You will find this article of considerable reading value, if you belong to at least ONE of the following spreadsheet user categories: Owners of Small Businesses _ Restaurants/Bars, Hotels, Hospitals, Factories, Consultants etc; Decision Makers/Job Holders in Corporations _ Materials Managers, Sales/Marketing Analysts, Financial Analysts/Accountants, Project Engineers; And Anyone desiring to make BETTER sense _ and use _ of data!
In effect what I am saying is that companies which get the most value from spreadsheet automation(including using it to avoid expenditure on less adaptable commercial off the shelf applications) will be those which empower their users to routinely generate "in house" solutions. In such companies, you will find that only when the requirement becomes considerably specialised or complex, does the IT department get called upon to develop or purchase software solutions for user departments or functions with significant data recording and analysis needs.
It's not enough to have a professional with the technical skills to solve your problem. s/he also needs to have the right attitude and background/experience _ else the relationship will not work. This is where an Excel VB resource is more likely to add value to you. Most Excel VB Developers have backgrounds in management, accounting, engineering and other fields, which further equips them to be useful to you in "thinking up" better ways to apply your spreadsheet automation to get the most value for your business. You therefore need to choose the right developer, with the appropriate background to match your needs.
This last point in my opinion is ONE major benefit you must seek to extract, if you choose to engage the services of a developer. S/he should be able to help you develop (in_house) expertise needed to maintain the application AFTER s/he is gone. If you fail to ensure this, all your cost_savings from using the application might end up being spent paying the developer to maintain the application over time in the future!