Software Solution Alternatives

This information has been collated into a software solution guide that is freely available for download.

There are four general software solutions available to businesses today.

The first, is to purchase an "off the shelf" or a packaged solution, such as Microsoft Office or MYOB. This option is the cheapest of the four, but can also be the most inflexible. It is unlikely that it will solve all of the business needs or requirements.

The second, is to purchase a packaged solution, but also invest in further customisations to suit the business needs. This is the next cheapest alternative method, however it can be a significant price increase as it will generally require additional design, and future support of the changes.

The third, is to develop a complete custom solution aimed to meet a businesses specific needs and requirements. This option has traditionally been the most expensive by a significant amount, and is also the slowest as it is a time and resource intensive process to ensure that the solution meets all or the majority of the business requirements.

The fourth option has been the introduction of extremely large and complicated solutions which are designed to offer enough flexibility for any business to customise as required. Some examples are enterprise solutions such as SAP and PeopleSoft. This solution is significantly more expensive than the first two options and has some disadvantages which decrease the overall attractiveness of the solution it provides.

Now, red erb has developed a fifth option, with red erb Custom Software Development.