Time & Expense Management Applications

White Paper

To Build Or To Buy

TO BUILD OR BUYThe question of whether to build or buy a time and expense management solution is an ongoing discussion. Organizations of all sizes are tasked with increasing effi ciency and revenues in a timely manner. Naturally this leads them to consider automation. The critical question then becomes:

KNOWN COSTSWhat are the costs associated with building your own time management solution? This is a critical question that, unfortunately, is often grossly underestimated. The cost of development is diffi cult to estimate at the outset of a project. The internal resources allocated, project costs and time will vary. On the other hand, a purchased solution has a known cost that can accurately be budgeted for. An added benefi t is the opportunity to preview the solutionʼs capabilities and features in advance.

QUICK DEPLOYMENTRapid deployment is critical if you want to begin realizing benefi ts immediately. Building your own time management solution can take time, which means adapting to rapidly changing technology, environments and staff. It always takes longer and is more expensive to design and build a solution from scratch than originally planned. Often the homegrown solution becomes obsolete before it is even completed, while a purchased solution can generally be up and running in less than a month. Customizing a purchased solution to meet an organizationʼs particular needs can also be done quickly.

PREDICTABLE MAINTENANCE/SUPPORT COSTSBuilding an in-house solution requires staff to take care of the overall maintenance and upgrades. Again, costs associated with this can be diffi cult to estimate. Further, keeping pace with technological advancements is very time consuming and challenging and takes critical staff away from the organizationʼs core business. Maintenance and support for a homegrown application requires continual development, training and maintenance of staff with the skills to keep up with the constant and rapid changes of technology. Maintaining a purchased time management solution is a predictable cost that does not take staff away from a businessʼ core competency. The solution vendor has invested the time and resources required to provide expert support for the solution throughout its life cycle.RELY ON THE EXPERTSBuilding your own solution generally requires recruiting, reallocating and/or contracting a variety of technical resources. Although this type of solution may appear easy to create on the surface there are many aspects, including approval workfl ow, information security for pay rates and project completion times, and human factors that are highly complex, especially in combination. Whereas buying a professionally developed solution ensures that you have the benefi ts of industry experts with years of specialized experience in design and development to their credit. The vendor can leverage this industry experience and add a variety of best practice functionality to the product. An established vendor has experience gained from similar projects. Such experience is diffi cult to come by for a single company.

Is it more benefi cial to build a custom time and expense management solution or to buy an existing application?

Overwhelmingly, organizations have proven that buying a solution results in greater value and success. There are several reasons why organizations are choosing to buy solutions: certainty of development and implementation costs; the ability to deploy quickly; predictable maintenance and support costs; assurance of best practices; and staying focused on their core business.

FOCUS ON YOUR CORE BUSINESSBuilding a homegrown application requires money, staff and time spent away from the organizationʼs core business. Again and again business gurus from a variety of industries remind organizations to stay focused on their core business to reduce costs and increase value. Purchasing a professionally developed solution allows an organization to stay focused on their core business while saving money, increasing revenues and gaining the added benefi ts of a partnership with an experienced solution provider.

STILL NOT SURE WHETHER TO BUILD OR BUY?There are a few critical questions to consider when determining whether to build or buy.

Can the solution be purchased?If the answer is yes, then buy. Years ago there were a limited number of options for time management solutions and/or they were not available at all. However, today there are a number of excellent solutions for organizations to consider.

What is the best use of development resources? Developers in an organization are more effectively utilized building core system functionality than spending time on solutions that can be purchased.

Will the available solutions meet the organizationʼs specialized needs?Generally one will fi nd that the vendors offer products that are designed to deal with common situations and issues. As a result one should not be overly concerned with the idea that the organizationʼs needs are unique.

Does the solution or function add competitive edge or advantage? If this were the case, then absolutely the solution should be built. If not, which is almost always the case when considering time tracking solutions, then by all means buy it!

Commercial time tracking solution advantages include known development and maintenance costs, quick deployment, and leveraging the best practices. The result is a fl exible, functionally-rich purchased solution that includes professional, reliable support and maintenance.

ACCORDING TO GARTNER INC., PURCHASED ACCORDING TO GARTNER INC., PURCHASED SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS HAVE FOUND FAVOR WITHIN MANY ENTERPRISES AND ARE NOW WITHIN MANY ENTERPRISES AND ARE NOW CONSIDERED VIABLE CHOICES FOR MANY CORPORATE TASKS. IN FACT, CORPORATE EDICTS HAVE OFTEN BEEN ESTABLISHED THAT PRECLUDE EVEN A DISCUSSION OF BUILD VS. BUY. THEREFORE, BUYING SOFTWARE, UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, IS THE DOMINANT ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, IS THE DOMINANT TREND.TREND.

THE STANDISH GROUP’S INITIAL SURVEY REPORTED THAT 52.7% OF PROJECTS COST 189% OF ORIGINAL ESTIMATES. SIMILARLY, THEY FOUND THAT OF THE THOUSANDS OF PROJECTS STARTED IN-HOUSE, 40% FAILED COMPLETELY, AND ADDITIONAL 33% WERE CHALLENGED, MEANING THEY WERE WERE CHALLENGED, MEANING THEY WERE COMPLETED LATE, WENT OVER BUDGET, OR WERE COMPLETED WITH FEWER FEATURES AND WERE COMPLETED WITH FEWER FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS THAN ORIGINALLY SPECIFIED. FUNCTIONS THAN ORIGINALLY SPECIFIED.

VENDORS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ANTICIPATE VENDORS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ANTICIPATE OVER 90% OF THE POTENTIAL SCENARIOS AND UNIQUE NEEDS IN ALMOST EVERY AND UNIQUE NEEDS IN ALMOST EVERY INDUSTRY. THEREFORE, IT IS SAFE TO ASSUME THAT THE VENDOR CAN ADDRESS YOUR PARTICULAR COMPANY NUANCES.PARTICULAR COMPANY NUANCES.

ACCORDING TO GARTNER,”… BUILD ACCORDING TO GARTNER,”… BUILD ACTIVITIES WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD ACTIVITIES WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON QUICK AND INEXPENSIVE ‘HITS’, AS WELL AS PROJECTS THAT JUST CANNOT BE PURCHASED AT ANY PRICE.”