CONFIDENCE IS KEY

The top priority for your 2023 tech strategy is knowing definitively what you need.

Build vs. Buy… What’s best for you?

For those who decide that software investment is going to help improve their operation during the incoming recession, an important question to consider is whether building a custom solution or buying commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software is the best approach to your problem.

‘As with most things in life, there are benefits and drawbacks to both buying and building. What this decision comes down to are your business needs and ambitions.

Going down the wrong route can be costly. Industry figures vary but a single hour of IT downtime can cost between US$1 million and over US$5 million, according to Information Technology Intelligence Consulting.’

^{Build vs. Buy: The Software Dilemma,}^{Amdaris, Tech Target}^⟶

With such costs at stake, it’s vital that you understand the drawbacks and benefits of each solution and how they align to your business’s needs and ambitions.

The benefits and limitations of COTS software

Do you need a short-term or long-term solution?

COTS software is far cheaper out of the box. However, be sure to think about the future. Further down the line, multiple license fees will cause issues with COTS software. Custom-built software would sidestep this problem. In short, COTS is cheaper immediately, while custom-built is cheaper for a longer term investment.

Are you making too much of your issue?

Stop and think about whether you really need a custom-built solution. Stop and really consider the issue you’re having before resorting to custom-built software, and only do so if you feel it’s truly necessary. If an off the shelf solution works for you then don’t hesitate to take the easier — and cheaper — way out.

Invest in investigation and insights

Research can seem time consuming, but it can stand to save you a lot of money further down the line.

‘A report by Synopsis and the Consortium for Information & Software Quality estimated that the cost of failed development projects in 2020 was US$260 billion. Equally, research by Couchbase reported that nearly four out of five digital transformation projects faced failure, delays or scaled-back plans, putting the cost of failing to launch on the first attempt at US$5.5 million per enterprise.’

^{Build vs. Buy: The Software Dilemma,}^{Amdaris, Tech Target}^⟶

As we saw in the previous chapter, building with an Agile approach can certainly help to mitigate any risks that arise in your development process. However, there’s more that you can be doing before the development cycle begins — even before you commit to a technology investment in the first place.

For one reason or another companies are unwilling to review their current landscape or strategy to learn more about the position they’ve found themselves in. While it might seem like standing still to take stock with an internal review is killing your momentum, you need to ensure that you’re certain where your business is heading, what your long-term and short-term goals are and how changes in the world can impact your projects and change any future requirements.

Many businesses might see these exercises as annual (or even less frequent) activities, but the truth of the matter is that your vision or mission will likely have changed dramatically in the past six months without you being truly aware.

When you stop to review where you stand in 2023, a good place to start is asking yourself some basic — but incredibly important — questions.

When was the last time you spoke to your users?

Are they the right users?

When did you last engage with them to ensure that you’re on the right track?

Do you have the capacity (or capability) to perform reviews internally, or would it be beneficial to turn to a third party?

Taking this time to reflect and ask these questions can also save you significant amounts of time and money after you have started a new tech project or investment.

This point may seem counterintuitive considering the nature of what you’ve just read (constant encouragement to be bold with your investment and development of tech), but when reviewing your business you should be brave enough to acknowledge that there may come times when it makes sense to start a project again or even abandon it part way through.

Legacy technology and established projects: What to keep and when to abandon a project

The sunk-cost fallacy is a phenomenon in which an individual will refuse to abandon an investment or project due to the belief that they have invested too much time and money into it to quit, despite the fact that abandoning the project will be significantly more beneficial.

This is part of the reason why frequent business reviews are so vital. By recognising the signs that abandonment of a project would be beneficial early, you stand to save yourself precious time and money.

Signs that your project could be abandoned or redirected:

Expanding costs that outweigh return on investment (change in day to day costs or money-saving potential)
Projects that no longer align with the aims of the company
Work that is being done simply for the sake of ticking it off the list (does anyone in the team remember the aim of the project?)
Any development that has become aimless or is constantly shifting / having to be reviewed to meet changing needs
User-research-led projects based on out of date research and insights.

‘Above all else, remember that although you can (and should) be doing all of the research and prep work possible ahead of 2023, that the world is unpredictable. Plans change, visions change and — as hard as this is to stomach — sometimes we come up with bad ideas. Never be afraid to quit while you’re ahead.’

^{Charlie Voller Barnes,}^{Head of Solutions, Amdaris}