Off the shelf

Walking into PC world or any similar computer specialist you will see a lot of software available to buy. This can be anti-virus, office packages, learn languages to photo manipulation and accounting packages. As a lot of this software already exists it seems common sense to use it if you can. Using a off the shelf system means exactly that. You use a prewritten collection of software in order to implement your system

. Advantages of off the shelf

Cost -It is much cheaper than building a custom system.

Knowledge base - It will have a well established base of knowledge from the supplier and other users

3rd party support and training- Many other suppliers offer support and training which could be potentially much cheaper.

Immediate - There is no waiting for the system to be built, you can just use it straight away.

Disadvantages of off the shelf

Requirements - It may not fully do what you need it to especially if the company is large.

Does not fit the business - Business practices may need to change as the software is not flexible enough to allow what they would like to do.

Custom built

Custom built software is software which is made specifically for a single company. The software requirements will be specified by the customer and they will get a system which exactly matches their requirements. The software will be developed with the customer solely in mind and therefore will, as long as everything goes to plan, provide exactly what they need. As custom built software has to be written it will mean there will be a delay between the need for the software till it can actually be used. It also has a very high financial cost as software developers will not come cheaply. Finally as the software is customized there will be no existing knowledge base to work on. As such they are tied into any support packages that the developer offer.

Advantages of custom built software

Functionality - Offers exactly what the customer needs based on their own specific requirements.

Unique - No one else will have this software so could give them a competitive edge

Fits business - Fits the business without having to make any changes

Disadvantages of custom built software

Cost - Very expensive to built and maintain

Can fail -Software projects are not always successful.

Limited support - You are limited to the support package you buy into when the software is created.