Buy, build or configure: an honest framework
Every vendor claims to be consultative and then recommends their own product. Here is the version we would give a business we had no chance of selling to, which is also the version we give the ones we do.
2 min readOadbox
Build only what is genuinely yours
Custom software is justified where a process is a real source of competitive advantage — a pricing model, a routing algorithm, a proprietary workflow nobody else runs. That is a narrow category and it is almost never payroll, accounting or attendance.
The usual mistake is building something ordinary because an off-the-shelf option was eighty per cent right. The remaining twenty per cent then costs several years of maintenance that nobody budgeted for.
Buy where the problem is common and the rules are external
Anything governed by statute, standards or convention should be bought. The rules change, someone has to track them, and that someone should be amortising the effort across many customers rather than being your one employee who understands GST.
This is the strongest argument for buying, and it strengthens every year as the rate of regulatory change increases.
Configure with a clear-eyed view of who pays
A configurable platform is the right answer when your process really is unusual and you have the internal capability to own the configuration for the long term.
- Who will own it in three years, when the person who set it up has left?
- Is the configuration documented, versioned and testable, or is it tribal?
- What does an upgrade cost, and who validates it?
- Could you hire someone who already knows this platform, locally?
When not to buy from us
If your process is genuinely unlike the industry we built for, a vertical product is the wrong shape — you will spend the relationship fighting its defaults, and we will spend it saying no.
We would rather say that at the first meeting. A customer who bought the wrong thing is not a win with a delay; it is a loss with a longer timeline and a worse ending for both parties.
Written by the Oadbox team. Something here not match how it works in your business? We would genuinely like to hear it — connect@oadbox.com.