One alternative that is sometimes overlooked in the excitement surrounding a new system is the option to buy software off the shelf. Off-the-shelf software will rarely satisfy all your needs, but consider the following points.

Off-the-shelf software is available immediately. In the intervening time between when you can buy off-the-shelf software and when you could release software of your own creation, your users will be provided with at least some valuable capabilities. They can learn to work around the products' limitations by the time you could have provided them with custom software. As time goes by, the commercial software might be revised to suit your needs even more closely.

Custom software probably won't turn out to match your mental vision of the ideal software. Comparisons between custom-built software and off-the-shelf software tend to compare the actual off-the-shelf software to the idealized custom-built software. However, when you actually build your own software, you have to make design, cost, and schedule concessions, and the actual custom-built product will fall short of the ideal you envisioned. If you were to deliver only 75 percent of the ideal product, how would that compare to the off-the-shelf software? (This argument applies to the design-to-tools model, too.)