Inhouse Software Development: Friend or Foe?

Proprietary Software Development can be a significant asset or can impede growth and agility. Here are some things we look for when we look under the hood of a software engine as part of a proprietary software review(PSR). There is cost to maintaining software, from the license cost, to the infrastructure cost, to the cost of allocating people and resources to keep it running. The financial cost can be especially difficult to anticipate if there is a big release event or if the application or infrastructure needs to be updated. There is business risk to having out of date or poorly maintained software. If the software is not current and requires an update or even a rewrite the cost to the business could run in to the millions. It’s imperative that any and all software assets are up to date and if significant investment is required you will want to understand that cost. Software depends on technology to work, that underlying technology itself is prone to failure. Security vulnerabilities and integration risk pose challenges to software performance. The technology contributes to the business and financial risk of maintaining proprietary software, so you need to identify the overall cost and risk of any software package and its adjacent systems.