Innovating with Packaged Business Software: Towards an Assessment

Abstract

In the 1990s many firms turned to software packages when they replaced the older, often home-built systems in their application portfolios. They chose to buy, rather than build, their new systems. Broadly, they followed the prevailing wisdom to downsize themselves so as to focus on their ‘core competencies’ and to outsource other tasks to the market. Many found no compelling logic for continued in-house development of their application software. Some, with their staffs already reorganized and reduced through reengineering, were simply no longer in a position to undertake major development tasks.