In the era of software product modernization, businesses tend to look at the feasibility of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) vs. custom software development, and strategize on the best course of action based on the required effort, cost, time to market, and other relevant attributes.

In this article, we explore the optimal strategy for software development based on modern reusable component frameworks, and highlight how it can help control cost and time, and yet provide custom-fit software for any software development need.

1. INTRODUCTION

In today’s competitive market, an enterprise cannot afford to have the same solutions as their competitors. To gain that competitive edge, an enterprise should create solutions that put them ahead of the rest of the field. Simply put, software has to support innovation that drives growth. 

On an economic scale, enterprises are struggling to keep CAPEX & OPEX of software to a minimum. The aim is to minimize effort and maintenance cost. 

This is the challenging part. How does one procure said software? Is buying a COTS product the best option? Will building a custom software that matches the required specifications provide the best value? 

To answer this, businesses have to establish a complete picture of what they require from the software, and also determine the total cost of ownership (TCO) associated with all options. This may be feasible in case of building software for simple systems, but may not be true for complex business systems, where neither all software requirements nor associated costs are identified beforehand.  

2. PROBLEM DEFINITION

Developing software requires ‘make or buy’ decisions for each subsystem, whether to develop a custom solution or purchase COTS product.

Taking the right approach is a critical step in the development process as it affects cost, schedule, maintainability, extendibility, and risk. 

• SIMPLE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: A custom solution would exactly fit the business need, as one does not have to pay for unnecessary functionality. In addition, the intimate understanding of a custom solution can help in better maintainability. 
• COMPLEX SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: For a complex system, the effort and cost to develop a custom solution can be significantly high and involves risk. Therefore, a COTS product can be a better option here. However, when the degree of reusability is recursive, a custom solution would be more viable than a COTS solution in terms of cost.
• AVAILABLE OPTIONS IF COTS ISN’T A FIT: During requirement analysis, if any of the COTS products under consideration aren’t a perfect fit, the choice is between the following options:
  • Building a custom product from the ground up
  • Modifying a COTS product with a partial fitment
  • Modifying the business processes and requirements
  All of the above options have hidden costs and risks. Larger upfront, hidden costs in custom software, cost of customization with COTS products, and modifying any business processes or requirements can all result in additional challenges. Therefore, it may not be viable as a standalone option.

BENEFITS OF COTS SOLUTIONS: Cost and time to develop a custom solution cannot be estimated beforehand; hence it carries a degree of risk, whereas the cost and time associated with a COTS solution are available upfront. In addition, the built-in configurability of a COTS solution for different needs without significant investment in R&D and testing is a big plus.

DISADVANTAGE WITH COTS: Steep learning curve associated with COTS solutions makes them risky, as they require extra time for development and testing involving special training, prototyping etc. 

Hence, the ideal solution is to chalk out a middle path that controls the cost and effort required for design, quality assurance, testing, development, and extension of the custom software while ensuring that it fits both the business and IT requirements. These activities dramatically influence the TCO of software.

3. HIGH-LEVEL SOLUTION

A viable solution is to build a tailored, custom-fit software based on modern solution frameworks that is customized via configuration with support for seamless extensibility.

OPTIMA Suite of Reusable Component framework helps develop a tailored software adhering to business requirements with the competing effort and cost similar to that of using a COTS product

4. SOLUTION DETAILS

Following are the unique features of OPTIMA-based products:

• ALTERNATE OPTION WITH THE BENEFITS OF COTS AND MORE: Custom software built on top of OPTIMA is a perfect fit in the event of no exact fitment of any COTS product.
• A GENERAL SOLUTION PLATFORM: Products build on top of OPTIMA are designed to be generic and function well in a variety of business environments. 
• PLUG-IN BASED EXTENDIBILITY: OPTIMA’s well-defined extensible module would help tailor the product for some specific features that are necessary. 
• EMPOWERS WHITE-BOX TESTING: Custom software built leveraging OPTIMA allows for better testing of the product in the operating environment because there is complete access to the OPTIMA source code, which gets integrated with the software being developed and helps perform efficient test strategies, giving insights into how the new software functions within the enterprise environment.
• EMPOWERS INDEPENDENT MAINTENANCE: If there are issues or enhancements required with the OPTIMA-based product, it is possible to work on the source code directly, and there is no need to contact the OPTIMA team to fix it, or even wait for an add-on plugin to address the problem. This independency and possible ease of maintenance of OPTIMA-based custom software makes it a more viable solution.
• CUSTOMIZATION VIA CONFIGURATION: The OPTIMA design team should start work in the requirements phase of the project to ensure that the custom software will leverage the seamless configurability feature of OPTIMA to reduce costs and time to build the new software. 

5. DIFFERENTIATORS

Following are the unique differentiators of OPTIMA-based products:

6. BUSINESS BENEFITS

OPTIMA-based software helps balance cost, usability, stability and security, while producing innovative custom software solutions tailored to each business and technological needs of an enterprise to drive growth.

In one particular case, a customer found that their COTS solution is burdensome with respect to licensing fees and further customization needed for legacy integration. OPTIMA designed a custom system that met additional business needs and integrated the new solution seamlessly with the client’s legacy systems. Over the last few years, OPTIMA has saved customers cost and time while providing service, maintenance, and enhancements as needed.

7. SUMMARY 

OPTIMA framework based software development helps mitigate the challenges of COTS Vs. Custom-built software, by chalking out a middle path strategy. OPTIMA’s proven ability to deliver optimal custom business solutions is the result of continued effort to build marquee reusable frameworks for seamless product development. Leveraging the production-ready OPTIMA code and artefacts, helps keep the project on track from the initial development phase.

OPTIMA provides cost certainty and stability, right from the very beginning of the development phase all the way down to the post-production phase, with ease of maintenance.

Radhakrishna Singuru

DMTS - Senior Member – Software Engineering Practice, Industrial & Engineering Services, Wipro Limited.

Radha has more than 24 years of experience in product and system software development across multiple industry domains. His areas of interest include cloud and virtualization technologies, edge computing, blockchain, quantum computing, scalable platforms, SDN, IP networking etc.

Rajat Yadav

Principal Consultant, Industrial & Engineering Services, Wipro Limited.

Rajat Yadav has 18 years of experience in leading consulting, product innovation, and solution design for industry-class software products and frameworks. He has provided Domain and Product Management Support in building and managing IP-based Productized solutions to various verticals like Retail, Banking, Capital Markets, and Health.