I was recently in a discussion on LinkedIn about custom software that started against my beliefs but ended up confirming most of what I advocate and promote through saasify.

It all started when Nam Phong Ho listed "Home-brewed IT solutions and spreadsheets acting as the backbone of business operations." as a red-flag leading to "fraud, incidents, financial misstatements."

You can get the full context here.

The reason why it goes against some of my beliefs is, I believe custom software can be a strategic advantage for a business. Tailoring the software to the business can and should lead to increased performance.

So, when I red that it could be a red-flag, I needed to know more, understand why.

One key aspect to keep in mind here is that the author of the original post is in internal audit. He is not in software, not in information systems, not in the any aspect related to the performance of companies. His role is different, he needs to evaluate and mitigate risks within an enterprise. Taking that into account, I understand his point of view.

The difference of point of view ended very quickly when I asked for more details and evaluated the causes.

After a short exchange, it appeared that what caused the red flag is what I mention as points requiring special attention :

being prone to bugs, security vulnerabilities, difficulties in integrating with other apps, inadequate documentation, reliance on a few key individuals, insufficient user training and support, delays and budget overrun in implementation, delay as well as challenges in maintenance and updates

So, while I still disagree that custom software is a red flag, I do agree that all those elements have to be managed properly.

One other aspect of the discussion I would have liked to cover more is why "off the shelf" would be a better way. It seems to be a way to shift responsibility and blame onto a 3rd-party in case of issue and introduces different risks. Moreover, I wouldn't necessarily consider outside providers to be better organized or more trustworthy.

There is probably a question of scale as well.