Ask HN: Should we bring software dev in-house?

Responding to my own post to respond to one of OP's questions:

> Alternative solutions we should explore.

When I am working with a vendor's app with critical gaps and I know the vendor will not solve the problem (because they don't have the talent or it's functionality that doesn't apply broadly to their market), then I try to work with them to just add a hook (on our dime) to link to our external custom functionality.

The easier you can make it on the vendor the more likely they will incorporate it. Typically I will design the interface of info in a way to make their lives as easy as possible to incorporate the results in to their systems.

Some examples where I used this very successfully:

1-Cubing/Cartonization for outbound orders - we have many unique requirements from our customers as well as from our internal business channels. Vendor calls our system, passes relevant info, we produce the result and return it, they do all of their normal app updates as if they were the ones that produced the result.

2-Picking/batching optimization - same issue, nobody has any out of the box optimization that supports all of our requirements and dependencies - same flow, we perform our own prioritization+optimization and return the results, they update their app/db.

3-Generalized Rules engine - most workflows are controlled with normal ERP style configurations in the app, but some require much more flexible logic, for those we had the vendor insert a call to our rules engine, they pass in key relevant data, we crunch it, we return the result, they update their app/db.

An example usage of this one is in our order routing across different DC's. The business can target all kinds of special conditions to support their business requirements (e.g. product X should ship from DC Y for special customers A, B and C due to some special processing in that facility).

4-Generalized external function - in one system we had the vendor add the capability to call an external function at any point in the workflow (they have configurable processes where multiple steps can be linked together). This one one is not designed to return anything to the calling system other than success or failure, it's more about inserting external actions within the workflow (e.g. external action might be a function in a separate system that is fully self-contained).

These are just a few examples but we've made use of it extensively. I think it's a really effective compromise when trying to work around vendors app limitations.

Given the domain is well known and solution is in use already that can be used to model new solution, if I were in your shoe, I would have started with one dba, and a couple of oracle APEX developers. Oracle APEX, with a solid database in background, can get a lot of development done in a short time. In 2-3 months time, a review of development activity would have provided a decent idea if development should be taken inhouse or left in current state.

Love your username - I had a friend who used to live in one of those :)

Sorry I missed this thread, I think it was meant for me.

I currently work for a small logistics company as a senior engineer. I am pretty happy and not looking for work (like many of the comments here), but I am happy to converse or schedule a call sometime if you're interested to discuss. 0x03e14@protonmail.ch.

Other commenters had I think the correct answer - you just need ONE REALLY GOOD IT co-founder or vice president to help coordinate that, who can both leverage outsourced solutions but also build things on their own, and most importantly who truly understands and cares about the logistics and cost savings.

I see a lot of dysfunctional and large tech teams building out over-complicated solutions with zero industry awareness, instead of lean solutions.

Did you see this article [1] here from a couple months ago about Temu's semi-managed delivery model? I was pleasantly surprised to see logistics on YC. We don't talk about it enough but it's the backbone of global economy.

Best of luck! Let us know what you decide to do and shoot me an email if you want to connect.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40497472 - Temu's semi-managed model could change everything

As someone who did similar thing for few, little smaller business I will tell you - it depends.

Personally I did some software that saved a lot of money on licensing and hosting, almost none on-call activity as the software is stable and it is required to work 12/5, no 24/7. The only thing - I was more than „into the business”, loved the challenges and wanted to solve them.

On the other side I’m currently helping company from different industry because they collected few great talents, bought them great hardware, explained business and paid a lot. The team wasted almost a year, produced more crappy software than the existing one and left choosing someone who don’t know yet how bad SE they are.

If you will be looking for a consultation or for the team - I’m more than sad there is no contact info, because reading your description already made me way too interested

Yes so I am indirectly replying to OP question if he will be able attract and retain tech talent and I cannot imply anything really about his specific company.

I am only pointing out my view on it based on my years of experience working in different companies. Looking by up votes it seems my experience to be applicable for other people as well, so I guess it might be useful for the OP.