For companies looking to advance their digital offerings, the traditional build-vs.- buy mentality has become obsolete. This way of thinking both underestimates the cost and complexity of packaged solutions while overestimating those of custom development.
According to Forrester, pure buy doesn’t exist, and pure build is often impractical for effective digital enterprises. Therefore, in the digital era, organizations are shifting to creating their own solutions with customization or composition.
Shifting to Modern Software Solutions
Forrester examines the ways in which organizations are using customization and composition to build bespoke experiences and differentiate themselves from competitors in their respective markets. Forrester identifies innovations to cloud technology and low code development as the two major changes to application development that yield the compose approach. According to the report, industry changes yielding an increase in the customize approach include greater ability to recompose modern SaaS products, and changes to the vendor ecosystems which offer prospective partners more choices and financial flexibility.
Building a Future Fit Technology Strategy
Forrester states that, “Software must be part of a future fit technology strategy that enables a company to quickly reconfigure business structures and capabilities to meet customers’ and employees’ future needs.” This has increased the rate at which organizations are building their own custom software products through either composition or customization. As we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, forward-thinking companies with optimized customer experiences and adaptable software applications have gained a clear competitive advantage over those that are still reliant on manual processes.
Perficient’s Expertise in Custom Software Development
Forrester interviewed leaders from Perficient’s Innovation and Product Development team while researching this report. Perficient is excited to continue to share thought leadership and perspective on emerging trends in custom software development. For more information, download Forget About Build Versus Buy; Your Choice Is Customize Or Compose (available for purchase or to Forrester subscribers) or contact our Innovation and Product Development experts today.
