CrossCountry's Consultant, Sean Barrett, discusses the difference between customization and configuration and their impacts to a system implementation.
Video Transcription
Hi, I am Sean Barrett with CrossCountry Consulting and I am going to talk a little bit today about customization versus configuration when you’re implementing a new software system.
Both customization and configuration will allow you to modify a system to get it to exactly how you want it to function, however, there certainly is some differences between the two.
Customization requires modification via coding changes so that could be additional coding or changes to the coding itself. Configuration however, takes place within a pre-defined environment so there’s no coding changes and you really get all the advantages of the flexibility that’s already in the system.
Some advantages of configuration over customization would be that customization is expensive and time-consuming. At the beginning it relies heavily on developers and this prolongs the go-lives in the system.
Second: coding is error-prone. This requires that your IT team focus on the up-keep and maintaining of codes. This prevents them from working on new, revenue generating initiatives.
Finally, configuration as opposed to customization, allows for easy upgrades. Whenever a new system comes out, because there’s no codes that have to change, the configured system will work flawlessly with the new system.
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