Ten years ago, our clients understood that if they wished to update their websites or IT solutions, they would need to do so through their software developer or service provider. These days, many clients believe that by paying for their website or software development, they own the source code. On the face of it, this seems reasonable. Surely if you pay for something then you own it?
Many providers would make a comparison of the sort: if I pay a plumber to fix my tap, I don’t ask him to leave his toolbox behind so I can fix it myself next time. If you give away ownership of code, you’re giving away your “tools of the trade”. This comparison isn’t really fair or relevant, especially when you would rather the money spent on your websites or IT solution is more of an investment and less of a cost.
Spending money on building a site or IT solution should be considered an investment.
The more functionality required, the more complex the site and therefore the more costly. The question is: why would you spend money on these unless you also have the peace of mind of owning the code of the actual system? And what would actually owning the code mean for your business?
The website’s code and the database that contains all your files is the actual value of your solution. Without owning these, the site is a cost and not an investment. Owning the code provides peace of mind that if, worst-case scenario, you are having issues with your service provider, they do not have the right to switch you off, leaving you to move to the next provider to start off from scratch.
Although it always makes sense to maintain excellent relations with your supplier and you might never need to resort to managing your own code, you need to avoid getting into situations where your hands are tied before you actually make the decision of which supplier to go with.
Apart from allowing you to grab your code and move on to the next supplier without having to start from scratch and without having to pay the cost of redevelopment in the case that the supplier relations have turned sour, owning the code has other benefits.
Having an entirely custom-built solution will allow you to integrate with your internal applications, such as stock and inventory systems, without any major headaches. Some clients might already have an internal department which can manage the code of the system following go live. Owning the code gives you the advantage of being able to reuse components that have been developed within the system in other systems as well.
Mr Zammit Ciantar is a director at InFusion Solutions, a custom IT and web solutions provider.