Do you want a suit made just for you or one that doesn’t quite fit properly?
In my wardrobe at home I have a small number of suits. Most of them were purchased off the peg from a supermarket or a common high street clothing store.
I had one though that was tailor-made. It fitted me. Perfectly. 
Nothing was too tight in the slightest and nothing was just a bit loose. Everything was just the right length. Trousers stopped where they should and sleeves finished in just the right place. It was very comfortable to wear.
Unfortunately, I have grown up (sorry, out). It does not fit me anymore.
I took it to the charity shop. That was a suit that cost me hundreds of pounds. I wore it once.
That makes me feel like I was a bit reckless with money.
The suits I have purchased more recently haven’t been tailor-made. They have been off the peg.
None have fitted perfectly.
Either the trousers were too tight or the sleeves just a bit too long and saggy. The jacket perhaps a bit tight across the shoulders or the pockets were not big enough to put your car keys in. Or the day was half an hour too long, or the sea was exactly the wrong shade of pink... whoops, wrong metaphor!
But they were cheap.
So cheap in fact that most of them only get worn once or twice and then just sit in the wardrobe gathering dust and cobwebs making me feel much thriftier.
But I cannot help but think that the next time I wear one of these suits it is going to be uncomfortable and I will not want to wear it. Maybe I am still being reckless with my money. Ask my bank –they will probably know.
This is the same when it comes to a software system that you might use to operate your business or part of your business. For sure there are plenty of software systems that you can purchase off the peg to manage your human resources requirements, for example, but I am sure that none of these will work exactly how you want to work.
You will have to change your business operations to suit the software. There are few, if any, businesses I have worked with or in that would take that as being acceptable.
They might say that the software does 90% of what they want but they will have to do 10% manually. That does not seem right to me either.
What they would want is a system that works the way they want to work.
They will have to have a tailor-made software system.
It will be more expensive but will work exactly as required.
Conclusion
If you want cheap – buy off the peg and accept it will not fit very well. If you want it to fit – buy tailor-made.
That applies to suits, software systems and planets.
However, unlike my suit that no longer fits me due to me putting on weight, if your requirements change then the system can be changed to match.
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