Customization often appears to lock in existing systems, but the question for CIOs is whether the custom code supports a unique capability that provides a competitive advantage or whether it is merely nice to have.
If the numbers seem small, particularly for professionals, it is because few foreigners have achieved the level of skills and expertise, and language capability, to make them competitive in the labor market.
They had dramatically lower costs and promoted the use of development standards such as the Capability Maturity Model, genericizing service sales, further transforming the competitive landscape.
This effort will take time, but the impact of developing a superior capacity to take advantage of Big Data will confer enhanced competitive advantage over the long term and is therefore well worth the investment to create this capability.