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A common discussion that has cropped up in my recent projects has been that old chestnut, ‘should organisations look to adopt COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) solutions or look to adapt them to existing processes’ ?
Its certainly an interesting question to ask.
Some things to consider include working out ‘how unique are we around here’ and how close a COTS solution may even fit our situation. In my experience for core socialhousing solutions, uniqueness is relatively rare, with probably 85-90% of what we all do being pretty similar, not withstanding devolved country differences. The special-ness might be the types of residents we have, build types or geography (IE Radon emitting rocks, floodplains or lots of listed buildings in our stock to manage).
Also, confirm if the selected COTS solution is mature and capable of being adopted. If its still being written, not many current customers can be seen as already having successfully implemented it, then maybe its not suitable to adopt. That’s where many organisations have failed. Ask the right questions and assess the risks sufficiently. Maybe find the right COTS solution, or engage help from someone who can assist you there.
Recognise that a packaged solution is generally that, with its own APIs, import routines, UI IP that contractually you will be expected to use and will be supported by your supplier. While different suppliers may have user groups and forums for submitting suggestions and future functionality, unless this benefits multiple users of the product, its unlikely that they will be added. While this might sound somewhat punitive, it’s for everyone’s good. I have more than a handful of experiences where suppliers have allowed customisation, which before long results in an un-upgradeable product. So, don’t complain, it’s saving you from your self chum.
Of course, cases can be made for more homegrown and DIY solutions. Reasons for this can be many fold. Maybe organisations have deep pockets, have had bad experiences already with suppliers and pledge to never do COTS ever again (step forward L&Q), or have a large spare ICT resource. In the case of the latter, some organisations can get mixed up if they are a social housing provider, or a software house themselves. If you have this phenomena in your organisation, I suggest you look into this, also its governance. I have helped quite a number of organisations with some of these challenges recently. Often an external Critical Friend is a solid way to understand options forward.
Choosing to adopt with the right product, means less of reinventing the wheel every time.IE security, GDPR, integrations, a single source of the truth generally comes as standard. While we might have 1,000+ detail requirements, the core bread and butter best practices are sure to be well supported already, so we don’t need to sweat those. So we can quickly adopt those, while checking how other established organisations function with it. Concentrate on outputs, not the baggage of how we used to arrive at them!
Excessive adaption can dilute effectiveness and reinforce that old adage, “Well we have always done it this way”, so we need to twist the new solution to working like that. By avoiding often unnecessary customisations, organisations can reduce risk, save budget, speed up & make implementations more reliable and reduce coming years of expensive maintenance (a hit to the organisation by the way, not the supplier).
So what could some of the cons be here?
Well, pre-built solutions might not perfectly align with all organisational needs. Work to identify these early on in the procurement in order to spot future compromises and workarounds required. Possibly specialist solutions can be tightly integrated using modern API’s, or supported by minimal bespoke development internally. Choosing the wrong COTS solution might well also result in failure. I have been called on to look into projects scheduled for 18-21month implementation, already in year 4,5 or longer. These are rectifiable, yet often need bold actions if 'Stockholm Syndrome' has maybe crept in.
There is also plenty of scope for staff resistance to change. New processes or workflows might be difficult to embed, even if actual package or sector best practice is what’s being proposed. Good comms can be really useful here, as can networking openly with peers who are also using the COTS solutions successfully.
While the current traditional packaged solutions marketplace appears to be more controlled (& shrunk) by VC, ever shrinking, even more so this Spring 2025 with just less than a handful of large suppliers buying everything up, there are still independents (such as Omniledger and Rubixx), plus a range of Microsoft D365 Dynamics solutions, Salesforce and other solutions. Many of the latter can supply various degrees of productised and supported IP, which provides a hybrid COTS option. For these the buyer needs to understand what will be productised, how far that will take us and what the gap will cost, plus who will develop it. One for a whole blog post on its own I think that one.
In any case as the Romans used to say “caveat emptor”, perhaps get advice if you need it before purchasing, to ensure you are “Buyer beware”.
Any comments, observations or queries, please share.
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Related Post: How best to understand the products you know & the vast options you maybe don't know about?
I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.
Wire – Adapt.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009
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