in-house development versus packaged solutions

Hi all,
We need to replace our aging mainframe operational system. We spent 2 years
working with a taskforce, looking at the pros and cons of in-house
development vs. third-party solutions, and decided to develop our own (using
Delphi and SQL Server). The taskforce, drawn from constituencies all over
campus and the management all agreed and signed-off on the plan and
timeline. Well, last fall there was an upper management shake-up and the
entire decision is back on the table again (never mind that we don't have
$10 million to purchase any of the leading packages for our functional
area).

I've been asked to come up with a document explaining the pros and cons of
in-house developed solutions versus third-party, packaged solutions. I know
how I feel but I'd be interested in seeing what others in this forum think.
Just FYI, we have a staff of competent developers already on the payroll and
most of the necessary hardware is already in-house. We might consider
adding another developer but the infrastructure cost of developing our own
system are already covered.

Thanks,

--
=================================
Ray Porter
Information Systems
Applications Development Manager
Division of University Advancement
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Phone: (919) 259-9389
Fax: (919) 843-3314
Pager: (919) 216-4218

ray_porter@xxxxxxx
http://www.unc.edu/~dragon

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons for thou
art crunchy and taste good with ketchup


.

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