If you're a business owner, do you think that it is a more viable business decision to buy rather than build your own? It doesn't even matter what it is that you are planning to build or buy – be it an equipment, a software or an application – you always have the option of building one yourself or merely purchasing something that has already been made.

One of the many decisions that you need to make as a business owner is taking your pick between a pre-packaged software application and a custom-made one. Here, we will take a look at the factors that you need to consider when deciding whether you should go for custom packaged applications or not. Should you decide to forgo the pre-packaged applications, is there a way to customize them according to your needs? Read on to find out.

Factors to Consider when Going for Custom Packaged Applications

To help you decide whether you should go for custom packaged applications or not, here is a quick checklist of the things that you need to take into consideration:

1. Will you be able to customize a package according to your needs as a business?

First, let us try to enumerate what applications are included in pre-packaged software applications which are available in the market today. This can include anything from ERP to CRM, or the new SaaS-based applications. The problem when you take advantage of pre-packaged software applications is that you still need to customize it according to your needs as a business. In the end, it might cost you more time and money to do the customization – which is a case when it is a more viable business decision to build rather than buy.

2. Will you be able to architect your customizations and encapsulate them into your services?

Instead of simply relying on the pre-packaged applications, always keep in mind that you do have business needs to fulfil, so make sure that what you are buying or building is something that can be customized and built into the services that you are offering.

3. Would you be required to use proprietary customization languages and APIs?

Although you do have the option to use proprietary customization languages such as Peoplecode, this is something which may not necessarily be worth the time and effort. Typically, you will find it faster to build in external languages so think twice before purchasing custom packaged applications like this.

4. Will you be able to use asynchronous processing?

The rule of thumb is that you should be able to use asynchronous processing as much as possible.

5. Will you be able to keep the core competency of the pre-packaged application?

Finally, when deciding between buying and building, see to it that you will be able to keep the core competency of the pre-packaged application. This way, you can build a more service-oriented environment which suits your needs as a business at the same time.

By taking these things into consideration, you can decide whether it is better to buy or build the applications that you need so that you can easily take your business to the next level.

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