Whatever your sector, your type of activity or the maturity of your company and your teams, a problem remains with each new project to digitize your business and process operational.
The question of develop specific software in-house versus choose an existing external solution is indeed very frequently found in the upstream reflection phases of projects.
Being directly concerned by this subject, we took advantage of our many daily exchanges with industrialists from various sectors to better understand the positive and negative aspects of each of these two approaches.
Discover below the set of criteria to be taken into account during your reflection ". Develop vs Buy "and the reasons why external software such as Ermeo is very often the choice that has the most impact and value for your company and your employees.
The initial implementation
From the idea to the deployment of the software in your teams, many steps are necessary.
The definition of the scope and planning of the project, the design and functional design, development, tests and optimizations are all opportunities for exchanges between your employees. Sometimes even with external partners.
Despite the experience and efficiency of your teams, and those of your partners, these various steps take a long time !
The associated delay, of the order of several weeks, months or even years, is unfortunately difficult to compress.
This time limit may even be increased in the event of poorly defined desired functional perimetera higher degree of complexity of developments than expected, or a IT team velocity overestimated.
Developing software, no matter how simple it may be, is much more complex than it sounds.
Take for example the connected operator platform that we have been developing for over six years now.
Our web and mobile solution allows any industry to standardise its business processes while ensuring more collaboration between its teams.
The ergonomics and the simple and intuitive handling suggest that it was easy and quick to develop this software. This was obviously not the case.
Indeed, since Ermeo's creation, we have performed numerous iterations to improve the security and robustness of the platform, as well as the user experience.
For example, we regularly optimize the Studio, the central element of our software that allows the digitalization of all types of operational processes.
Despite the technical expertise of our team of experts and the perfect knowledge of this element, the first one we developed, it sometimes happens that some of its evolutions are complex and time-consuming to carry out.
Developing an equivalent software, or even a simplified version, would take considerable timeand would require significant human and financial resources. We will have the opportunity to address this point a little later.
Choosing an existing solution, such as Ermeo, therefore offers an immediate response to a specific need.
The time saving and responsiveness is unparalleled with software that has to be created from scratch!
It must also meet your needs....
We prefer a tailor-made solution, because our needs are complex
Although there are obvious similarities - depending on sector, occupation, maturity, etc. - there are also some differences. - Despite obvious similarities - depending on the sector, profession, maturity, etc. - between two different companies, each has specific issues and needs, which can sometimes prove to be complex.
This diversity, specificity and complexity implies the establishment of tailor-made technical solutions that perfectly meet operational and strategic needs.
Only possible via in-house development in the past, the answer is now possible with external software like ours, known as SaaS (Software as a Service).
We have indeed thought and developed our connected operator platform as an agnostic software, capable of responding perfectly to every operational process, from the simplest to the most complex.
At the start of the project to digitise the maintenance operations of our computerised signal boxes, we hesitated between several existing software packages and an in-house development. We finally chose Ermeo, as the solution fully met our needs, while being immediately available.
Martin Charlemagne, Industrial Programmes Manager (SNCF)
In addition to the special importance of theergonomics and the quality of standard functionalities (e.g.: display, search, filtering, import/export...), we have developed many complex specific features such as a user manual offlineThe new system offers a wide range of features, such as a dashboard, dashboards and multiple workspaces.
We have also structured our platform so that it is easily integrated into any IT system current. In addition to allowing a perfect relationship between the different existing solutions of a company, it offers effortless synchronization of all data.
Thanks to this important adaptability, our software is currently used in most industrial sectors for various and complex production, construction, operation, maintenance and audit projects.
Controlled evolution over time
A software that perfectly meets business challenges and needs, while being fast to deploy, is one thing. Another is software that evolves with new technologies and improves at the same pace as the associated business processes.
From experience, the maintenance and evolution over time post-implementation are all too rarely anticipated, which very often results in a frustrating user experience and reduced productivity.
Not to mention the complexity of quality maintenance, possible additional development costs or a lack of support in managing the change or taking control of the solution.
Unfortunately, a partial functional coverage and a poor ergonomics may have a strong negative impact on the quality and quantity of work done by the teams.
That's why we at Ermeo do our utmost to provide a perfect product experience and thus respond to our customers' needs as quickly and effectively as possible.
The quality of the mobile application and its many features have simplified and improved the work of operators on our oil platforms offshore. Especially the offlinemode, which we absolutely needed, and which was developed particularly quickly.
Grégory Tétard, Information Manager Officer (Total)
Our technological and multisectoral expertise, acquired in part thanks to numerous and diverse clients from different industries (e.g.: energy, transportation, manufacturingThis allows us to anticipate more easily possible needs and to be more reactive in the development of new functionalities.
In a process of collaboration and transparency with our clientsour roadmap product is publicly available to them. This allows them to easily share their needs with us and to know the status of the functionalities under development.
Our customers also benefit from quality support during and after the deployment of the solution.
This ranges from specific training courses provided by our Customer Success Managers to an real-time support provided by all Ermeo employees via a dedicated chat available in the application and on our website.
This ensures that our software and product vision are perfectly adapted to their needs.
No compromise on availability and security
Your operations of operation, production, maintenance or audit are at the heart of your daily activities. It is therefore mandatory that the solution you use to digitize and standardize them works perfectly, at all times.
Depending on an external solution for such critical issues for your company may seem dangerous, especially when compared to the (relative) security offered by an internal development. Depending on the chosen partner, this may indeed be the case.
With the connected operator platform that we have developed for and with many French industrialists, it is quite the opposite.
Each operator on our production lines must be assured of having real-time access to the right information. The operational intensity of our business makes it mandatory to implement robust and secure solutions like Ermeo.
Franck Fabre, Director of Production, Operational Excellence and Digitalization (Aptar)
On the one hand, because we provide a availability of our software of more than 99%. for all our customers (the few remaining percentages are related to the updates we make when new optimizations and functionalities are available).
Aware that this is a crucial criterion in the choice of software and its durability over time, our team is regularly improving the stability of our technical infrastructure. This is why the company is always at the cutting edge of technology.
On the other hand, because the security of your teams and your data, but also of our software, is at the centre of our concerns.
From Ermeo's technical architecture, to the authentication system, to the management of access and authorization rights, every part of our software has been designed to ensure that each and every one of them is fully integrated. total security of your data.
Cost visibility
From the idea to the deployment in your teams, a digitisation project developed in-house involves a significant initial human and financial investment.
To ensure its security, maintenance and evolution over time, additional investments, sometimes not anticipated, are essential.
Thanks to external software such as Ermeo, you can now benefit from the best solution on the market, perfectly meeting your needs and at a controlled cost.
Indeed, a low initial cost, mainly comprising configuration and training, is necessary to implement the solution within your teams. You then pay per use via a licensing system, with a fixed monthly cost per user.
In addition to cut your costsyou gain flexibility, because you can decide at any time to deploy the software in other teams or on other sites of your company.
In a few minutes, and effortlessly, these new users can access your solution while benefiting from the same level of quality, availability and security.
