Three signals that a standard package is slowing an organisation down

A standard package that slows an organisation down is rarely named as such. Employees do not complain about it; they solve it with a list, an export or a copy beside the package. Nobody builds such a detour around software that carries the work. The detours, then, are the signal.

The test takes no study. Walk along with the daily work for one week and count what happens beside the package.

First signal: lists beside the package

A list someone keeps beside the main program. An export to a spreadsheet, every Monday. A folder of copies, because the package does not show the document the way the team needs it. Each of those detours measures the distance between how the package wants the work done and how it is done. One detour is a quirk. Five detours in one process are a verdict on the package.

Second signal: the same data twice

Entering the same data into two or three systems costs time. The bigger cost is quieter: sooner or later the systems drift apart, and then nobody knows which version is right. A client with two phone numbers. A project with two end dates. From that moment the team trusts neither system and goes back to the spreadsheet. Note per process where the same entry recurs.

Third signal: no integration

Modern software has an integration layer, an API, through which other systems read and write data. Without that layer there is little to automate, and every extension depends on what the supplier builds himself. One question to the supplier suffices: does this system have a modern API? The answer is yes or no. A roadmap, an export function or a partner is no.

Two out of three

Whoever recognises two of the three signals is due an evaluation: a conversation about which packages stay and which do not. Custom software is then a consideration per organisation, and it is not for everyone. What it does is get built around how the organisation already works, contain only what is needed, and charge no licence per user.

The detours are already there. Counting them takes a week, and it says more about the package than any demo.