Key advantages of buying messaging software
Make the right decision – buy software and save your resources for day-to-day business
With most businesses heavily relying on technology nowadays, “buy or build” has become one of the most popular discussion topics in the software industry. The question boosts debate among specialists in this field, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of both solutions.
The telecommunications industry is not an exception in this regard. With the expansion of telecommunication services in the past decades, the market demand for telecom software that manages
electronic data exchange including text, voice, video etc. has increased drastically. The increased demand has triggered the priority dilemma of whether companies should buy or build software for their telecom businesses.
This article discusses the issue of “buy or build” while emphasizing the advantages of buying software rather than building one from scratch. As a powerful CPaaS enabler with more than twenty years of hands-on experience in building messaging software for companies that want to thrive in messaging business, HORISEN is one of the best sources of information on this topic. Fabrizio Salanitri, the CEO of HORISEN, provides his insights on this issue.
Initially, it is essential to consider the company’s resources in terms of budget and sufficient experienced staff for software development. Although investing in third-party software might look like a more expensive option beforehand, in fact, the costs for this ready-made solution are much more transparent and predictable. It is highly unlikely that you overcome your budget with unforeseeable issues on the development side.
On the contrary, when building software in-house, many unpredictable costs occur during the process of development and also afterwards. Security, additional features, software failure and malfunctions are pretty unpredictable and hard to be included and estimated in the original budget. Additionally, a company has to invest in and maintain the software for years to come, in order to use it properly.
Furthermore, the company whose main mission is not to gain a competitive advantage by building a cutting-edge technology solution but rather to achieve competitive parity and overrun their competitors can make less profit during the development phase due to the fact that their employees are less available for day-to-day business. These projects can take much longer than planned so the company might face a great financial challenge.
Moreover, ready-made software solutions can be tested before the decision to buy them, leaving much less room for errors. Software solutions developed by renowned companies like HORISEN have already gone through quality assurance, which significantly lowers the failure risks that in-house development brings. Namely, building software in-house includes many dangers considering the fact that it is not possible to test the software until it is entirely developed. Also in long term, software maintenance, support, upgrade, and security are carried out by the product house, so there is no need to exhaust the company’s resources but rather take full advantage of internal brainpower for day-to-day business.
One of the most common misconceptions regarding this issue is that only in-house solutions can be customized and tailored specifically for individual business. At HORISEN, customer experience is one of the most important issues so our solutions are highly customizable based on customers’ preferences. The entire messaging suite is tailor-made to suit companies thriving in messaging business.
As HORISENers say: “Every single idea from our customer, improves our software”.
The other important issue one should consider regarding the “buy or build” dilemma is the scalability feature. If an internal team works on software development, it should definitely consider an architecture base that is scalable. Unfortunately, this architecture is usually quite complicated so there is a learning curve to be overcome. With 20 years of experience in messaging technology business, HORISEN makes sure that its solutions can grow with customers’ businesses.
With a software base designed to meet scalability requirements, “HORISEN’s customers can focus on growing their business without worrying about whether the software supports their growth” – states Fabrizio Salanitri, the CEO of HORISEN.
The last, but surely not the least essential, is the security of the software solution. According to Fabrizio Salanitri: “there should not be compromises regarding the security of the software”, especially when sensitive data are in question. Even though building one’s own firewall of safety might seem like a good idea, it takes very profound knowledge in this specific field in order to do so successfully. Therefore, HORISEN gathers a team of security specialists who regularly scan its products for vulnerability and potential security threats since that is its main daily business.
To sum up, although there are many successfully built in-house solutions, one should consider all the risks which can occur during the development process. It is not necessary to put significant effort, spend so much money, time and resources if such a solution has been already developed and is on the market. Having this in mind, for more than two decades, HORISEN has provided its customers with cost-effective, time and resource-saving solutions which are tailor-made, maintained, secure and regularly upgraded by its team of experts.
The “Buy or build” debate will surely prevail in the software industry for years to come, but in the messaging technology industry, the conclusion is clear “Focus on growing your business, let HORISEN manage your software!”.
To find out more about HORISEN messaging technology solutions.
