Transition to In-house
Software off-the-shelf, on your terms
Commercial off-the-shelf software offers many great benefits: Cost and capabilities are known quantities, solutions can be deployed quickly, and demands on over-stretched internal teams are limited. Speed, predictability and access to best-in-class products on tight timeframes can be a critical competitive advantage.
The cost comes in the loss of control. Whether to a greater or lesser extent, buyers necessarily tether themselves to their chosen vendor and their roadmap and services.
To some organisations, that risk can be great enough that they opt for a custom solution. Yet the outcomes rarely meet the expectations: Despite the invariably great costs, long time-frames and heavy demands on software engineering teams, the capabilities often fall short of those the competition can simply buy. No business can buy their core competency from a vendor, but few businesses can afford to dedicate scarce resources and scarcer time to building their own versions of software that already exists in the marketplace.
Playing to your strengths as a business
The trade-off between capabilities and control is not inescapable: As with any other software, you can bring commercial software under your control with the right skills and processes.
A succesful in-house software transition plan starts with a careful evaluation of how the software product is deployed and which teams are best positioned to take ownership of each aspect of the solution. It is an iterative process that reflects the realities of how the software is adopted and which problems it is applied against.
At the end, your own teams will confidently have control of the solution, and ensure it keeps serving the needs of the business.
Benefits of a rethink
- Be confident that you’re deploing the full range of capabilities present in the marketplace
- Stay in control of your software, and your business
- Keep scarce internal resources focused on your core competencies where they have the most impact