CLEARING THE FOG: UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION

LAURA MURPHY, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AT KMI

JACK JONES, CHIEF ARCHITECT AT KMI

The Fog

Over the past decade or more there has been an ongoing search for best practices in the Environmental Management Information System (EMIS) market, and the enterprise software market in general. Navigating the technical decisions that evolved in the EMIS market has increased in complexity. It requires EHS professionals to gain and maintain knowledge about technical matters that can have significant long term impacts on costs and business goals. First it was whether to build the system in-house or outsource its development. Next it was whether to build a custom solution or buy off-the-shelf. Then it was whether to host the system internally or outsource using the software as a service (SaaS) model. Each time, through shared experiences and lessons learned, EHS professionals gradually came to a consensus on the preferred approaches.

The big question today among peers in the EMIS market is around configuration versus customization. This latest question is harder to understand and apply when evaluating software. This distinction is different from those past because it is not an either/or – in many cases there may be a hybrid solution involving both. Also, the distinction is harder to see for those evaluating software options.

While the importance of configuration versus customization is generally understood, how this distinction is interpreted and how the differences can impact your implementation are vague. “Customization” has become implicitly taboo based on occasional horror stories of those who found themselves lost down a customization rabbit hole. Not enough information is available about why they were bad experiences and what the specific risks and pitfalls were. This makes it tough for those evaluating EMIS options to understand how to learn from these experiences.

This article is intended to help clarify the definition of the terms configuration and customization, and assist would-be software buyers in making educated and effective decisions.

CLEARING THE FOG: UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION

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