Tip: Review this list and mark the pros and cons that are most important to you and your business.
Every company on the planet depends on software. There is no escaping this reality. The software is used by employees to work with data, which integrates with the company's backend to help deliver products and services to consumers or empower other companies to work with its delivery chain and various pipelines.
This software comes in many shapes and sizes; it can be open source or proprietary, free or paid, it can be written in Java, JavaScript, .NET, Python or Ruby. The software you use can be delivered through a traditional desktop client, via SaaS, or as a web application.
The software employed by your company can also be customized or “off the shelf”. And this is one of the most important distinctions you should consider for your software. Will you have your software developed in-house (or by an offshore or nearshore development team) or will you purchase proprietary solutions from third parties?
Let's take a look at the pros and cons of each. We hope we can help you decide what's best for your business.
Custom software
To be clear, custom software does not need to be developed in-house. You can also hire third-party solutions (such as onshore, nearshore, or offshore development companies) to create the software for you. The path you take will depend on your budget, the talent levels you have in-house, and how much time your company's developers have to spare for such projects. Of course, if you have in-house software developers, chances are they have enough time to actually develop the software you need, since that's their job.
But what are the pros and cons of custom software? Let's take a look.
Pros of Custom Software
It's exactly what you want
This could be the most important reason why you should opt for custom software. When you develop software in-house or hire a third party to do the work, the end result is exactly what you want and need. Customized software is precisely tailored to the purpose at hand, so all necessary adjustments and settings are integrated.
It's economical
Maybe you already have a team of developers that you pay to develop software. If that's the case, you can assign them to create the tools you need to keep your business running. However, the costs of this can add up very quickly, which is why many companies prefer to hire third parties to do the work, even if they have their own IT team. Why? Because your administrators won't need to spend a lot of time implementing the solution. Custom software should simply appear on your backend or frontend as if it were made for that specific purpose – because it was.
Can integrate better with other solutions
Much of the software used by companies is open source. In some cases, proprietary solutions have difficulty integrating with open source software. When you go the custom route, you don't have to worry about whether or not this software will integrate with your other business tools because it will “just work.” If you have a mix of proprietary and custom software, your developers (or those you outsource) should be able to make it work without much trouble.
Greater return on investment
One thing about custom software is that the ROI is much higher than that of off-the-shelf solutions. Why? Firstly, you will spend less money to get the software up and running. Once you implement the custom solution, it “just works,” so your administrators won't need to spend a lot of time configuring and tuning it to fit your software pipeline. And because you'll have access to the code, your in-house (or third-party) developers will be able to make changes, updates, and even add features more easily. And because your in-house or third-party developers know the software (inside and out), they can more easily support the solution.
Flexibility
Custom software is also much more flexible than off-the-shelf solutions. Need a feature added? Easy. Discovered a bug that needs to be fixed? No problem. Do you need this solution to be integrated with a specific API? Done.
Security
Custom software allows your developers to see the code. And when your engineers take a look behind that curtain, they can determine if there are security vulnerabilities to be found and fix them quickly. With proprietary software, you need to rely on a company to test for bugs/vulnerabilities and then wait for them to release patches. This waiting time can be dangerous.
Cons of Custom Software
You are the support
There is no way to avoid this. With custom software, you don't have a company to back up the solution. You created it, you fix it. This can be problematic for companies that are used to the traditional method of purchasing software “off the shelf” and turning to the company responsible for the software when something goes wrong. The only similar path you can take with custom software is to hire an offshore or nearshore development company to create the software for you. When something goes wrong, you can seek help there.
That said, some custom software development companies provide support and maintenance services for the projects they work on, so keep this in mind when choosing a partner to outsource development to.
Time investment
Unlike off-the-shelf software, when you create custom software, you don't just do a quick download. The solution must be designed, developed, tested and deployed. This may take some time. If you need a solution now, your only path to success may be on the shelf.
Ready-to-use software
Out-of-the-box software (ORS) is created by companies such as Microsoft , Adobe, and Apple. Let's take a look at the advantages of out-of-the-box software.
Pros of ORS
Out-of-the-box solutions
One of the best things about turnkey software is that they are “plug and play” solutions out of the box. In other words, you buy, download and install. Out of the box, out-of-the-box software should work as expected and can be deployed in minutes.
Support
Another important feature of ready-to-use software is its support. When something goes wrong with this type of software, you have a company behind it, ready to help you with these problems.
Cheaper solutions
Since you don't have to pay developers to create the software, off-the-shelf software can sometimes be a much cheaper solution. Yes, some software titles can be quite expensive, but the cost of creating a similar solution can mitigate having your company do it in-house.
Regular updates
Another positive aspect of off-the-shelf solutions is that the purchase price often includes upgrades (to some extent). This is important because security vulnerabilities are frequently found and patches for these issues are released in updates. Updates also include new features and performance improvements.
Cons of ORS
Inflexibility
With out-of-the-box software, you get what you get. In other words, the software is not flexible. If you buy an off-the-shelf solution and need it to do something it wasn't designed for, you're probably out of luck. You may find a rare company willing to work with you (for a cost) to incorporate new features into a package, but this is rare.
Bloatware and feature creep
Another problem with out-of-the-box software is that it includes features you don't need (also known as bloatware or feature bloating). To make matters worse, sometimes these features get in the way of how you need the solution to work.
Support costs and fallibility
Finally, out-of-the-box software doesn't always come with free support. And given the likelihood of this software failing, this support could be a critical component in the future. Granted, you at least have the option to purchase support (if the software didn't include it in the purchase price), and in many cases the support can be world class. Just make sure you understand what you're getting into (whether support is built-in or optional).
Conclusion
The decision is yours: do you choose a custom software solution or ready-to-use software. Go through this list and mark the pros and cons that are most important to you and your business. If the pros outweigh the cons, you have your answer.
Source: BairesDev
