Since 1999, Bill has spearheaded the development of Parsec’s manufacturing operations management (MOM) platform, TrakSYS.
When it comes to B2B software, “off-the-shelf” and “out-of-the-box” solutions that promise a quick and agile implementation are everywhere. As appealing as those solutions might seem, they may trade extensibility and long-term viability for deployment speed, which eventually may force companies to frame their needs around the software’s limitations.
Compare these options to tailored solutions that are more extensible yet take more consideration to implement upfront, and you’re left facing a great tech conundrum: Should you tailor your business to fit your software, or should your software be tailored to your business?
Beyond rapid solution delivery, there are several factors to consider during the decision-making process. Concepts like “technical debt”—when an expedited delivery gets undermined by time-consuming reconfigurations and optimizations—should carry equal weight. Agility does not necessitate useability, and making a selection on speed alone could see companies signing up for a future of configuration and reconfiguration as they work to pay off their “debt.”
To avoid this potential pitfall, here are steps that businesses searching for adaptable software can take to focus on the long term.
