Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 9
Off-the-Shelf Software
A business is successful to the extent that it provides
a product or service that contributes to happiness in all of its
forms.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
Noted researcher on creativity
There appears to be a software product for every business domain and
industry, so heralding the end of the era of bespoke development. How-
ever, such off-the-shelf (OTS) packages have not completely overtaken
custom in-house development. The economics are in favor of the OTS
product. Software is expensive to build — the fixed costs are very high,
and the development takes a lot of time and human resources. As long
as the needs are similar, spreading such costs across multiple organizations
should make a lot of sense to both sellers and buyers. We have seen
enterprise software implementations increase, especially among the larger
companies in the areas of manufacturing, finance, and human resources.
However, in many other areas of the organization, custom development
continues. Why is this so, even though there are so many OTS products
available? The following could be some reasons:
An available package may, in reality, be no better than a deliverable
from a small internal project within the company. Without some
initial commercial success and satisfactory early implementation
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