Operating in an era of digital transformation, almost every business needs to leverage software solutions and applications to manage data, improve customer experience, update internal processes, optimize costs, enhance productivity, and in turn become more efficient. While there are several expert solutions already available in the market, some fashion companies still choose to get custom-made software tailored to their specific needs.
“Buy vs build software” puts many business owners in a dilemma. In this blog, we will share our experience of more than 22 years in this industry and help you find an appropriate solution for the “build vs buy” software issue.
Legacy systems have been products of an era where enterprises custom-built their applications, specifically tailored to their needs. Internal IT teams were and remain perfectly capable of building tailored software. However, the exercise is an expensive one including disproportionate allocation of resources to create, implement and maintain the custom-made software. Besides this, IT teams struggle to continuously upgrade their architecture, integrate new technologies (apps), and capture data from diverse and disparate sources in the long run.
On the other hand, in most situations, working with an experienced vendor who has already solved the same problem hundreds of times, will allow companies to get the right technology into the hands of users more quickly and ensure that the solution will have more comprehensive support throughout its life cycle. The gap analysis is done by the experts leaving very little room for errors and duplication of work. Let’s evaluate the features and compare the Build V/s Buy issue:
|
Features |
Build It |
Buy It |
|
Specific Business Problem |
Easy to capture but difficult to respond |
Easy to respond once it’s captured |
|
Customizations |
Possible |
Possible |
|
Implementation Process |
Challenging |
Less challenging |
|
Updates |
Complicated & Expensive |
Already included |
|
Gap Analysis |
Done by IT team |
Done by software experts & IT team |
|
Implementation Time |
Lengthy process |
Quick process flow |
|
IT Resource |
Specialized team to hire |
Can be handled by a single employee |
|
Area of expertise |
Less |
More |
|
Maintenance |
High |
Less |
|
Cloud Hosting Charges |
Not included |
Included |
|
User Friendliness |
Less |
More |
|
Support |
May/ may not be there |
Included |
|
Configurable templates and report formats |
Need to design |
Ready-made templates |
|
Security |
Protected |
NDAs available for data security |
|
Two-Way Integration in terms of data duplication |
May/ may not be there |
Already there |
|
Cost-Effectiveness |
Cheaper in the short run but eventually expensive as the software gets outdated |
Expensive in the short run but cost-effective in the long run
|
|
An advanced and comprehensive solution
|
Not necessarily |
Yes |
|
3rd Party Integration |
Less convenient |
Easy to execute |
Looking for more concrete evidence to purchase a commercial solution that best fits your organization’s needs? Here, at BlueKaktus, we can help you evaluate the pros and cons of Buy V/s Build solutions by estimating both the costs and the benefits. Fashion organizations should evaluate the initial internal development and maintenance cost before looking for options in the market. After evaluating these, one must consider that the burden of product development, quality assurance, maintenance, platform migration, and patch fixes are owned by the solution provider, while in-house development will usually require years of continued development beyond the initial project scope. BlueKaktus can help you gain efficiencies because of its large customer base and area of expertise by charging less for implementing and maintaining an established product than it would cost to support a one-off, home-grown application.
