Standard Software, Custom Software, or Customization:

Almost every digitalization project begins with the same fundamental question: purchase off-the-shelf software, customize an existing solution, or develop something entirely new? All three approaches are legitimate – the wrong choice usually lies not in the decision itself, but in making it without clear criteria.

Standard Software: fast, but inflexible

The big advantage of standard software is its speed: it’s immediately available, usually well-documented, and continuously developed and maintained by the provider. The disadvantage often only becomes apparent later, when a company's own processes don't fit the predetermined scheme. This can lead to a spiral of workarounds, additional plugins, and manual intermediate steps – often ending up more expensive and error-prone than a more suitable solution would have been from the start.

Standard software is best suited for processes that are similar across industries: accounting, general time tracking, standard CRM functions.

Custom Development: tailor-made, but more complex

New development is worthwhile where a company's own processes are truly atypical – or where these very processes constitute its competitive advantage. Companies that develop software precisely tailored to their business don't have to compromise between their own processes and a software vendor's assumptions. The price for this is higher initial effort and responsibility for long-term maintenance.

A common misconception: Custom development is often perceived as "more expensive" than standard software – without considering what the sum of all workarounds and additional licenses for an unsuitable standard solution truly costs over several years.

The Middle Ground: Customization and Extension

Between these two extremes lies an often-underestimated option: specifically extending an existing solution – be it standard software or an already existing custom solution – with missing functionalities, instead of building from scratch. This requires that the base is technically open enough to be extended, and that the extension remains cleanly separated from the core solution to prevent later updates from causing conflicts.

Criteria for a well-founded decision

Instead of being guided by marketing promises, some sober questions can help:

How specific are your own processes actually – compared to competitors in the same industry? What are the long-term costs for licenses, add-on modules, and workarounds with a standard solution? How critical is the affected process for your business model? Core processes deserve a tailor-made solution more than secondary processes. Does the company have the capacity to maintain a custom solution long-term – internally or via a reliable external partner? Conclusion

There is no fundamentally right or wrong answer to the question "buy or develop" – but there is a wrong approach: making the decision superficially, instead of based on the actual processes and their strategic importance for your own business.