| |July 20199TECHNOLOGY CHANGE, REGULATIONS CHANGE AND CHANGES IN THE ECOSYSTEM AS A WHOLE IMPACT THE WAY AN ENTERPRISE OPERATESis entirely owned by the organiza-tion. For an enterprise whose core business is not software develop-ment, developing an in-house ap-plication is a huge investment. In-vestment is not only restricted to the monetary aspect, but involves dedicated manpower resource, time from conception till delivery, and patience until the product is ready for use. Even after the re-lease of the product, persistent evolution of the technology plat-form based on external as well as internal factors calls for invest-ment. A concrete project manage-ment plan and efficient tracking of the same is the key to ensure successful delivery of the prod-uct. Timelines should be derived based on detailed understand-ing of the scope and should be adhered conscientiously.A great deal of effort & time is also invested in upskilling the technical team to stay abreast with the latest events in the market. A continuous focus towards learning gradually translates into evolu-tion of the application. Having an in-house team gives the leverage to internal teams to keep sending request for change. It is extreme-ly important to follow diligent change management process and apply necessary controls. Having said that, an in-house development gives the team flex-ibility to introduce change as and when desired without being con-cerned about the cost quoted by the vendor or extended timelines of delivery. TAT for any upgrade/release is much faster. The intel-lectual property stays within the company. There is no insecurity related to the leakage of trade secrets as there is no third party involved. The data is in complete control of in-house team and con-fidentiality of the same is main-tained. In short, full control lies within the company.At the same time, outsource model works well for the go-to-market strategy. After evaluation and comparison of available op-tions in the market, it is easy to decide on the product that closely matches the requirements. Once finalized, the technology partner has complete responsibility to study the internal processes of the company and align the product based on the shared requirement. This is quite like plug-and-play from end user perspective.Any upgrade due to industry regulation becomes sole respon-sibility of the outsourced vendor team and is delivered by default. Technology upgrades and appli-cation enhancements are han-dled by the outsource vendor team and are passed-on to the organization without any addi-tional effort. However at times, the vendors become resistant to change as the requested change might impact the application at large or might be specific to one particular company.Since the outsource vendor op-erates in the industry and are sub-ject matter experts, a lot of good practices are passed on through the product. The vendor team can assist the organization by giving consultancy on how to run busi-ness in a more effective manner. Such products help enterprises to align their processes based on the pre-defined workflows and sup-port standardization. On the flip side, there is no control over the source code. For every small change, dependence is on the external team and each change is delivered with a cost. In case there are frequent chang-es desired, the cost of customi-zation may even exceed the cost of initial product.In a nutshell, there is no right or wrong when it comes to taking the decision on outsourcing or in-house development. The decision should purely be taken based on the individual scenarios and avail-able options. Shweta Srivastava
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