Build Custom Software or Buy Off the Shelf?

Start by assuming you should buy

Off the shelf software wins by default for anything many companies do the same way. Tepia builds custom software and still tells prospective clients to buy these.

Tepia’s job in Discovery is to separate those situations from ordinary frustration with a tool that is merely imperfect.

Industry analysts have long observed that a large share of software implementations fail to deliver expected value, and the cause is usually mismatch between the tool and the process, not the tool’s quality. That mismatch is what the scoring framework below measures.

Tepia's six factor scoring framework

Score each factor from 1 (favors buying) to 5 (favors building). Tepia uses this in Discovery; a total of 22 or more out of 30 usually justifies a custom build, 14 or less means buy, and the middle band is where the hybrid approach lives.

The hybrid Tepia recommends most often: buy the core, build the edges

Most Tepia clients do not replace a platform. They keep it and build the parts the platform does badly. Keep QuickBooks and build the field app that feeds it. Keep Salesforce or HubSpot and build the customer portal that reads from it. Keep Shopify and build the native shopping app on top. Keep ServiceTitan and build the dispatch logic it cannot express.

Tepia’s systems integration services and custom internal tools pages describe these builds, and the custom CRM or bend Salesforce comparison is a worked example.

The hybrid has a limit: when the bought core itself is the thing that does not fit, or when two systems disagree about which one is the source of truth. At that point Tepia recommends the full build.

How Tepia approaches build vs buy decisions

Tepia’s six phase process begins with a Discovery that is designed to produce a buy recommendation when one is warranted.

1. Tepia also evaluates the two or three off the shelf products you could buy instead. Deliverables: Investigation Summary with the scored framework and five year comparison, Interview Summary and User Stories.
2. Design. If building, a design questionnaire, style guide, detailed wireframes and sample designs. Tepia designs around the bought systems that stay.
3. Development and Testing. Alpha and Beta schedules with functional, user acceptance and non functional test plans, including sync accuracy with any retained platforms.
4. Training. In person and remote hands on sessions using user story scenarios from your actual work.
5. Launch. Data migration, transition from the old system with a parallel run where needed, and Tepia support reps on rollout.

Frequently asked questions