Re: HP Stimulus Package

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