One might think that a software development company would have a firm handle on what IT delivery strategy to pursue. At my old company, this was not the case. The company struggled with where its core competencies could best be employed. The prevailing attitude was, "we are software engineers first and foremost, and we know our business best. Therefore, we will always be able to develop a software solution internally better than any contractor ever could." Unfortunately, this attitude became crippling when we needed solutions to problems and did not have the appropriate resources to address these problems. Ad-hoc systems were developed and they did not talk to one another. Additionally, we purchased a few software programs that could not integrate with our in-house system. There was a failure to recognize future needs in programs that were developed early on in the company's life, which created serious issues when it came time to upgrade and change the system.
On the surface, it might look like these software engineers simply did not know what they were doing. In fact, these engineers were very talented, but their skills did not transfer well into database management, HR, acounting and CRM software. They were highly specialized engineers who created a niche market software to help individual investors and investment clubs learn about investing and manage portfolios of individual stocks.
The conclusion I draw from this example is that it is important for a company to recognize its competencies when it decides on an IT delivery platform. Don't let pride get in the way of good decision-making and know when to say that someone else probably has a better solution to your problem than you do.
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