When custom software is the right call for a B2B operation
Most operational problems do not need bespoke software. This is how to recognise the ones that do, and what owning the result actually costs.
Most operational problems in a B2B business are solved with configuration, an integration or a change of process. A smaller number are not, because the work the business actually does has no product that matches it, and the workarounds have quietly become the system.
These insights deal with that smaller number: telling a genuine gap from an unwillingness to change process, what a bespoke application costs to own once it exists, where integration ends and custom software begins, and how to keep a build small enough to finish.
Everything built has to be maintained, so the decision to build is a decision about the next five years.
Most operational problems do not need bespoke software. This is how to recognise the ones that do, and what owning the result actually costs.
The build quote is the smaller number. This is what follows it every year, and how to budget for the part most business cases leave out.
A bespoke build leaves you dependent on whoever wrote it unless you plan otherwise. These are the things worth securing while you still have leverage.