When your software vendor says no: your options

You ask the maker of your business software for something your company needs. The answer: that is not possible, that will be expensive, or it is on the roadmap. You are not the only one to hear it, and waiting is only one of your options.

Why the answer is so often no, and what it costs you

Standard software is made for many companies at once. Two researchers who studied one company's enterprise system over several years put it plainly: packaged applications "are designed to support generic rather than specific requirements, and hence are likely to be an imperfect fit in any particular instance".

For the vendor, every change has to suit all its customers. A large user study of business software in the German-speaking market, Swiss companies included, finds that small companies name the lack of adaptability as a problem notably often. The study explains it by the vendors' need to standardise their product and processes to stay economical. So your request competes with everyone else's, and a need that only a few customers share rarely wins. The same study describes the other side of the trade-off: when one vendor focused its product more closely on one industry, many of its users saw it as a loss of flexibility and of customer focus.

What it costs you is mostly time. The missing part moves into spreadsheets, paper and typing things twice. In Germany, a fifth of companies with 20 or more employees still work with strongly paper-based processes (Bitkom, 2024). Interfaces between systems are among the problems users name in the study above. And reviewers on a German software review site describe it in their own words: company-specific processes are often "left by the wayside", and the workaround is to export to Excel and paste the data back in, "which takes a lot of time" (both translated).

Option 1: change the way you work, not the software

Sometimes the process is the problem, not the software. Most Swiss SMEs are content with what they have: in a study by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) of 925 Swiss micro-businesses and SMEs, published in 2016, more than 90% were satisfied or very satisfied with their business software. In an older Swiss survey from 2008, only a good third saw the cause of their less than ideal processes in the software.

For work that is the same in every company, the software author Martin Fowler gives a simple rule: "for a utility function you buy the package and adjust your business process to match the software". Bookkeeping, payroll and VAT are such work: they follow the same Swiss rules for everyone. The federal SME portal notes that accounting software must be adapted to Swiss conditions, and payroll software certified by Swissdec sends wage data to social insurers and authorities in a few clicks (Suva).

There is also a warning against carrying old habits into software. At a Gartner conference in 2025, an analyst named customisation that holds on too closely to existing processes as one common reason large business software projects fall short of their goals. Before you ask for a change, check whether the old way is worth keeping.

What it means for you: no development cost, but your team learns a new way of working, and it only helps if the new way is really as good.

Option 2: pay to have the standard changed

Many standard systems can be adapted, by the vendor or by a partner who sets them up. It is common: in a consultancy's survey of mostly mid-sized and large organisations, only 7 to 12% of business software (ERP) implementations between 2013 and 2016 ran without any customisation, and 74% of the respondents went over their original budget (Panorama Consulting, 2017). Users know the price of it: "System changes are very expensive and can often only be made through outside support," one reviewer wrote (translated).

The bigger cost often comes later, with every update. "If an organization has a heavily customized ERP system, an upgrade may essentially be a reimplementation," a later report of the same consultancy says (2021). On a technology forum, one commenter described a heavily customised system where "applying patches is nearly impossible and requires months of pain and expensive contractors". Another put the rule simply: "If you stay as vanilla as possible, upgrades are a lot easier."

The German-speaking study finds the same pattern. The effort of moving to a new release is a big problem far more often for larger companies than for smaller ones, whose systems often run close to the standard. The vendor's services can make up for weaknesses of the software only to a very limited extent. The documentation of customisations is one of the points users rate weakest, and hotline and support were rated worse again in 2024.

What it means for you: it can work for a small change. Get the price and the date in writing, ask whether the change will survive the next update, and agree who documents it.

Option 3: wait for the vendor

Many vendors collect requests in public idea forums, where customers vote. Two of them show how long a wait can last. In one accounting tool's forum, a request to show account numbers and zero balances on financial statements was posted in June 2014 and marked as done in March 2025, almost eleven years later. In another vendor's forum, a request to change a customer's email address, opened in November 2017, was still listed as "Future Consideration" in October 2026. In April 2022 its product team had written: "Although we understand the value of this feature, we do not have a short term timeline for its delivery."

Waiting does not mean doing nothing. Ask, vote and push: describe the need and what the gap costs you, ask for a date, and find other customers who need the same. But plan as if the answer may take years, and decide how long you can live with the workaround.

What it means for you: no cost now, but the workaround stays. Waiting makes sense when many customers share the need and the workaround is cheap.

Option 4: switch to another tool

Another tool may already do what yours cannot. The German-speaking study finds that industry solutions, made for one trade, usually cover their target group's needs better from the start, and that their introduction often goes better, in effort and in results.

Check before you sign. Try the new tool with your own case, the one your current tool cannot handle. And find out what you can take with you: which data you can export, and in which format. Leaving is often harder than arriving. One reviewer found getting into the software "very easy and quick", while getting out "can take a long time" (translated).

The law is moving in the customer's favour. The EU Data Act has applied since 12 September 2025. Under its switching rules, a customer can start a switch with at most two months' notice, the switch must normally be completed within 30 days after that, and from 12 January 2027 all switching charges are banned. Software rented online (SaaS) is covered; services built mostly for one customer are exempt from part of the rules, such as the ban on switching charges. Switzerland is not in the EU, so for a Swiss SME the effect is indirect: the rules bind providers that serve customers in the EU.

What it means for you: a new tool is still standard software, and its maker decides for all its customers too. Check the next need you can see coming, not only today's. Custom software or an off-the-shelf tool? sets the two side by side.

Option 5: have the missing part built

You do not have to replace everything. Keep standard software for what every company does the same way, and have the missing part built: the process that makes your company different, or the connection between systems that today runs through spreadsheets. Fowler's rule has a second half: building pays off where "how you do this function is a crucial part of what makes you better than the competition".

• Start small. "Smaller projects have a much higher likelihood of success than larger ones", in InfoQ's summary of the Standish Group's CHAOS report of 2015. Start with the part that hurts most, not with replacing everything.
• Keep what works. Your bookkeeping and payroll can stay as they are. The new software connects to them where they allow it.
• Agree in the offer what you own. The Data Act does not give software built for one customer all of its switching protection, so for software built for you, your agreement is what protects you. With us, ownership and what you receive at the end are agreed in the offer for each project, so you know both before anything is built. More in who owns the code.
• Plan the upkeep. Software is not finished at launch. Robert L. Glass wrote that maintenance "typically consumes 40 to 80 percent (average, 60 percent) of software costs". Plan and budget for it from the start; see software maintenance after launch.

What it means for you: you decide what comes next. Any change beyond the agreed scope is written down and priced before it is built. The dependence moves from the vendor to whoever builds your software, which is why what you receive belongs in the agreement.

How to choose

Three questions sort out most cases.

1. Is this work the same in every company? Bookkeeping, payroll and VAT are. Then adapt your process to the software (option 1), or look for a tool made for your trade (option 4).
2. Is the vendor's answer a firm no? If there is a date you can live with, wait and push (option 3). If the change is small and the vendor or its partner will carry it through updates, pay for it (option 2).
3. What does the workaround cost you each week? If it costs hours of typing and checking every week, and the need is what makes your company different, have the missing part built (option 5), starting with the part that hurts most.

Not sure which one fits? Tell us what your software cannot do. Send us a message and we will get back to you. If a good tool does the job, we will tell you.