I've faced a similar situation as an exec in a different field. Some questions consider:
1. Are you trying to replace the system-of-record? I don't think it changes the technical merits of going in-house, but it does raise the stakes. It becomes more important to engage other stakeholders, and to prepare the business processes/workflow for changes. Secondly, there will be a transitional period where you will need to use both systems, so you will need to have a way to reconcile and merge conflicting records from both systems into a single source-of-truth. Again, these are not deal-breakers, but just things to think through.
2. How many integrations do you have with external parties? You mentioned EDIFACT and government institutions. Integrations are often the dominant source of project delays and complexity.
3. Management structure - you can hire someone to run the program, but like it or not, you are the corporate sponsor. It's success or failure will fall on your head. Whether you hire a "CTO" depends on your technical management ability, but I'd stay pretty close and pretty involved.
4. Attracting talent - as always, it's a question of money and time. You need a healthy budget for a healthy amount of time. A good, experienced senior dev consultant will generally have a lot of contacts, and can pull in others if you provide a solid environment, budget, and roadmap. I wouldn't be worried about not being in a "glamorous" industry - the people you want won't care about that. Some kind of equity or performance-based bonus can really motivate people to deliver value to the business.
5. Roadmap - take a vertical of the business that is more stand-alone and start there. You want to show an end-to-end in-house solution that solves a real problem. It will help you diagnose exactly what kind of challenges, culturally, organizationally, technically, (and even legal/compliance) that you have to deal with. It will be a confidence booster to the rest of the organization that this can work and will be successful. Adjust expectations and timelines as needed.
1. Are you trying to replace the system-of-record? I don't think it changes the technical merits of going in-house, but it does raise the stakes. It becomes more important to engage other stakeholders, and to prepare the business processes/workflow for changes. Secondly, there will be a transitional period where you will need to use both systems, so you will need to have a way to reconcile and merge conflicting records from both systems into a single source-of-truth. Again, these are not deal-breakers, but just things to think through.
2. How many integrations do you have with external parties? You mentioned EDIFACT and government institutions. Integrations are often the dominant source of project delays and complexity.
3. Management structure - you can hire someone to run the program, but like it or not, you are the corporate sponsor. It's success or failure will fall on your head. Whether you hire a "CTO" depends on your technical management ability, but I'd stay pretty close and pretty involved.
4. Attracting talent - as always, it's a question of money and time. You need a healthy budget for a healthy amount of time. A good, experienced senior dev consultant will generally have a lot of contacts, and can pull in others if you provide a solid environment, budget, and roadmap. I wouldn't be worried about not being in a "glamorous" industry - the people you want won't care about that. Some kind of equity or performance-based bonus can really motivate people to deliver value to the business.
5. Roadmap - take a vertical of the business that is more stand-alone and start there. You want to show an end-to-end in-house solution that solves a real problem. It will help you diagnose exactly what kind of challenges, culturally, organizationally, technically, (and even legal/compliance) that you have to deal with. It will be a confidence booster to the rest of the organization that this can work and will be successful. Adjust expectations and timelines as needed.
Would be happy to discuss more, just DM me.