The perennial topic in BI circles and enterprise software in general is whether one should build or buy. While most of the arguments I present here is applicable to enterprise software in general, I’m going to focus on my area of expertise: Business Intelligence.
In 2017, the question of build vs buy is simple minded. With the rapid commoditization of Visualizations, the wide spread availability of web development frameworks, and the automation capabilities of the cloud — we are asking the wrong question. Instead we need to be looking at what is the most efficient way to deliver persuasive insights to the target audience. This means for some use cases we buy and for others we build.
For rapid iteration and data discovery, without a question, tools like Tableau are productivity boons. But when it comes to widespread dissemination of critical insights, generic out of the box solutions are subpar. We all know of decision makers leading fortune 500 companies that frequently avoid the confusing clutter of modern BI tools. Who could blame them for not figuring out which subfolder contains the dashboard with that one metric and dimension?
On the other hand, companies small enough to effectively communicate and collaborate should rarely build. Even if their execs are resistant to BI tools, you can be sure information will get to them. In the small company case, building will only make sense when BI is part of a product.
So when should you augment your BI stack with a build?
BI is core feature of your product.
This is a no brainer. Out of the box solutions will be clunky and slower compared to a purpose built data product. You don’t want your product to be held hostage to a third party vendor.
You have thousands of End of Line Business Users.
In all likelihood your classic BI team will push back on this. They will say that a Custom Visualization app will be slower to develop, costlier to maintain, and outside the capabilities of the team. I thoroughly dispatch these arguments here, here, and here. In the aforementioned posts I explain how you can save millions of dollars per year with a Custom Viz app and deliver a more effective product — one that will actually lead to data driven decision making.
Big Data. The Biggest Data, Believe me!
Are you a Google, Netflix, Uber, AirBnB, or some other Silicon Valley unicorn? Then you are likely to have massive amounts of data beyond the capabilities of most of the shelf BI tools. These companies are literally minting money by expertly utilizing the troves of data they’ve collected. Okay, maybe your company doesn’t have the same name recognition, but has amassed equally impressive volumes of data. Whats the point if exploring said data is dreadfully slow? It will just cause smart Product Managers and Analysts to avoid it like the plague. To best leverage data at this scale you must constantly explore new and better ways to store, organize, and deliver this data.
Maximize data driven decision making at the Leadership level.
Out of the box BI solutions are designed for generic use cases and users. When your company is angling towards critical objectives, it is important to get everyone on the same page. At exec levels politics and gut instincts runs wilder than people realize. To cut through the crap and align the executive team, its important to have a well crafted dashboard. Here you will carefully plan navigation, layout, and interaction such that no one can claim ignorance. Let data actually be the arbitrator of disputes.
I hope you see now that it is simply not about build or buy. You certainly buy and occasionally build.
Ajo Abraham is a big data expert known for building beautiful, fast, and high impact custom viz apps. For consulting requests you can email him here ajo@veroanalytics.com
