Operational and Financial Drawbacks of In-House ERP
We must understand that the development of ERP is not like other software development projects, which are normally carried out focusing on automation. We find such serious mistakes being committed by some big and small companies in India. The EDP department in most of the cases, is responsible for such in-house development work. Though they do consult with outside consultants, the basic theme of ERP is completely missing in these types of products.
Looking at the efforts and approaches, it is very difficult to believe that the EDP department will come up with such an international standard ERP product. Though we do not rule out the possibility that someone must have succeeded it to some extent, it’s not advisable to do so. The reason is that we should leverage when we have strengths and, instead of building up new strengths, co-opt a partner for the missing strength.
Today, when quality ERP products are well within the reach of most of the companies, one should not opt for costly in-house developed ERP. This ERP is not an ERP at all except for integration. The essence of ERP is the free BRP, which is absolutely not happening with these products. If we describe this in-house development correctly, then we can say that such approach is typically observed in software development company where only the ‘specification gathering and automation’ takes place.
