Choosing the right software for your business can be a daunting task. Do you buy off the shelf, do you buy fully custom, or do you take the middle road and do a bit of each?

The answer is, it depends…

Here are some good examples of why you might choose one type of Software or the another:

Off the Shelf: (No Risk, Tiny Cost, Small Business, required for day to day back office operations)

($600-$5000 in yearly licensing fees depending on your needs, more if you have larger needs.)

You need an accounting package that does all the standard stuff and you want it to be reliable. – Think Xero or MYOB. Off the shelf systems carry the lowest risk and the lowest costs but on the flip side, you must entirely adjust your business processes to suit them, not the other way around.

Fully Custom: (Do something innovative, High Risk, High Cost, Must have a high upside)

(Minimum spend $50,000 for the most basic build of simple software, then a minimum of $10,000 + pa on support and bug fixes and improvements. – Custom software normally has a 22.5% maintenance cost)

You have a very complex and unique thing you need to do and it must work exactly how you want it to, you may be the first in your industry to do it, you may see something out there that does it but costs way too much money for you to ever afford it (not that custom development is cheap) then maybe, fully custom is the way to go. Built from the ground up to match exactly what you want it to do. Fully custom solutions carry the highest cost and the most risk. Almost no-one needs fully custom software in today’s marketplace. (Nor can they afford it) Along side this, the great majority of businesses cannot afford to tie themselves down to one vendor to do all their software development.

The middle road, a bit of both. (Low Risk, Only spend what is absolutely necessary, Tends to have massive upside benefits for your business)

($5,000 – $25,000 in implementation cost is common for a very comprehensive solution depending on needs but the sky is the limit, then your yearly licensing and support costs are on top of that.)

An excellent choice for the majority of businesses looking to grow and/or get control over their business processes. Take a platform that another company has built (Like Smartsheet or Planview) and customise it for your business. Chances are it won’t do everything, and it won’t do everything perfect, BUT, if you’re a strong believer in the 80/20 rule then this is a great option for you. You’ll get the best of both worlds with substantial customisation and workflow options (even some really advanced stuff) but you won’t have the massive risk and cost associated with a fully custom solution.