Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.160 2025.02.01 Takahashi Minoru

Once called teacher, recently called partner, in ten years we'll be called a convenient tool

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.


If it is entirely feasible to develop a system in-house,
they can be built more cost-effectively than if outsourced.


However, systems built in-house
often tend to miss the right timing for updates.


A common scenario among the consultations we receive
the following scenario:
・The system was built decades ago.
・The system has been running smoothly and has been serving the company well.
・In recent years, errors have become frequent, and usability has deteriorated.
・Although there have been occasional suggestions over the years that the system should be rebuilt,
there has been pushback, with people arguing, “It’s perfectly usable as is” or “We can’t change the way we do things.”
・Meanwhile, the original developer is no longer available,
making it difficult to even perform feature updates or fix errors,
forcing the company to rely on external help.


In many small and medium-sized enterprises, a “maintain the status quo” mentality tends to prevail when it comes to systems,
making the barrier to system upgrades seem high.
However, if you stick with the “status quo” for too long,
there will eventually come a point when even that becomes impossible.


Specifically, “maintaining the status quo” becomes impossible in the following cases:
・The developer or maintenance staff has left the company
・No personnel have been designated to take over system responsibilities
・Business rules or client requirements have changed, but
there is no one capable of handling the system changes
・The programming language used to build the system is so outdated that
the system cannot run on new PCs or servers
・Data capacity issues; the system can no longer handle years of accumulated data
*This may occur if the database is an Access file.


In recent years, it seems that
the importance of systems has been growing.
As a result, even when maintaining the status quo becomes impossible, companies cannot simply discard the system
and they inevitably find themselves forced to make the "decision to overhaul the system."


For many small and medium-sized enterprises,
the "decision to upgrade the system" is a painful choice.
The reasons are as follows:
・The quotes are just too high!
While no IT vendor would likely try to “rip you off” outright,
even the quote is even at a fair price,
It will never be cheaper
it will never be cheaper.
・We can’t stand the idea of changing our operations!
Usability and operational methods will change, causing resistance from the front lines.
This trend is particularly evident in companies that handle detailed requests from clients on a case-by-case basis.
this tendency is particularly pronounced.
・It’s a waste of our accumulated know-how!
In-house systems are supposed to be the crystallization of a company’s unique know-how.
System renewal is tantamount to discarding some of the know-how accumulated over time.
*This does not apply if you outsource a fully custom-built system.


Furthermore, system renewal is by no means risk-free,
and whether the new system will operate smoothly
cannot be determined until after the overhaul is complete.
If you wish to maintain your in-house system in its current state for a longer period,
we recommend taking the following measures on a daily basis:
・Do not assign a single person to manage the system; assign multiple people
・Ensure a handover to the next generation (relatively younger staff), even if it takes several years
・If the system is built in Access, ensure it runs on newer versions and newer operating systems
so that it runs on newer versions or newer operating systems


That's all, Thank you for reading.

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