The Build-Versus-Buy Conundrum In Supply Chain Digitization

Organizations embracing digitization have an important decision to make before they ever invest in a technology: Should they purchase out-of-the-box solutions or build their own? Historically, this has only been a conundrum for the largest of enterprises, which could not only afford to invest in sophisticated, automated back-office solutions, but had the resources to develop proprietary platforms custom-built for their specific needs. In the evolution of enterprise digitization, however, FinTech firms stepped in to democratize agile technologies for small businesses (SMBs), as well as introduce platforms that can be easily integrated into SMB back offices right out of the box. While the build-versus-buy challenge has seemingly been solved, David Brault, product marketing manager of enterprise app development platform Mendix, said out-of-the-box can be too good to be true.