with new, even minor changes, can be slow and costly to
deliver.
In house development pro’s:
- The company has full ownership of the final product as well as its source code and the knowledge gained while developing it.
- Fits exactly to the business requirements of the company
- There is a relationship between the development team and the user base which helps in communication and expectation delivery.
- It gives you full control over the system and its functionality
- Allows you to differentiate from your competitors (as the system is developed for your specific needs).
- Can provide the business with a greater competitive advantage that a bought solution.
- Spending valuable money on developing a system from scratch is like ‘re-inventing the wheel’. Clearly defining the project and specifications is an involving task.
- Both operational and technical staff need to be involved, using up valuable man hours.
- Tight deadlines and time constraints could mean that time is not on your side
- It requires more IT personnel which in turn lead to High overhead cost.
- High switching costs: it is more expensive to change to newer technology.
- It is time consuming to develop an in-house IT system as opposed to buying it
