One of I.T. by Design’s core competencies is the creation of custom software, designed to give our client organizations a competitive advantage in their marketplace. And some of our competitors in the custom software industry have gone so far as to say any and all applications should be custom. I disagree strongly with this opinion. Here are five types of solutions that you should always buy “off the shelf” rather than re-inventing yourself or with a consultant.

1. Accounting System

Every organization is different, but the accounting principles apply to every organization. Take that even further, and every organization is supposed to not only comply to specific accounting principles in the preparation of taxes, but in the creation of financial statements. If the end result of a system is the same output for everyone, no reason the tool must be unique. The issues of accounting automation have long ago been solved.

2. Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)

This relatively new type of system (accounting systems have been around decades) is also commonly referred to as a CRM. These systems tracks leads, sales opportunities, marketing and advertising campaigns, and communication related to all of these entities. While developing a custom CRM is viable, there are several good products on the market that have tools and features that would be cost prohibitive to develop.

3. Payment Processing System

If your business wants to accept credit or debit card payments online, you should definitely use a third party solution or service for this functionality. You can still create your custom web site, but the acceptance of payments is handled by someone else. That means they are responsible for the headaches associated with security: storing credit card numbers and using the proper encryption for sending payment communication over the internet. This service fees for this are small enough that you should not think of doing this yourself.

4. Imaging System

Several package systems exist that scan documents, catalog the images, allow keyword searching, and let you attach these images to data files. The complex code to scan and visually interpret the text on a document has been written. This would be an extremely expensive undertaking to do for a single organization. This is why these packages are still expensive, even though the cost is shared among many customers.

5. Learning Management System (LMS)

Many organizations need to track their employees and their ongoing learning. Typical scenarios include safety or environmental regulation compliance, employee certification, or succession planning. Learning organizations (universities, schools, training centers) rely on this type of system as a core product offering to their customers. There are several products in this mature market, some of which are open source and therefore carry no licensing costs. I.T. by Design is close to a major announcement on offering services around one such open-source LMS. Stay tuned.