User:Gpeja/drafts/In-house software

In-house software is a software that is produced by a corporate entity for purpose of using it within the organization. In-house software however may later become available for commercial use upon sole discretion of the developing organization. The need to develop such software may arise depending on many circumstances which may be Non availability of the software in the market, potentiality or ability of the corporation to develop such software or to customize a software based on the corporate organization's need.

Comparison
There are advantages and disadvantages of developing software in-house. It is mostly business decision as other options are buying commercially available software (off-the-shelf) or contracting out the design (outsourcing). The question to ask if there is need for the custom solution based on the requirements and available resources.

Advantages
The main advantage of developing in-house is that the house has complete control of the design. This is very important for the strategically important software. The software can be customized for needs of the house and support team (developers) are readily available without need to through the customer service as it is case with the software developed by another entity.

Disadvantages
There is no need for software to be developed in-house if there is a complete solution available commercially, developed and tested by other companies with more experience. If the problem is successfully solved and used by number of other companies it is safer to buy off-the-shelf and avoid investment into hiring software developers able to create custom solution in the house.