Inventory management is a key factor of operating a successful business. This ensures supply equals demand, which minimizes shortages and surplus. Gain visibility, tracking, and many other features. Many firms have asked us if they should build their own system or buy software. In this decision, there are a variety of factors to consider.
Availability of Qualified Development Resources
Build: You have access to the resources and can develop web-based, distributed solutions.
Buy: Your staff is not familiar with using development standards (J2EE or .NET).
Long-term Maintenance Staffing
Build: You have qualified staff to manage system upgrades and errors.
Buy: You do not have enough staff to focus on this long-term.
Implementation Time and Costs
Build: You have excess time and funds to scope, build, develop, and test.
Buy: You may have have troubles completing IT projects on-time and on-budget.
Project Risks
Build: You want to build an expertise in emerging tech and have can mitigate potential issues.
Buy: You would prefer to minimize the risk of finding the learning curve to be steeper than expected.
Process Understanding
Build: Your trading partners can extend the use of the collaboration solution to their trading partners.
Buy: You have many diverse trading partners (or may have in the future).
3rd Party Objectivity
Build: Your trading partners do not want their critical and confidential data/info to be handled by a third party.
Buy: Your trading partners do want this to be handled by a third party.
Some companies have the resources to develop their own inventory management system. This process requires labour, time, and other resources. As a result, it’s not always the best fit. For others, a flexible “out-of-the-box” solution may be a better fit. These can be set up fast, at a monthly price, with no delays, low risk, and a lower cost. For a powerful and flexible web-based solution, consider Clear Spider’s system.
