Buy vs build. Which should you choose

Organizations often find themselves in the situation to choose between building versus buying software. This digital-driven era made companies constantly pendulate between this choice, to find the best approach, which would make them deliver what their stakeholders need.

While developing a purpose-built solution in-house seems like the best way to take on a specific business challenge, that means the company needs to have a disproportionate allocation of its resources – budget and employees – to create, implement and maintain.

In many situations choosing a reputable external company to deploy an already proven solution may help companies to have a faster product or service on the market. It also covers the need for support throughout its life cycle.

 

To build, or not to build

According to Gartner IT spending worldwide will grow to 4%, reaching 3.8 trillion $ in 2021, following a 7.3% decrease in 2020 and it seems that companies will still favor buying a ready-to-use software solution than to build it. Buying a solution is great for companies that experience challenges that keep them from delivering a fast service or product on the market.

If you found yourself in a constant debate on which approach is best for your company we present you four key factors that should guide you to your answer and thus making a decision for long term growth:

• Cost
• Control
• Connectivity
• Maintenance

 

#1 Cost

Any business will choose the most cost-effective and efficient solution for their problems. The power of IT projects developed by the company’s employees stands in deciding how much it’s spent on development. The thing is internal IT projects have a talent for taking longer than it was foreseen, thus costing more than estimated.

Even though at the beginning of the project your budget seems stable, an in-house IT team most of the time does not possess the necessary skills or know-how, nor the tools, to face unseen developing problems that will surely arise. This is shown in Gallup’s study which reveals that one in six internal IT projects have an overrun of 200% in costs and 70% in the time.

It’s true, buying software or building with an outsourced team may have higher costs initially, but it’s an expense you know upfront. This will help you keep costs under control and outweighs the unpredictability that comes with developing software in-house.

 

#2 Control

One of the most appealing things about building in-house is that it can be created after its specific needs. But that also means the company will always be dependent on the developers that made it.

It happens more than it should that companies be left with unusable code because the developers who made the solution are no longer within that company. This raises the maintenance cost of hiring new developers to rebuild the codebase from scratch.

Buying software or building the solution you want with an outsourced team gives you total control over the functionalities. At the same time, the company can focus on being more agile without worrying about technicalities.

 

#3 Connectivity

Every company has its own ecosystem of apps that must be compatible with others outside the company. Building your own IT solution can help to ensure these connections will be made. There is only one catch – your team should also be capable of putting together multiple, smaller solutions.

Chances are there is already a more advanced and comprehensive solution on the market. Some commercial software solutions can also act as an extension of your existing ecosystem, rather than a complete rewrite of the architecture which your IT team has built.

 

#4 Maintenance

Building software guarantees that you do not have to rely on an external team to create new features or upgrades. Yet, many internal teams do not have the same availability or skills as an external team when dealing with complex architectures.

From multi-tenancy to data regulation, an experienced team armed with best practices and the latest industry trends and analysis will generally be well-positioned to handle any project applications.

 

How can Roweb help

Roweb is a trusted partner ranked in Top 1000 Service Providers for 2020 and Top Development Partner by Clutch. We couldnt have been part of this exclusive lists without having answers for the question „Buy vs build. Which one?”

If you are looking to buy…

If you are looking to build, we are more than 130 developers and we can offer you a complete team of experienced developers or a dedicated pool of developers with more than ten years of experience in Roweb only, with the appropriate technical capabilities for your particular needs.

You can save time on the whole hiring process and office expenses, and more. You will benefit from the experience of more than 18 years of being on the market, with teams that developed from the company’s beginning and are specialized in industries like: recruiting & HR, real estate, retail & e-commerce, tourism & hospitality, charity, and non-profits, associations, insurance, financial services, IT equipment trading/reclaiming, transport and logistics, e-health, to name a few.

Its easy to start a new project with us. Contact us here and sends us all the details regarding your business needs. We will contact you as soon as possible with a brief and a cost (if the information you send us are complete).

 

Before sending us your details some things you might want to know about us:

Get in touch with us