Square Pegs and Round Holes

A few years ago I attended a conference for SMEs seeking eBusiness advice for their operations. The speaker (a self-professed expert on eBusiness) suggested that building a custom application in this day and age makes no sense when off-the-shelf (OTS) applications are available for nearly any conceivable function at a fraction of the cost of custom development.

My disappointment at her remarks stems from a long career that has proven time and again that the debate on "buy versus build" is rarely that simple. Here are a few reasons why:

Overall Cost: The price dimension alone offers plenty of complexity. OTS products may have hidden long-term costs such as license, maintenance and service level contracts, upgrades, platform changes, training, or implementation and installation costs that set their overall cost of ownership above the custom-built price tag.

Functionality: As far as features are concerned, any OTS application will have limitations in functionality out of the box. So, if you need a multifunction solution you may have to buy more than one application to cover all your requirements, while a single custom solution can be inclusive.

Process Fitness: Suitability may also be an issue in this debate as many in the OTS camp will try to sell you a solution that is "close" to your need - suggesting you rebuild your business processes to fit the software gaps. While I am a big fan of business process re-engineering, sometimes your unique business processes represent your competitive advantage.  Forcing you to fit your business to a solution instead of the reverse is like forcing square pegs into round holes.

A recent project for one of our major clients identified a viable third option - integration. Integration is a combination of third party products with custom development. In the case of this particular build it involved developing a custom web-based access to connect to a commercial desktop solution. Our research indicated that while the initial price was about the same for upgrading to a different product with the enhanced functionality the client was seeking, the long-term return on investment was substantially better for an integrated solution.  The approach offers future economy and scalability - important values for the client that take long-term cost and other benefits into consideration.

No one can tell you whether you should buy or build without a thorough needs analysis. Avoid "ex-spurts"* who present the buy-versus-build argument as a foregone conclusion. Be sure to complete a full ROI calculation on any solution you implement - whether you buy, build, or integrate.

*"Ex-spurts" is a term I use to describe the false prophets of the consulting profession and comes from a humorous quip about experts that states that an "ex" is a has-been and a "spurt" is a drip under pressure.