The decisions people ask us to help settle.
Four ways to acquire enterprise software, weighed on the dimensions that decide it — and then the three build decisions that follow once you have chosen.
Custom ERP vs SAP
A packaged ERP asks your business to work its way. A custom one encodes how you already work. Which is right depends less on budget than on whether your process is a competitive advantage or an accident.Build vs buy
Most build-versus-buy arguments are really a disagreement about how unusual the business is. Settle that first and the answer usually follows.Offshore team vs in-house hiring
The comparison is usually framed as cost. It rarely is. It is about how quickly you need capability, how long you need it, and who carries the risk when someone leaves.
Upstream of all three
Custom, ready-made, SaaS or licensed.
Eight dimensions, four routes to the same capability. Scan the rows that matter to you; the pattern that emerges is usually clearer than any argument about it.
For the avoidance of doubt about where we stand: we build custom software and we license products. We do not sell SaaS, and two of these four columns are things we do not supply.
| Dimension | Custom-built | Ready-made product | SaaS subscription | Licensed product |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fit to your process | Exact — the software mirrors how you work | Partial — you adapt to the product's template | Partial — configuration within vendor limits | High — licensed base, customised to your workflows |
| Time to first value | Months, phased | Weeks | Days | Weeks |
| Cost shape | Investment up front, marginal cost near zero after | One-time purchase plus upgrade fees | Per seat forever; grows with headcount | One-time licence plus optional support |
| Five-year economics above 500 users | Usually the cheapest — no per-seat drag | Moderate — watch the upgrade cycle | Usually the largest line item | Strong — seats do not multiply cost |
| Data ownership and residency | Complete — your infrastructure, your rules | Depends on how it is deployed | The vendor's cloud, on the vendor's terms | Complete — deploys on your infrastructure |
| Competitive differentiation | Highest — a competitor cannot buy your edge | None — competitors run the same product | None — same product, same limits | Moderate — the customisations are yours |
| Integration depth | Unlimited — built into your landscape | Whatever connectors already exist | API tiers, often paywalled | Deep — extended by the product's own engineers |
| Long-term risk | The partner's quality — choose carefully | The product being discontinued | Price rises, feature gating, lock-in | Low — a perpetual licence outlives the vendor |
The conditions under which each one wins.
Criteria to apply to your own situation, not preferences. Two of these send you somewhere other than us, which is the point of writing them down.
SaaS wins when
The process is generic — email, documents, a basic CRM — user counts are small, and speed to first use matters more than fit. Nothing is gained by building what a subscription already does well.
A ready-made product wins when
A mature product already matches most of the need, the process is not a differentiator, and the organisation can work inside its template without spawning spreadsheet workarounds beside it.
A licensed product wins when
You want product economics with data residency — a proven base deployed on your own infrastructure, customised to your workflows, with no per-seat meter running as you grow.
Custom wins when
The process is the competitive edge, the off-the-shelf template is fighting you, per-seat pricing multiplies painfully, or nothing on the market solves the problem at all.
On the acquisition decision
Each comparison ends with the conditions under which either option is the right answer. If your situation sits between them, talk it through.