Selecting alternatives

1
Selecting alternatives

• Questions and procedures to follow

2
Which approach to follow?

• In-house
• Off-the-shelf packages
• Custom software suppliers
• Enterprise solutions

3
In-house

• Advantages
• Match to needs
• Security
• Control of process

• Disadvantages
• High costs
• Lack of expertise
• Short life cycle
• Technology availability
• Time delays
• Internal responsibility

4
Off-the-shelf packages

• Advantages
• Cheaper
• Debugged
• Time to operation
• Can try product prior to commitment

• Disadvantages
• Rarely meets needs exactly
• Compatibility issues
• In-house expertise or service contract
• Difficult to modify
• Extra components

5
Custom software suppliers

• Advantages
• Available expertise
• Short time to operation
• Can try product prior to commitment
• Shifted responsibility
• Well suited to needs

• Disadvantages
• May not be unique
• Security
• Changes must follow legal guidelines
• Expensive maintenance contracts

6
Enterprise software solutions

• Advantages
• Integrated modular approach
• Modules match business processes
• Unified system for the whole firm
• Single database
• Ease of growth

• Disadvantages
• Too complex for internal maintenance
• No in-house maintenance capabilities
• Cost
• May have to change procedures to benefit from
  enterprise sw

7
Questions to answer when selecting sw

• Fit with needs
• Need to modify
• Can it be modified
• Length of time vendor in business
• Nature of support
• References
• Contract to upgrade sw
• Cost of service
• Documentation

• Length and nature of trial periods
• Ease of installation
• How flexible is the software to match business
  changes
• Growth limits to size of business
• User-friendly
• Interface capability with other systems

8
Review

• Cost estimation and economic analysis
• Tangible/intangible issues
• Management of non-quantifiable factors

9
End selecting alternatives