Custom Programming
Custom programing is necessary when you’ve got a need that is being unfulfilled by your current system. Often it is much easier to have your changes programmed sooner than waiting for your software provider to create that customization for you as part of its base offering. If this is the case, you could be waiting a long time for that to happen. The fault doesn’t necessarily reside with the software vendor, but from the fact that companies like yours have limited resources.
Having a customization done for you can offer many benefits because it might give you that strategic advantage that you have been waiting for that can help propel your business forward. If this is the case, then asking a company like Technology Copilot to customize your system might be the right answer for you. Technology Copilot has been performing code customizations since its inception.
Monsoon Stone Edge provides a robust environment to make customizations since for the most part, their code is fully modifiable. It gives a programmer the ability to change almost any part of the application to meet your requirements. While this gives programmers lots of freedom, there are downsides to this that need to be considered before changes are made.
One of the big ones is:
- Can the change being requested be done in a way so that Monsoon Stone Edge base code need not be modified?
If the answer is yes, then the path to make the changes should be very clear and as long as care is taken when these changes are made, re-enabling these changes after you upgrade or perform a new installation of the system should be straight forward.
If the answer is no, then care must be taken so that the changes to the base code is minimized. This is due to the simple fact that when base code is changed, the developer making the change is changing the very exact code that Stone Edge is updating for their next release. This would then reason that on the next upgrade you do, your changes will be wiped out.
While there are ways to deal with this, none of them are perfect. The two choices are either re-integrate the changes into your new version, or simply re-import your changes from the custom reports database if you’ve saved them there.
We strongly recommend the following:
- Weigh the return on investment when needing to make a base code change. If the benefit outweighs the future cost of re-integrating the changes back in, then I would strongly consider making the change.
- Unless you plan to stay on the same version for a very long time, I would stay away from monster sized customizations where a lot of base code is changed. You may put yourself in a place where you can no longer upgrade the system.
Technology Copilot keeps this in mind with any change they make. We will seek all available options prior to settling in on a base code change.
Some of the other options that are available include:
- Requested change is a report – no base code changes should ever be needed.
- Requested change can be accommodated using one of Monsoon Stone Edge’s available custom functions. These functions can help modify existing Stone Edge behavior without needing to change the base code.
- Requested change can be accommodated by developing a program which runs outside of Stone Edge to accomplish what is being requested.
- If a new cart connection is being requested, simply use Stone Edge’s existing generic cart interface and create a custom import module or method.
Benefits:
- Move your business forward without the need to wait for a feature or functionality to be added by Monsoon Stone Edge.
- Get a competitive edge by the use of enabling technology/functionality that doesn’t currently exist.
- Get greater efficiencies sooner rather than later.
Areas to consider before jumping:
- If the code changes are to the base,
- Are the benefits you get worth the future costs to re-integrate ?
- Is who you are working with know the application well enough to make the changes without breaking other parts of the system?
- Is the company or person making the changes going to be around to help support them.
How Technology Copilot can help you:
- Help come up with the right solution for you.
- Will give you an estimate and schedule.
- Will test and deploy the custom changes for you.
- Will support those changes.
Platforms We Work With
