The question of whether to build or buy software needed for critical business operations has been debated at length for decades. The introduction of SaaS in the last decade has re-ignited the conversation but the pros and cons of building vs buying haven’t really changed.
The pros and cons can be summarized as;
- Pro build: If your company has unique and complex software requirements then it may be difficult to find what you’re looking for from a software vendor. So by building your own solution you get the ability to customize the software to your needs for a very accurate fit to your business processes.
- Pro Buy: the argument against build is simple – sheer hard work involved in building and maintaining a platform and retaining a team to manage, enhance and support it. It often costs considerably more to build than buy.
But what if you have already built and own an in house platform?
If you are starting from scratch the only two options are Buy or Build , but what if made that decision years ago and now have a system that has had more than a years of development time invested into it. Such a system would contain all of the business logic you need to run your operations and it is not an investment you want to throw away lightly.
This work would have to be repeated by any organization wishing to walk away from their in-house system and buy an off the shelf platform. And there is always the risk that the off the shelf system can’t be made to fit your current business logic.
At Solvedby.ai we have been discussing the available choices with CTOs regarding their in-house staff scheduling, time and attendance and workforce management platforms and the debate for these people now revolves around three options.
Continue developing and maintaining their application
Walk away from the platform and buy an off the shelf solution.
or
Continue developing and maintaining your application, whilst considerably enhancing it with off the shelf products, particularly AI powered solutions.
We call that debate – “buy, build or enhance.”
We are finding more often than not, CTOs are choosing the third option and enhancing their systems using AI.
So we decided to write a white paper which discusses the options. The paper includes.
- Reasons why “enhance” is now a viable option.
- Integrating AIs into your Workforce Management tools.
- What Sectors AI enhancement can work for.
- When does “enhance” not work for an organization.
- Enhancing third party systems that you have invested in but don’t offer sophisticated AI solutions.
- How to get started with an AI enhancement.
So if you are a CTO who is debating buy, build or enhance then you should read this white paper. It has a particular focus on workforce management systems but the lessons that apply here are valid for any in house system that needs some upgrades.