Link: http://theknowledgeeconomy.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/the-case-for-buy-build-augment-or-reuse/
Many businesses, for better or worse, decide on a single policy such as ‘Buy before Build’ when looking at implementing new business capability. The rationale behind such a policy is sound in that the design and development work to implement supporting business functions is effectively outsourced to a third party provider. By purchasing a COTS (Common Off The Shelf) software package the business has delegated the support of the business functions away from themselves. The question should be asked: “Is this best for the business?“
A significant issue of a ‘Buy Before Build’ policy is that the purchased product is likely to exhibit the required functionality in a different manner to that which the business actually wanted. Unless the business is then prepared to go down the customisation path the only option open to them is to change the business to suit the product.
A secondary issue of this policy is that over time the business will accumulate duplicated functionality as purchased products have overlapping feature sets. This duplicated functionality may be used by different parts of the business necessitating variant processes to achieve the same or similar outcomes. Having worked for one company where it was widely regarded as being the ‘Noah’s Ark’ of the IT world (they had at least two of everything) the duplication did cause confusion.
Rather than adhering to a strict policy perhaps a guideline could be put in place that explores the different options available to the business:
- Buy – Purchase a product when it closely satisfies the required functionality and there are no other options.
- Build – Develop a system that delivers the required functionality when there is no product available to purchase or other systems available.
- Augment – Modify an already existing system to provide the additional business functionality.
- Reuse – Leverage business functionality that already exists within existing business systems.
By looking at the range of possible options and associating each with a set of costs and benefits a better decision can be reached on how new business capability can be implemented. This should be undertaken in association with an analysis of how each option would impact other existing systems.
