Not every company needs a custom system, and it costs us nothing to say so: we would rather not sell a project than sell the wrong one. The useful question is not which one is better, but which one fits the way your company works.
When an off-the-shelf ERP is enough
An off-the-shelf ERP, the kind you subscribe to and configure, is a good decision when:
- Your processes are the usual ones for your industry and you do not need the system to do anything out of the ordinary.
- You need to start soon and with a low upfront investment.
- You are comfortable adapting the way you work to the way the software proposes.
If you recognise yourself in all three, a custom system is probably more than you need today.
When a custom one makes sense
A custom system starts to make sense when the standard one forces you to work around it. Some signs:
- The way you operate is part of your edge. If you do things differently from your competitors and it works, generic software pushes you to do them like everyone else.
- You live between the system and a spreadsheet. When whatever the ERP does not solve ends up in spreadsheets only one person understands, you are already paying for two systems.
- The same data is typed twice. Sales in one place, inventory in another, invoicing in a third, and someone copying from one to the next.
- You pay for features you do not use and lack the ones you do need.
- You need to connect it to other things: your online store, your shipping carrier, your e-invoicing, a customer portal.
The differences that matter
| Off-the-shelf ERP | Custom ERP | |
|---|---|---|
| Who adapts | Your company to the system | The system to your company |
| Getting started | Fast | By milestones, on a fixed schedule |
| What you pay for | Usually a subscription | The development, at a fixed price |
| Who owns it | The vendor | You: source code, database and documentation |
| Changes | Whatever the product allows | Whatever your operation needs |
Neither column is better in the abstract. It depends on which of those rows hurts.
There is a middle ground
It does not have to be all or nothing. A custom system can be built in parts: start with the module the standard product solves worst, the one that lives in a spreadsheet today, and grow in phases. And if you already have a system running, it can be audited, what works can be kept, and the rest improved on top of it, without starting from scratch or stopping your operation.
How to decide
Write the list of everything that is done by hand or outside the system today. If the list is short, stay with the standard product. If it is long and grows every month, that manual work is already the cost of not having your own system.
If you are not sure, that is exactly what the diagnosis is for: 30 minutes, free of charge, and if it turns out you do not need a system, we will tell you. You can see what a custom ERP includes or tell us about your case.