Re: Trusting the builders who trust their suppliers
A general purpose package available on the web does have its advantages but home grown packages have theirs also. The general purpose package has 2 major advantages; it's already coded and it's ready to use and the develop cost to use it is very low. But it's disadvantage is you lose control of that bit of code. Updates could break your code is major problem. Home grown packages have the major advantage the organization has complete control of the package and can update as their needs change. It's primary disadvantages are cost and time to develop the code.
When should one use 'off the shelf' code vs home grown code is not always obvious. There is a grey area in the middle were careful analysis of business needs and capabilities must be done, Often this analysis is not done particularly if there is a rush to ship code. Another issue is when 'off the shelf' code should be replaced by home grown code. Complicating the issue are the zealots on both sides who fail to see the problems with their preferred solution.
I doubt anyone is going to write something like Word or Excel for general office use. They would use some readily available package whether it's Orifice, LibreOffice, or something else. But the inventory and billing system may need to be a custom package to meet their needs.