It’s Not Easy Being Big

Two years later, with costs deep into seven figures, the whole thing suddenly was abandoned, all programming erased.

Most small and mid-sized catalogers simply install off-the-shelf catalog-management software, and change their operational processes to meet the software’s defaults and requirements.

But as catalogers grow, the siren song of “custom software” becomes more tempting. It’s partly because, as you grow, changing your internal processes to fit a new software package becomes harder — there’s so much more to change. Wouldn’t it be easier just to pay for customizations, or even for an entirely custom-written package, so your software would work exactly your way?