Custom Solutions:
Three things to consider with customisations (a) who owns the IP (b) any limits to it's use with competitors (c) any opportunities to share cost with vendor
Customisation
There can be an ongoing overhead
There can be an ongoing overhead associated with customising software and you need to understand this before making a final product decision. Even if you only intend to use the vanilla product it would be prudent to consider the implications and consequences of modifications as a business need may arise in the future.
One of the key risks is the impact on future upgrades or patch releases of the software. As these releases are designed for the vanilla product you could get left behind running an earlier version number if the upgrades can't be easily applied to your installation. The ongoing cost or difficulty of applying upgrades is also likely to increase as the upgrades will need to be tested against your configuration. Generally, your annual support fee covers the upgrade disks but doesn't cover applying or installing that upgrade on your machine.
Most applications allow
Most applications allow for some user modifications such as user defined fields or tables and generally these changes have little or no impact on upgrades. It's where the customisation adds to or modifies the application logic that the risk can arise and these changes should only be undertaken after you've exhausted every other angle. Challenge every customisation. Why is it being done, what are we trying to achieve, how much is it going to cost in development and in ongoing support.
The best businesses
The best businesses listen to their customers and act on their feedback. If the change you want seems a pretty fundamental one then you should lobby for the change to be incorporated into the software as part of its ongoing development.
Does your vendor have a user group or any kind of customer forum?
Inspired Notes
Resources