Tapping in-house resources

What do you think is/are the reason why the university decided to tapped in-house resources, was it a good decision?

When I read this question, I also wonder and ask myself the reason behind this decision and if it was really a good decision to tapped in-house resources. Then I realized some of the probable reasons why the university decided to tap in-house resources. The probable reasons I think are: first reason, what one of our instructors told us, about how much money the university paid every month for the enrollment system before; second reason, they realize that our university has skilled developers who can develop an enrollment system for it; third reason that I could think of is that the difficulty in maintaining the enrollment system before; and the fourth reason is that maybe even before they really want to change the system and have our own.

The first probable reason that I could think of is about how much money the university spend every month to have an enrollment system before. This reason really talks about money. The amount of money the university spent every month is not a joke. When I knew about this, I asked to myself if the system was really worth that much and how can the university afford that amount of money considering that we are a government university. We already know that the financial status of our country is not that good. Spending this kind of amount is some kind of disappointment for me, for the reason that I think they can find someone who can develop the system (that the university can spend a lesser amount of money) and there are much bigger problems in the university that they should pay attention to. Therefore, tapping in-house resources is a way that the university can think of if they want to spend a lesser amount of money and save it for the other projects.

Second reason, the university realizes that we have skilled developers who can develop a new enrollment system. As what I have mentioned earlier, I think there is/are someone who can develop the enrollment system for our university. This is now the time I will talk about the reason behind why I think that this is one of the reasons the university chose to tap in-house resources. Knowing that there are skilled developers here in the university – Engr. Cagape and Ma’am Tammy, why not use their skills? Through this, the university can save a lot and using their skills means taking advantage of the resources that the university can give. Engr. Cagape is supposedly our instructor in the subject Software Engineering I and Ma’am Tammy is supposedly our System Analysis and Design I instructor. In exchange of making the enrollment system, Engr. Cagape and Ma’am Tammy have to give up their handled subjects so that they can focus on developing the system. From what I’ve heard, Engr. Cagape has developed a system for a certain company and until now that system still exists. Also, Ma’am Tammy has developed a certain system for the university before (I can’t remember what the system is all about). And also from what I’ve heard they have a good background in their own professions.

The third reason is about the maintenance of the system before. Maintaining the system is hard especially when the developer of the system is out of reach. In this kind of situation, having in-house resources is an advantage. For the reason that whenever there are problems in the system, it can be easily fixed because the developers who know the system are inside the university. Unlike before, whenever there are problems in the system, waiting for the developer is an option. Even though there are IT specialists, no one in the university really knows the system and has the right in configuring it.

The university wanted to change the system and have our own, is the last reason I could think of. Tapping in-house resources is a good option in having our own system and changing the system before.

Developing a system is not easy. That is what I have learned from our previous subject – System Analysis and Design I (SAD I). A long time of planning is needed to ensure that the system will be a success. Maybe this is one of the reasons why the university changes the enrollment system only this time.

Those were the reasons why the university decided to tap in-house resources. As what I have mentioned, tapping in-house resources is a good option which also can give advantages or benefits to the university. But then, in every decision we cannot avoid that there are also some disadvantages. Even though these disadvantages exist, we must not stop in finding solutions to the problems that may occur ahead of us.