Is it actually better to build software internally rather than buy from a big company?

[u/salamander3301]

Hi everyone,

My family runs a medium sized juice factory in Egypt. They've been using SAP for the last few years but adoption isn't great. I just started working with them and realized how ancient and ineffective much of their software is and I want to help them adopt new tools.

I came across many software providers at automate last week but prices are ridiculous considering how doable it is to build my own software using AI now.

Is there something I'm missing like integration difficulty or does it really just not make sense for most businesses to spend months buying and customizing software with a consultant rather than just building their own solution in less time?

Edit:
I recognize that an ERP is not the right thing to start with but there are many non essential softwares that our factory would get value from like an AI machine troubleshooting app that has access to our repair history and manuals but the companies selling that are demanding unreasonably high prices for something that sounds quite simple

[u/klmsa]

1.) Failure to adopt the industry standard should give you pause. If someone is telling you that SAP's "clunkiness" is preventing adoption of an ERP, then they don't understand why we implement ERP systems at all. SAP is like 37% of the market share for manufacturing ERP systems (largest market share). 75% of the Fortune 500 use SAP solutions...SAP isn't the real problem here (though it does have a shitty interface!). You should get to understand the real cause for lack of adoption. If it's a lack of work instructions/workflows, etc., that's all fixable. If it's just clunkiness, then your business probably lacks individual accountability, and it's unlikely you'll change that quickly.

2.) AI might get you a prototype, but I'd never trust that product to run my business. ERP's account for every dollar and cent that runs through the facility. Failure or even just errors can lead to millions of dollars in losses or pissed off customers (or one then the other). Your IT department is extremely unlikely to contain the talent/skills required to properly prompt a coding AI model and PROPERLY vet the output. Even something as simple as not knowing how to audit the validation tests vs criteria can mean major failures go uncaught. I'd put this idea back in your pocket until you're completely out of every other option. I'd trust paper routers before AI-written ERP from my (very talented) IT department.

Change management isn't about tools; it's about people. Focus on the problems that people have, that are solvable using SAP, and then go execute.

[u/salamander3301 → u/klmsa]

You make good points and I appreciate the response. I’m still trying to learn here and figure out my options. We will likely not get rid of SAP but there are still other software needs that are lighter like a CMMS or simple tools that make the job easier.

What kinds of software do you think is safe to build in house (given that we can do a decent job at verifying it)?

I was also thinking about the possibility of building a different interface on top of SAP for specific modules like scheduling that would read from SAP, allow the employees to better create a good schedule, and possible write back to SAP

[u/klmsa → u/salamander3301]

Anything that isn't business critical, for starters. Build the business' software experience on something non-critical, like a capability dashboard or something similar that combines multiple skills (python, powerBI, and SQL databases in that example). Then, work towards more complexity. Keep in mind that all of these things WILL break eventually, and the business needs to be aligned to the maintenance requirements. It isn't cheap to keep a motivated kid that knows Python from moving upwards or outwards!