Companies of all stripes contact Common Sense Advisory to ask whether they should continue to invest in their trusty translation management system (TMS), developed in-house, or switch to a sparkly clean commercial solution from an independent software vendor. In some cases, companies looking to adopt TMS for the first time wonder if they should build or buy. In every software category, applying the so-called “S-curve of technology adoption” provides important clues about how to answer this question at any given point in time. This article applies the classic analysis to the TMS category.
Assessing TMS on the classic S-curve
Software categories generally follow four stages as the solutions move from initial conception through absorption into a broader category of software solutions. This characteristic flow pattern for software and other forms of technology development is called the S-curve (see Figure 1 and Table 1).
Example: FedEx invested heavily in homegrown logistics and fleet management software in the mid-1990s [Stage A]. By the late ’90s, this type of software was available from commercial software developers and widely used by couriers, transport companies, and retailers [Stage B]. In 2000, FedEx signed on with Global Logistics Technologies (G-Log) to leverage the skills, speed, and scale of an independent software vendor [Stage C]. In 2005, G-Log was acquired by Oracle, marking the completion of the S-curve, where a newer software category becomes a “feature” ...
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