To build || !to build
that === question;When it comes to technology projects, from the very start companies face a key decision: should we buy an off-the-shelf software solution or build a custom one from scratch?
Of course, there are pros and cons to each approach, and the right choice depends on balancing two important factors: standardisation and differentiation.
Driving efficiencies through standardisation
Buying a ready-made software tool off the shelf, or subscribing to a SaaS tool has several advantages that enable standardisation:
- Proven technology: Off-the-shelf software has been tested and used successfully by other organisations. As a business, you benefit from the vendor’s R&D efforts. Salesforce for example, has a huge product team providing constant improvement to the solutions, driven by feedback loops and market research.
- Faster time to value: SaaS or Packaged software can be implemented more quickly since it doesn’t require development from scratch. This allows for a much faster time-to-value. Think about the speed in which a new user can log into Gmail, vs the time it would take to create and configure your own mail server and client.
- Easier integration: Commercial software often includes pre-defined APIs and tools to facilitate simple integration with other systems. This enables a more standardised technology stack, taking advantage of the combined benefits of connecting various systems.
- Lower upfront costs: Buying software can often avoid the time and expense of custom development. You pay for a ready-made solution and the costs are very clear from the beginning.
Creating differentiation by building software
If you choose to build custom software solutions in-house, there are a different set of benefits to consider, in particular the ability for a business to differentiate itself from its competitors:
- Tailored exactly to your needs: Custom software can be designed to match a company’s unique requirements and processes, right down the code level. As a business, you can bake your secret sauce into the software, bringing your unique features to provide a competitive advantage.
- Control and flexibility: When building software, you have full control to modify and enhance it over time as your needs change and evolve. In this respect, you’re not dependent on a vendor to provide those changes, but can deliver them yourself.
- Unique user experience: Custom software can be crafted to provide an optimal user experience for your customers and employees. Because you own the UX/UI, it can be tweaked perfectly to reflect the valuable brand you’ve built for yourselves..
- Intellectual property: With custom software, you own the IP rights. It becomes a business asset. Because of this, you can even white label or sell the technology within your industry or to your partners.
Finding the Right Balance
As you can see, there are distinct benefits to both the ‘buy’ and ‘build’ approaches, leading almost all organisations to use a mix of both standardised off the shelf solutions and differentiated custom built software. The key is finding the right balance for your specific situation:
- Standardise on the common functions: It makes sense to buy software for any standard processes like finance, HR, and procurement, any areas where differentiation won’t provide very much additional value. We don’t need to build Gmail again.
- Differentiate in the strategic areas: Build custom software in areas that are core to your business strategy and provide competitive advantages. Any complex processes unique to your business, any areas where your brand needs to be pixel perfect for your customers. Perhaps you’re in a new and fast growing industry where there are a number of paths you might take and your approach doesn’t have a standard option yet.
- Consider a hybrid approach: When you can combine off-the-shelf software components with custom development, you start to get the best of both worlds. In this situation, you can start with a base product to get going quickly and then tailor it to your needs with customisation as they change.
The World of Software Development
To build custom software, of course we need devs. Thankfully the global software developer population is expected to reach 28 million humans by 2024 so there are plenty available! This represents a significant increase from 23.9 million in 2019, showing just how important the skill has become and highlights the clear growth in the industry. Most businesses today either have their own software development teams already, or they have agencies and partners provide the skills.
Over the last 20 years, the approach to development has changed a lot. When I first started my career in I.T. most applications were built in a monolithic fashion, with teams of developers spending a long time building the core functionality and testing as much as possible, before throwing it over the fence for the I.T. Operations team to look after. This was really inefficient because the operations teams weren’t developers, so whenever they found bugs or problems with the software, they would feed this back to the devs for them to fix in the next release, which could be in 6-12 months time.
Thankfully about 15+ years ago the concept of DevOps came in, bringing these teams together and enabling much more collaboration, automation and the concept of continuous improvement. The responsibility for operations is still large, needing to look after all of the cloud infrastructure and configuration of the platform, but they are much more connected to the development process.
The most common languages developers use today are JavaScript and Python. This is likely due to their versatility and wide application potential, they both have large developer communities, with extensive libraries and frameworks to leverage, reducing the need to reinvent the wheel every time.
Salesforce & Heroku
Salesforce aims to make every customer experience more personal, valuable, and memorable. With Salesforce Clouds and the Heroku Platform, we’re equipped to support customers whether they’re looking to build custom solutions, buy off-the-shelf tools, or a mix of both.
Out-of-the-box solutions like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud provide immediate functionality. When needed, Heroku steps in to customise and extend these solutions, giving businesses the flexibility to balance ready-made tools with tailored innovation.
With platforms like Heroku, businesses can bypass the complexities of infrastructure setup, allowing developers to focus on what truly matters, creating valuable, unique applications.
By automating much of the DevOps heavy lifting, Heroku not only accelerates the development cycle but also makes it more cost-effective. Your teams can spend far less time on operational tasks, and more on delivering features that set your business apart.
In 2024, the choice to build or buy isn’t just about software—it’s about using the right tools to keep innovation at the forefront without getting bogged down by infrastructure.
One thing is clear though: in 2024, your teams shouldn’t be spending time on infrastructure issues.
