Re: What do programmers do in new system?

From: Adam West
most of what we do, will not be needed as it will be
handled more efficiently.

Adam,

I reread your original post and your point about efficiency stood out. How will things be more efficient under a vendor package? A couple of possibilities come to mind.

First, since vendors are dealing with multiple customers they often take extra measures to design their software with multiple configuration options to enable it to be tailored to different situations. An in-house developer may not take extra measures to make the software more configurable because they have the source code, and just one company's users and requirements. But changing source code over time is often less efficient than toggling configuration options.

Second are efficiencies due to economies of scale. Vendors spread development and support costs across multiple customers, so it's generally less expensive to license a package than to write ones own.

This is kind of a sensitive topic because we're talking about careers and livelihoods. You've only shared a few bits of information about your situation. That's why I asked about your company's attitude about purchasing a source code license, and a follow-up question would be if they would continue using the vendor for customization or relying on your team for changing or extending the package?

In the case of SAP, I've read accounts of displaced in-house developers who later became SAP consultants. In another case I'm aware of a developer who acquired rights to his source code, and use it to become an independent software vendor, himself.

Nathan.