Custom programming gets a bad rap for leaving organizations with Frankenstein creations that are often the proprietary knowledge of a few mad scientists. This session will argue that relying on your vendors to fulfill custom needs is just as risky and sometimes more costly. When the new vendor package that is supposed to fix all of your problems is delivered, it may not do what is promised. New problems will continue to arise and you may have to constantly dip into your budget to look for the next fix. Or you might wait until enough of your vendor’s clients have the same problem or issue and hope they will develop the patch that suits your needs by the time you need it in the way you need it.

Custom programming has its place. Maybe that place isn’t to handle the huge operations of your organization, but it is more suited to bridge technologies and to solve many other regular problems that crop up. Programmers who know how to bridge database and web technologies can prepare data to work together in different systems, work to aggregate complex data sets that normally don’t play well with one another, study unique organizational problems and create fixes until the vendors build them as part of what they are offering, and help you from being taken to the cleaners by vendors. Where our vendors are most often the best way to go for big problems, organizations are vulnerable unless they have people on staff who mostly understand how vendors do what they do.  An organization with a good custom programmer can use that individual to save big money in the long run, as someone who understands cars can keep the service garage from overcharging.

This session will:
– Look at how IT needs arise and how IT development and the fundraising professionals they serve are evaluated on different criteria.
– Set some basic rules for helping discern any IT need from the people IT professionals serve and give some strategies for working with needs that arise out of nowhere.
– Define what custom programming is and where it comes in with needs as they arise.
– Help you assess whether custom programming may be right for your organization and what the benefits and pitfalls are.
– Address the legacy of custom programming and give some rules for your mad scientists.