| Perhaps, In the end, the best piece of software is the one you never had to build in the first place. -- The Article Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble? -- SICP I think the real uncanny valley here lies in maintaining software, not designing it. Business needs change over time and software must adapt. I think the best option is to build your own software. Understand it top to bottom and make it do exactly what you need to do. Sadly this is not possible for most people. The next best option, however, is not to spend $3,000 on something written over a weekend that won't be supported down the road. The best option is to go with the Salesforce solution. My first programming gig (in high school) was automating a process that involved manipulating index cards and doing some basic math. I also trained them on how to operate, maintain and extend the system. The end result worked fine for a few years, until it was eventually replaced with some elaborate proprietary system that cost about as much every 3 months as the whole system I delivered. But that system came with ongoing support that obviated the need for any in-house expertise. So they felt the additional expense was worthwhile. And I was happy not to have to take the support calls. Edit: And ultimately both systems were more accurate and saved time over the manual process. |
I think there's a version of something like Microsoft Access that can take away a lot of support requests.
I get a ton of requests related to lists of collections within the app, which could be maintained by the users themselves.