[gonzo41]

You should go COTS for this and just buy. Is your job building software or integrating software into an existing business? From the sounds of it. is the later. So I would think it sensible to treat this purchase like buying a fleet of cars. You don't want to get into the tarpit of having to design and deal with the supporting into the future, focuson the profit making part. Pick a good set of products that allows for you to integrate and extend. Also, if you pick the right software, you'll have the ability to add on extensions when you're there. But the largest hurdle will be initial deployment and hitting that initial ROI. Which may be bigger if you don't buy, but if it's inhouse software, what's 50K over 20 years....

Think about maintenance cost over a longer horizon. How long will this software live for.

[bendtb]

Thank you for the comment, and some very valid points. I am a trader so I am doing this for profits, not empire building. That should speak for buying everything off the shelf (I have also noted that data/SaaS products tend to become cheaper over time).

However, USD 50.000 extra over 20 years is USD 1 mio, and the fact that things comes off the shelf doesn’t mean that I won’t have to tweak, ie there will be some personal and programming costs even in the off the shelf solution.