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While many businesses choose one of these off-the-shelf ERP solutions, there are many advantages to building an ERP application in-house. Businesses often prefer to have in-depth institutional knowledge of how these systems work and how they interface with the various business areas. Managers faced with evaluating any enterprise-wide IT system must make the build vs. buy decision early in the process of implementing ERP Systems.
Mull over these questions before deciding to build or buying  While it is faster to install a packaged ERP suite than it is to build one from scratch, the required time investment depends mainly on the level of customization your company needs and the amount of data you have to migrate. For many organizations, the considerations that influence the build-or-buy decision include the following things:
▪ Whether your company willing to change the way it does business to accommodate the software?
▪ As the business grows do you anticipate many changes?
▪ Which business functions provide a competitive advantage?
Whether your company willing to change the way it does business?
The argument for packaged solutions: For many managers, suggesting that their employees change the way that they work to accommodate a software package is an absurd idea. However, many large companies are changing their business practices to use ERP packages. Why would a company generally be willing to do this? Customization to prewritten ERP packages may be expensive, especially when software is upgraded. A company may also decide that there is little harm in changing business practices in routine areas that do not provide a competitive advantage.
The argument for custom solutions: The custom solution is designed with your organization in mind so that it is less likely that your business processes will have to change to fit the ERP solution. The costs to customize vendor packages are literally highan expense that might be avoided with a custom solution.
As the business grows, do you anticipate many changes?
Packaged: As business requirements develop and as the business grows, more changes to the ERP package will be needed. Although both customized solutions and ERP packages are often very difficult to extend into new business functionalities, the packaged ERP suites excel in their ability to amend and grow with the business, a flexibility advantage that is often touted by vendors.
Custom: Although a packaged ERP solution may be better at adapting to changing business requirements, you have to determine if this flexibility is worth the cost. Your organization may not probably make fundamental changes in the future. For example, basic business processes such as accounting finance and general ledger will rarely undergo radical changes. Therefore your organization may discover that a custom solution is sufficient.
Which business functions provide a competitive advantage?
Packaged: If your organization does not have a clear competitive advantage from your ordinary business systems, an off-the-shelf solution may provide the greatest benefit because a packaged solution can be used right out of the box and requires very little IT overhead.
Custom: Are there features within your ERP application suite that may give you an edge over your rivalry? For example, if your companys order processing ability gives you a competitive edge over the other vendors, it would be idiotic to install an off-the-shelf order processing solution.
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