Manufacturing companies invests considerable amount of time and money for their selection program. Before this investment is done, the topic of “Customized VS Packaged” is always discussed to evaluate the right choice for their company. The obvious difference that comes up is the initial time and cost investment. In terms of initial time and cost investment, Packaged selection software is the easy winner. But looking beyond these two parameters, customized package comes with many other benefits in the long terms which should not be overlooked.
Following are my five cents:
- You own your selection program: In case of customized application, you are building everything from scratch. You know how everything is implemented, you are co-architecture of your selection program. In short, you are in full control of each and every aspect of the program. This control is not only applicable for present feature list, but also you can decide on the changes required in future without worrying about its feasibility and prohibitive production cost.
- Flexibility to change: In case of Packaged solution, software vendor implements over whelming list of features in order to satisfy the needs of multiple manufacturers. This results in a very heavy, under performing and inflexible applications. In this situation, if you need some changes in your application, vendor will either refuse your change request or present you with huge financial bills which completely offsets the low initial investment.
- Honor your identity: If your selection program will be used by users from outside your company as well. It is very important to maintain your corporate identity in your selection program as well. In case of customized applications, specially designed user interface, user experience and report formats can take care of branding, positioning and corporate identity of your company. In case of packaged solutions, although these things can be taken care by some minor settings, still, the application reflect more of software vendor’s CI rather than manufacturer.
- Unlimited user license: Another cost trap for a packaged selection software can be licensing model, which restricts the number of users who can use the software. In case of customized application, number of users is not a restriction as the company owns the selection software. If you have a large user base, total license cost will easily offset the low cost of packaged applications.
- You are your own master: Another tail for a packaged software is training and technical support which can be a very costly and time consuming depending on the complexity of program. In case of customized application, your own team member from manufacturing can easily handle these concerns, as they have best knowledge about application.
Conclusion: If you are more of a visionary and looking for a long term IT solution, having a customized selection software will reap you more rewards in long term. And with the right choice of software development partner, you can easily offset the initial time and cost with tons of benefits in the long term.
For any queries, please contact me at durgesh@mechartes.com
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