Question
1. As part of the systems upgrade review in Janes Bess Foods', some persons in the IT department are arguing that the company should develop entirely new systems in house; others say that the company should purchase an off the shelf package and make any necessary modifications. A third faction advocates the use of a SaaS solution.
As the external IT consultant for Jane Bess Foods', what recommendations should you make?
As the external IT consultant for Jane Bess Foods’, three choice have been put forward concerning the new system to be employed, the first by some persons in the IT department suggesting that an entirely new system should be developed in house. Others stated that the company should purchase an off the shelf package and make necessary modification while the third faction is to advocate the use of SaaS solutions.
In my analysis of the suggestions put forward, I would evaluate the pros and cons of each of the three choices, firstly starting with the one put forward by the IT department that is to develop an entirely new system by building an in house system. The pros of building an in house system:
* From the management side, programmers tend to be treated as sunk costs. Therefore, in house tools don’t appear to cost anything
* The system would not need to go through the purchasing process. (As getting an invoice for an open-source product is exhausting.)
* Minimizes delays for feature requests.
* Ability to have and use tools which aren't yet available elsewhere. (Unique to your needs)
* Even at the end of implementation, total cost finalized, in house development may be less expensive than the commercial product.
* Tools may fit the environment better than commercial tool.
The cons of building an in house system:
* May become obsolete soon, because the rest of the industry just works faster
* Probably more buggy than a similar system used by millions of users
* No users outside the company ...