CONNECT WITH US
Social Media

Social Media

How to Decide Whether to Build In-House, Buy an Existing Solution or Partner With Another Company

Entrepreneur — Social Media logo

Published on

Add as a preferred source on Google
How to Decide Whether to Build In-House, Buy an Existing Solution or Partner With Another Company

When should a company build, buy or partner? Here’s what you need to know.

The challenge of when a company needs to develop a capability it doesn’t currently possess poses a management question. The analysis starts with a financial comparison. Management calculates the cost of developing internally, compares it with the price of purchasing an existing solution and selects the option with the more attractive projected return.

The analysis, however, runs the risk of reducing a strategic decision to a procurement exercise. In practice, companies can choose to build the capability themselves, buy it through a product, platform or acquisition, or partner with another organization that already possesses it.

I’ve encountered versions of this problem across banking, fintech, technology, construction and financial services, including technology modernization and system conversions, M&A work and the development and pricing of financial products.

The details and economics widely vary, but the strategic question underneath is consistent. Companies should assess what they actually need and then work towards the best answer to fulfill that need based on a larger strategic vision.

Building internally makes sense when a capability is sufficiently important to competitive differentiation that management wants to control how it evolves. 

This can apply to technology, intellectual property , operating processes or specialized expertise. If a capability determines why a customer chooses the company over competitors, then an outside provider may limit the ability of the company to differentiate. Internal development allows the company to shape the capability around its strategy rather than shaping its strategy around what the market offers.


Source link

Disclaimer

We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We TheMorningPulse.fyi want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It's possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.