The Build vs Buy Dilemma

When I am trying to solve a problem, I typically run into a common scenario. Do I build something or do I buy something to solve my issue? Determining the right path can be time-consuming and have a significant impact on the future of your business. The answer to which is the best solution for you? It depends. Let's walk through some things to consider.

Maintaining Your System

Building your own platform comes with numerous benefits, but maintaining that platform needs to be taken into account. Typically it will require someone who is more experienced to ensure that your infrastructure is continually running. While experienced individuals may not see this as a concern, it often becomes a bottleneck for smaller teams without dedicated support. The pros will not outweigh the cons for inexperienced people, so it is pertinent to understand your capabilities before making a decision.

Most SaaS solutions will not require you to maintain much, if any infrastructure, allowing you to focus on working with your data instead of maintaining a new tool. Outside of maintaining infrastructure, SaaS solutions will also release new features that will enable you to have a better experience and get more value out of the tool without having to manually implement updates or handle deployment processes.

Implementing Your Solution

Implementation is just as important as maintenance, but can come with different challenges. Implementing a new solution you just purchased may require you to learn a new technology, which can increase the time to solve your problem. You may also need to train employees, migrate data, and handle configuration tasks that aren’t always straightforward. Building your own solution may decrease the learning curve of implementing a new technology because you will become knowledgeable about a system you own and build.

The time to implement can vary based on who is doing the work. If you are hiring outside experts, it ensures your team is able to focus on the main problem and less on the technology. Taking someone from your team and having them focus on implementing a new solution will delay their other work and could potentially slow momentum across unrelated projects. Consider the resources required and the time it will take them to implement.

Feature Parity

When building your own solution, you are able to have almost any feature. While having the ability to design any feature you think of is exciting, these may not be needed. Buying a solution may get you to that "good enough" state, and you may end up realizing that many of the features you want are not needed.

Prior to reviewing feature parity, it is important to understand what features you actually need. I have seen too many businesses buy software that doesn't actually fulfill their need. I've also seen businesses build tools that don't actually solve the problem. Both are bad and are easily avoidable.

Employee Experience

Employee experience is important when making the decision to build a new solution or buy an existing product. Previously, I have seen poor employee experience result in high turnover and slow rollouts of new solutions. To avoid this, consider the following:

• capabilities of the team - is the team skilled enough to implement the new solution?

• growth opportunities - is this something that current or future employees will see as an opportunity to grow in their careers?

• developer satisfaction - does the team enjoy the work they are doing?

Also consider operational burden. Will employees spend more time fixing bugs or focusing on innovation? While these may not be typical areas that people consider when making a choice, they are important considerations. Poor employee experience can lead to unintended outcomes.

Total Cost of Ownership

A common belief that teams have is that building everything using open-source software will help control costs. While open source software is appealing and has its benefits, the total cost of implementing and maintaining it needs to be considered. Previously, I worked with a large enterprise that spent more money maintaining in-house tools than it would have cost to buy a solution. I have also worked with a company that paid $20,000 per month for a solution to copy files into Snowflake (this is a basic capability of Snowflake that doesn't need a SaaS tool).

When considering the cost, be sure to take into account the cost of implementation, maintenance, and long-term ownership of the tool. These are often overlooked because people tend to focus solely on the upfront cost of a SaaS tool compared to the "free" open-source option. Factor in people-hours, technical debt, and the opportunity cost of having your team support tooling rather than solve core business problems.

Not sure whether to build or buy? Shoot me an e-mail, I’m happy to help you evaluate your options and find the best path forward.

Share this with someone who is working on an analytics project! As a token of my appreciation, you will receive a free questionnaire to help you refine your next project!

CONTACT US

We are here to make the data world more accessible for everyone, one bite at a time. Please reach out if you have questions or want to collaborate on any data projects.

/