A growing company obviously has to face many organizational challenges. Especially when they have remote employees who are unable to regularly make it to physical office space to do their job. This is one of the reasons why many companies opt for intranet software. Demand for intranet software is apparently growing in the software development Dubai industry.

When considering intranet software as an option, the business will also have to decide whether build the software on their own or rely on a reputed software development company. Either way, intranet is a crucial investment. If you are buy-centric, you should be aware of the pros and cons of buying intranet software.

Pros of buying intranet software

Buying intranet software is obviously the easier option considering how challenging in-house intranet software development is. The pros of buying include:

• Fast deployment: Developing the software itself may take months. Deployment only adds to that duration. But if you buy an intranet software, deployment would be very fast. If you are getting the software from a reliable development company, you can expect the deployment to be mostly error-free. If your business demands the intranet to be active and running as quickly as possible, buying the software is the preferred option.
  
• Reduced IT involvement: Building an intranet software requires your IT team to invest a lot of time in it. Because it’s going to take a considerable amount of time to build and deploy the software, your IT team will obviously be unavailable for other tasks. But if you decide to buy the software, your IT team will be free to handle their primary tasks and projects. 
  
• Better user interface: Generally, when your in-house team is building an intranet software, the focus wouldn’t be on user interface but rather on the overall functionality. The software would serve its purpose albeit with a less pleasing user interface. This can happen often. But for an intranet software, an easy-to-navigate UI is important. Buying the software means the vendor would make sure that the UI is pleasing and easy to navigate. 
  
• Customer support: Problems may arise even if you buy or build intranet software. Problems with a home-brewed software require support from your IT team. This can interrupt their workflow, and if the problem is persistent, you will be spending more of your resources trying to resolve it. When buying a software, most reputed vendors offer extensive customer support through multiple channels. They would have a team dedicated to resolving issues should they arise. 
  
• Growing with the business: The intranet software should grow in parallel with the business. When you buy the software, the vendor would most often release updates to augment the software, adding more features and making changes to help it evolve with your business. When you build the software, you and your team will have to devote more time upgrading the intranet to keep up with business growth.
  

Cons of buying intranet software

Buying intranet software doesn’t come without cons. However, there aren’t many worth speaking about. Buying intranet software is preferable for most businesses. But not all intranet software may suit your needs. You need to do a bit of research to find the ideal one.

The cons mentioned below applies only to certain software not all of them. But it’s still good to be aware of them. 

• No one size fits all: Intranet vendors often sell software with a ‘one size fits all’ tagline. The software would be easy to use, and so the tagline may also sound appealing. That’s not the case however, as going for such a software might actually limit the business’ growth, not to mention a possible lack of or limited customization. There is no one size fits all for a business in many cases. The software may not meet the needs of the business, and can’t be tailored to as well. This means, you won’t be able to add more features or improve the software. You can simply stay clear of generic intranet software and try narrowing down more flexible ones that can get the job done.
• Integration issues: The best approach when using an intranet solution is to integrate all business processes in one central location. But not all intranet solutions can achieve this. Those that can may make it more difficult and frustrating. Even if it’s achieved, there could be productivity issues.