It always starts with good intentions. A company wants to modernize its supply chain and decides to build a fully customized solution. The thinking is clear: “We’re different. Off-the-shelf won’t work for us.” So, they engage a vendor that specializes in custom solutions, define a scope of work, and begin the long process of building everything from the ground up.
The goal? A system tailored to their exact needs.
But somewhere along the way, the project starts to drag. Scope expands. Change requests stack up. The business keeps evolving. But the technology can’t keep pace.
And by the time the platform is ready, the world has already moved on.
The problem with building from scratch
Custom-built platforms might offer total control on paper but in practice, they’re often slow, expensive, and fragile.
Every change needs to be scoped, submitted, and coded. Integrations are brittle. Upgrades become high-risk efforts. And anything that wasn’t perfectly defined upfront becomes a costly add-on later.
Business users often find themselves stuck. Scenario planning only works in the exact flow it was scripted for. Want to explore a new option? That’ll take weeks, a change request, and additional cost.
Instead of flexibility, the organization ends up with dependency. The system works well… until something changes.
And something always changes.
A shift in mindset: configure, don’t customize
More and more companies are stepping back and asking a different question: What if we didn’t build from scratch at all?
Instead of customizing everything through code, organizations are turning to platforms that offer strong out-of-the-box capabilities with deep configuration options built in.
This approach, often called tailored configuration, gives teams the best of both worlds. A fast, proven foundation to start from, with the ability to adapt and evolve it as needed, without relying on developers.
Need to model a new product? Adjust a workflow? Change the planning logic? All of it can be done through configuration, directly by the business, in real time.
That’s a fundamentally different way to run a supply chain. And a faster, more sustainable one.
What leaders are doing differently
In high-volatility environments, adaptability is everything. And companies that can’t evolve quickly are falling behind.
That’s why the shift from fully customized builds to configurable platforms is accelerating. It’s not about giving up control. It’s about designing for continuous change.
The organizations thriving today aren’t the ones who tried to build the most complex system. They’re the ones who focused on speed, flexibility, and resilience from day one.
Because when disruption hits, and it will, it’s not the company with the most code that wins.
It’s the one that can adapt the fastest.