Localization vis-a-vis Customization: Which way to go?
There is often a dilemma in the customer’s mind,whether to go for Localization or do a Customization. Here are some of the pros and cons of these two options:
Localization comes pre-built with the product and does not need to be developed. While it can be assumed to have already been tested, effort needs to be estimated for the further rounds of testing.
This is beacuse,Localizations are add-on features which might not have been time-tested to the extent the base application features are.Also,Regional requirements change, all the implications of which might not have been addressed in the Localization in a timely manner. There can always be a lead time between a new requirement and its solution through Localization.
As Localization definitely saves on development and testing effort vis-a–vis a customization, there is an inherent inflexibility in Localization so as to meet a specific requirement of the customer. Customizations, however, are designed to meet specific customer requirements.
In case regional requirements change, product vendors take care of the changes in the Localization, while if these requirements are addressed through a custom solution, the onus is on the SI partner/ customer to modify and maintain them.
Also Localization cost, as part of License, update and AMC of the software is much less compared to the custom solution development, testing and maintenance.
Since, Localization is offered as a part of the vanilla product, implementation timeline can be shorter vis-a-vis the customization route.
Hence the recommendations here would be:
- Streamline the business processes to save the development, testing and maintenance effort and hence the time and costs.
- Pursue the product vendors to address the gaps in Localization to suit specific needs and follow up for a one-off quick fix.
Comments
This article lucidly points out pros and cons of prevalent issue.
Posted by: Nagammai SN | October 7, 2008 6:59 AM
This is a decision based on how critical some of the localization requirements are and how much effort you may spend to build those in-house.
If they are just a few requirements here and there and minimal effort is spent, build and maintain them internally developing customizations is always the best option. While country specific localizations offer a lot of country specific functionality the same needs to be applied very carefully. Especially in a multi org environment localization uses a lot of internal fields which if not configured properly by the divisions already live on the system would cause more pain and agony.
Posted by: Somnath Majumdar | November 1, 2008 10:06 AM