3. Custom written software

Although most organisations use off-the-shelf software, some organisations will find that it just does not do exactly what they want or it doesn’t work with their current systems.

In this case, they might decide to have the software system they need designed and developed specifically for them.  This is called ‘custom written’ or ‘bespoke’ software.

The main advantages are:

• The company will get the exact software/system that they need
• The software will work exactly how they want it to work
• The software will only have the features that they specifically need in their business.

The main disadvantages of this approach are:

• It takes a long time to develop such a system, between a few months to  years
• It costs a great deal of money to develop such a system. 
• The company may need to employ a team of people such as business analysts, programmers, testers etc
• Unlike off-the-shelf software, there is unlikely to be any internet forums or web sites to help users. For example popular spreadsheet applications have dozens of online help sites run by users and professionals. It is down to the company to provide employee training which is an added cost.