There are many new developments in the area of enterprise software, and traditional package suppliers are seldom at the forefront of these innovations. So make sure that you are well informed and look further than the ‘safe’ option.
Traditional customized software is not an option and replacing your current package with another package, will most probably lead to the same misery.
How can you break out of this vicious circle of expensive software maintenance and stagnating innovation? As a start, it is important to look further than the traditional ‘standard’ software solutions. How can you eliminate your hidden software costs? Because the inflexible software used by many organizations leads to stagnating innovation, inefficient processes and can ultimately result in the loss of your competitive edge. Not to mention the subsequent additional software costs that they incur when they want to make changes. Furthermore, these packages lose much of their flexibility after the initial implementation and thereafter require costly maintenance due to the many company-specific configurations, frequently hundreds of peripheral applications and customized software. They subsequently get dragged into endless implementation projects of software that ultimately does not do what it is supposed to.
They allow themselves to be influenced by the sleek sales pitches given by these vendors, which convince them to buy complex software packages when, in practice, these packages do not fit or support the working methods of their organization. They choose standard software packages from well-known vendors, without examining what alternatives are available on the market. Most organizations opt for certainty and security when it concerns business software. And the organization gets very little in return for this expenditure. For example, the maintenance costs for traditional business software are often many times higher than the original purchase cost. This would not be a problem if these additional costs were relatively low. The internal hours for the implementation, the annual maintenance costs, depreciation costs and the costs of failure are simply not included in the calculation. The actual costs are almost always higher. Often when budgeting IT projects only the costs for the purchase of the software and external consultancy are taken into account.