Ready-made software can be a good choice when the business process matches the product and the provider’s limits are acceptable. Custom software may be justified when a critical workflow, ownership need, or integration boundary cannot be handled clearly by existing tools.
Compare both options using the same questions: what must be supported, what can be configured, who owns the data, how access works, what maintenance is required, and what happens when the business changes. A smaller integration or process improvement may be better than either extreme.
Before development or a major change, turn this idea into a clear operating agreement: define the people who use the process, the records that must remain trustworthy, the approval boundaries, and the result the business will review. A small pilot with real examples can reveal missing rules earlier than a large build and make later support, handover, and integration safer.