Making the Case for an Existing App Solution Versus Developing In-house

When you need to make a business case for using an existing software solution versus developing something new in-house, you’ll need multiple reasons in your arsenal.

Yes, time and cost are paramount. However, rolling out software to any organization also requires expertise which you get from a company who has previous experience implementing solutions in your industry. More on that soon- let’s dig into the details.

The Number of New Hires Needed

Beyond programming expenses, if your company builds out an app you’ll want to make sure any users can easily navigate and adopt it. So UX design will be necessary.

Then if you don’t have the time to manage development, you’ll also have to get a project manager.

And you may have an existing development team, but they may not necessarily have the skills to develop your solution if you are looking to have something you can easily access across devices including mobile.

Additional Expenses

With developing in-house, more money may also need to go towards software updates and resolving bugs. When you use an existing solution, your team does not have to worry about paying for those costs.

Large Investment of Time

Focusing your operations and development team’s time on development can potentially shift you from your quarterly and even annual business goals. Depending on the company you work with, and your business needs, on-boarding and adopting existing software can take 30 days to 6 months.

Development in-house has a less defined timeline as issues come up you must directly manage:

  • Bugs
  • Developers leaving your company
  • Budgets being reallocated

Building an app from scratch, multiple departments have to work together to define the requirements and specs. Inevitably what happens at some point during the development process one team within your organization is relied very heavily upon to create and roll out the software. This can lead to a dichotomy where all the other teams feel marginalized creating a toxic work culture.

Expertise

Here’s the difference between success and a disaster. Working with another company who has proven experience providing software solutions in your industry helps in a variety of ways:

  • can inform you of pitfalls you may have never even thought of
  • provide insights on APIs and other partner solutions to save you time and reach business objectives
  • can provide guidance on successfully ramping up your coworkers or clients to use the software

Learn more about Pruvan’s mobile app solutions and other business services.