Mike Eovino wrote:
On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 10:22 AM, Lukas Beeler
<lukas.beeler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The days where all business software was custom built are over.
Possibly for smaller companies, but larger ones still write quite a
bit of their own. That's one way they develop a competitive advantage
in the marketplace.
I generally stay out of the opinion stuff these days, but this is a
point that needs to be addressed. The reason for custom or semi-custom
software is exactly what Mike said: to develop a competitive advantage.
Whether it's to have better control over your inventory, more flexible
pricing models or more innovative order entry, the point is to gain a
competitive advantage.
That competitive advantage was worth big bucks to companies, and that's
why they were willing to spend the money on a relatively expensive
midrange computer back in the day. Nowadays, much of the computer
software used by companies is off-the-shelf shrinkwrap commoditized
software that doesn't do anything to help the bottom line, at most it
lets them keep up with the next guy. Because there's no perceived
advantage, there's no perceived ROI, with no perceived ROI, the software
is seen as an expense rather than a differentiator, and so the lowest
cost crap wins. Hence the vast move towards cheap Windows software or
open source stuff.
It's a regular thing now: people get this "free" software off the
Internet or bundled with their machine and install it. They spend weeks
if not months configuring it (remember, this is free!), only to find out
that it doesn't work with their business practices. Then, because
they've invested so much time and money into this (free!) software, they
can't afford to throw it out and start over, so rather than change the
software to help their business, they change their business practices to
fit the software.
Work is done incorrectly or poorly, things need to be double entered,
data is unavailable in the right format, reports don't show what is
needed. In the end, the company ends up paying way more for the free
software than they would have paid to ghet it done right the first time.
Not always, of course. If you run a dog walking business out of your
house, you can probably get by with Quickbooks and a PHP website. But
if you run a real business, chances are a semi-custom solution will give
you a competitive advantage that will more than pay for the price of the
software.
Then again, it might not matter. As the new administration intends to
tax the hell out of businesses and the middle class to pay for a
trillion dollars worth of entitlements and payback, it may just be
easier to go bankrupt and stick out your hand. (And if you don't
believe me, read H.R.1 - it's an amazing document. Go to
http://readthestimulus.org. Check out the money being spent on
Aquaculture.) But that's besides the point...
Joe
midrange.com
