How do we decide whether to build or buy?
Consider what the software does before comparing costs. If it supports a process that is the same across your industry, buying an existing product is usually best. If it supports a process that differentiates your business, building it protects that advantage.
A full comparison includes two costs beyond the licence fee and the build estimate: the manual work needed to fill gaps in a bought product, and the ongoing maintenance, hosting and updates required for custom software.
A third option is often the most effective: buy commodity products, build the components that differentiate your business, and integrate them. This is usually much smaller than a full platform build.
Timing also matters. Bought products deliver value quickly but are harder to adapt, while custom software takes longer but can change with your process.
A strong sign that custom software is justified is a spreadsheet that data is exported into, manually transformed and imported elsewhere. It shows that the process is established and worth automating.
Related service
Custom SaaS DevelopmentMulti-tenant platforms with billing, administration and access control built in.
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