Bill H's Public Library

"What is the potential of rental, pure-play hosted application
vendors to compete with established licensed software vendors for common
business functions, for example, accounting, human resources, enterprise
resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM)?"

www.forrester.com/...0,7208,28815,00.html - Preview

Build vs Buy EA

Build vs. Buy vs. Rent: Enterprise Application Strategies by Erin Kinikin - Forrester Research

www.forrester.com/...0,7208,34495,00.html - Preview

Build vs Buy EA

Choosing to buy or build or
rent enterprise applications depends on the maturity of the application, the
scope of the requirements and the fit of the application to company needs.
Generally, the advantages of packaged applications are depth of functionality
and future flexibility to add and deepen functionality. Custom-built
applications offer pay-as-you-go cost (especially for small deployments) and
more customized fit (potentially greater benefits). Application service
providers (ASPs) provide fast time to market and low maintenance costs, but the
least long-term flexibility. All three approaches present risk: provider
viability, availability of expertise and the business cost of missing critical
functionality.

Buy vs. Build: The Best of Both Through Service Orientation by Randy Heffner - Forrester Research

How do the emergence of service orientation and the maturing of layered application architectures change the dynamics of buy vs. build decisions for enterprise applications

www.forrester.com/...0,7208,28074,00.html - Preview

Build vs Buy EA

How do the emergence of service orientation and the maturing of
layered application architectures change the dynamics of buy vs. build decisions for enterprise applications?
Service orientation enables a mix of buy and
build,
5 more annotations...
- The combined approach uses off-the-shelf applications to provide an underlying
  foundation of functionality and, on top of this foundation, it layers targeted
  custom applications where there is significant potential for strategic advantage
- Strategic and competitive advantage comes from many sources, but major examples
  of achieving strategic advantage through enterprise applications typically
  involve custom-built applications
- Thus arises the rule of thumb that "you can´t buy
  strategic advantage off-the-shelf." When strategic issues are involved, a buy vs. build decision may be viewed as a dichotomy between a
  package (low cost, low risk, low value) and custom development (high cost, high
  risk, high value). It is better to view buy vs. build as a continuum from
  "full buy" to "full build"
  with multiple points in between where the two are mixed.
- In a buy-and-build scenario,
  one might layer custom, strategic services on top of standard, common services.
- To apply service-orientation to a buy
  vs. build decision,
  organizations should take the following steps:
  
  1. Add service orientation to the technical criteria for evaluating
  packaged applications. Even if it is not needed now, it may be beneficial for
  strategic business initiatives that arise in the future.
  
  2. Segment functional evaluation criteria to highlight those that are
  most strategic. Alternatively, create a list of the common core of relatively
  standard business transactions upon which a strategic application initiative
  depends. Focus the functional evaluation first on the common core
  transactions.
  
  3. When packages fall short on strategic functions, analyze options for
  layering strategic functions over a packaged core. Evaluate technical,
  functional and operational considerations of the options.
  
  4. Pursue service orientation as a design goal within enterprise
  architecture programs. Developing expertise in the design and implementation of
  service-oriented architectures will facilitate complex buy-and-build decisions, but
  service orientation is also critical as a major foundation of all future
  application architectures.

Buy vs. Build vs. Rent: The Right Application Strategy Depends on Company Needs by Erin Kinikin - Forrester Research

What's the real story on the trade-off of buy vs. build? (We find that departmental applications often cost six to eight times as much to buy than to build.)

www.forrester.com/...0,7208,29041,00.html - Preview

Build vs Buy EA

Generally, the advantages of packaged applications are depth of functionality
(more benefits faster) and future flexibility to add and deepen functionality
(without writing it from scratch).
The advantages of custom-built applications are pay-as-you-go cost (especially
for small deployments) and more customized fit (potentially greater benefits).
5 more annotations...
- application service providers (ASPs), provides the fastest time to market and
  lower maintenance costs, but potentially lower benefits and the least long-term
  flexibility
- All three approaches have risks: the viability of the software provider or ASP,
  the expertise and sustainability of internal resources, and the business cost of
  missing critical functionality
- The majority of enterprise applications will continue to move toward packaged
  applications with increasingly sophisticated configuration and integration
  facilities (allowing better blending of build and
  buy), especially for multi-function, strategic
  applications
- ASPs are an interesting new choice for tactical, self-contained applications,
  especially for companies that don´t have the discipline to leverage packaged
  application breadth and depth or the capital for large projects. Custom-built
  will always have a place for highly specialized or competitive advantage
  applications (or tactical applications where no ASP option is available).

Buy vs. Build: The ERP/Comprehensive Enterprise Application Perspective by Byron Miller - Forrester Research

www.forrester.com/...0,7208,28965,00.html - Preview

Build vs Buy EA

It does not make sense to develop software for application areas that are truly
common to businesses in general. This is especially true of areas such as
finance and human resources where there are substantial offerings with every
conceivable configuration option.
It does make sense to develop software where the vendors have not provided deep
or broad enough vertical coverage or where there are other specialty needs
1 more annotations...
- It also makes sense to develop software that is of the essence of the business
  and that provides a unique and differentiating function or process.