Build it yourself, buy a tool or outsource?

You have worked out what you want to automate. Then comes the question of how to get it. There is a standard package that almost does it, there is a handy colleague who knows their way around AI tools, and there is an agency that will build it for you. All three are sometimes the right answer.

Buy: start here, always

If there is an existing package that covers eighty per cent of what you want, that is nearly always the cheapest route. You pay per month, someone else does the maintenance, and you are up and running tomorrow. You cover the missing part by adjusting how you work a little.

Where it goes wrong: businesses chasing the last twenty per cent with custom-built work on a package that wasn’t made for it. Then you are building a structure of exceptions on top of someone else’s software, and every update from that supplier is a risk. If you notice you are bending the package out of shape, buying is no longer the right answer.

Also look first at what you already have. Many packages used by SMEs now have AI features built in that haven’t been switched on. That is the cheapest step there is.

Build it yourself: more tempting than sensible

With today’s tools a handy employee can get surprisingly far. An integration in an automation platform, an assistant that reads documents, a script that updates a list. For internal tools without customer contact that is fine, and we recommend it.

The risk is not in the building, but in its existence afterwards. One person knows how it works. If that person leaves, there is something in your business that nobody dares to touch and nobody can repair. We politely call that “knowledge held by one person” and it is exactly the same risk as the buyer who keeps everything in his head.

• Building it yourself is sensible for internal tools you can do without if they break, with no damage done.
• Building it yourself is unwise for anything that touches customers, moves money or processes personal data.
• If you do build it yourself, make sure there is documentation and a second person who understands it. Without that you don’t have a solution but a time bomb.

Outsource: only where it adds something

Hiring an agency is more expensive per hour and therefore only worthwhile where it makes a difference. That is with integrations between systems that don’t talk to each other on their own, with custom-built work that no package delivers, with applications that must be demonstrable and auditable, and with answering the question of whether you should do something at all.

Our rates: €110 per hour for straightforward work such as setting up and integrating, €165 per hour for complex development. A half-day core session of four hours costs €596 excluding VAT and travel costs. That is usually the cheapest moment to find out that you don’t need us.

A workable rule of thumb

1. First check whether your current package can already do it. Costs an afternoon, costs nothing else.
2. If it can’t, look for a standard package that covers the largest part and adjust how you work.
3. If there is no package and it is internal and risk-free, have it built in-house, with documentation and a second person who knows it.
4. If it touches customers, money or personal data, or if several systems need to be connected, outsource it.
5. If you don’t know which category you are in, buy one half-day of advice instead of three months of building.

The downside of outsourcing

You become dependent on a party that knows your system better than you do. Good intentions won’t fix that; only agreements will: documentation under your control, access to your own environment, and a solution that runs on standard technology instead of on something only we can maintain. Ask for that, including from us.

And outsourcing doesn’t take the work away from you. You still have to explain how your business works, sit in on the testing and take decisions about exceptions. Anyone who thinks they can hand over an assignment and receive a working system eight weeks later without putting time in will be disappointed.

When you need us and when you don’t

Short and honest: if you can buy it, buy it. If you can build it in-house yourself and it is something harmless, do that. Those are the two routes we don’t send an invoice for, and we would rather say so up front than halfway through.

We are the right choice when integrations, custom-built work or demonstrability are in play, or when you want to be sure you are choosing the right route before you invest. If the core session shows that an off-the-shelf package serves you better, that is our conclusion and not our loss.