The enterprise software, all-in-one solution that promised to run your business was, at best, only partially fulfilled. All too often, businesses face a mismatch between what is delivered at go-live and what is needed to be successful.
In an exploration for root causes, the culprit is often something we call the customization dilemma, where companies are forced to decide whether to settle for standardized enterprise applications or customize to match their distinct requirement—and inherit the resulting technical debt. In this post, we discuss:
A vanilla enterprise system refers to an out-of-the-box solution that requires minimal customization. While it allows for easier updates and upgrades, it might not represent the intricacies of an individual business. Imagine vanilla ice cream—it’s bland, predictable, and lacks the excitement that comes with unique flavors. Similarly, a vanilla ERP system may not empower a company to fully leverage its competitive advantages, creative potential, and business imperatives.
Choosing a vanilla ERP system often necessitates altering the organization to fit the software’s constraints and relying on the vendor for industry alignment and capabilities. In essence, it commits a company to operate without differentiation from its competitors. To truly stand out and succeed, businesses need to break free from these limitations.
Customizing an ERP system is an attractive solution to tailor the software to meet a company’s specific needs. However, this choice comes with its own set of challenges. Customizations often involve coding within software objects, leading to dependencies and complexities. Even a seemingly small change can have significant ripple effects throughout the entire system, necessitating extensive analysis, documentation, testing, and additional resources for updates and upgrades.
Moreover, when new releases of the ERP system are published, businesses face the dilemma of whether to uptake the new version, which likely offers enhanced capabilities and features, or stick with the current customized version. To uptake new releases with customizations can be laborious, requiring meticulous attention to detail and often resulting in technical debt.
Unique requirements
Whether it is related to financial management, inventory, manufacturing, supply chain operations, or projects, your organization probably has one or more unique requirements related to how you run your business that are addressed by an out-of-the-box solution.
Competitive advantages
As your company has evolved, survived, and thrived, chances are you’ve established one or more competitive advantages. There is also a good chance your out-of-the-box enterprise applications cannot handle or leverage your competitive advantages.
Different model or mixed industries
Companies don’t fit into neat categories. While your solution provider may sell you a solution that is aligned to industry X, what happens if you are working equally in industry X and industry Y, and one is focused on services while the other produces products? As companies grow, needs and requirements become more complex.
New aspirations
Companies are like people. Every company has different aspirations in terms of where they want to be in one, five and ten years. While an out-of-the-box solution used at your company may support your aspirations for the next 12 months, what happens to that alignment when your project your goals and dreams forward one decade. Can your system be the baseline, or does it have to be enhanced with customizations, or even replaced with another solution from another vendor?
Recognizing the critical role customizations play in addressing a company’s aspirations and unique requirements, a groundbreaking solution emerges: no-code development. This approach abstracts customizations from the out-of-the-box enterprise solutions, allowing businesses to create unlimited customizations without worrying about future updates, upgrades, or changes in technology.
It’s important to acknowledge that the widespread market opinion is that no-code platforms are limiting and should only be leveraged for simple use cases. While this may ring true for some no-code platforms, there are enterprise, no-code platforms out there that allow for sophisticated, enterprise-level use cases and business rules. In the case of Nextworld, every business suite and customer-owned customization was built using Nextworld’s no-code platform. These are applications trusted to run core business functions built without coding and customizable in a sustainable way.
Unlike traditional coding, an enterprise, no-code methodology empowers business users to create and modify customizations without the need for programming expertise. It enables a more agile and flexible approach to application customization, reducing the burden on IT departments and eliminating the need for skilled technicians to manually update custom objects.
With a no-code enterprise platform, businesses can tailor their systems to accommodate their competitive advantages, unique processes, and diverse industry combinations. As companies grow, change, and expand into new territories, the enterprise, no-code approach offers adaptability without constraining them to a narrow, pre-defined solution. This methodology ensures that systems evolve in tandem with the company’s goals and aspirations, ultimately driving long-term success and growth.
The customization dilemma has long been a challenge for businesses seeking to leverage enterprise systems effectively. The choice between a vanilla system and extensive customizations often entails a trade-off between simplicity and meeting specific business needs. However, with the advent of no-code enterprise platforms, businesses can now have the best of both worlds: out-of-the-box enterprise applications paired with penalty-free customization.
The no-code methodology liberates companies from the constraints of traditional coding, empowering them to tailor their systems without worrying about future updates and upgrades. As businesses evolve and grow, the no-code approach allows them to stay agile, differentiate from competitors, and leverage their unique strengths.
Want to know how the Nextworld platform ensures sustainable customizations?
