Development Decisions: When to Build, Partner, and Buy
Learn whether to solve your problem with a custom or off-the-shelf solution
When you want to automate a process or solve a business problem using Autodesk Platform Services, you come to a fork in the road: should you develop a custom solution with your own team, partner with a service provider to create it, or buy an existing off-the-shelf solution? According to Josh Girvin, co-founder and CEO of O3 Solutions, the correct answer depends on your situation. If the challenge you face is unique to your organization, that’s typically something that you’re going to have to build yourself if you have the team and the expertise in-house. If you don’t, you’ll likely need to partner with another company. If it’s a common problem in your industry, though, it often makes more sense to go with an off-the-shelf solution, since these solutions have usually been tested, proven, and iterated based on feedback, and the associated development costs are amortized across many clients. Off-the-shelf solutions also accelerate your time to market, since you don’t have to spend the weeks or months creating something new. Ultimately, Girvin points out, in-house development and integration efforts can be expensive and risky, and frequently are unsuccessful, whereas off-the-shelf solutions are far more predictable and usually more cost effective. So just because you can do it yourself doesn’t mean that you should when it comes to application development.
About the speaker
Josh Girvin is the co-founder and CEO of 03 Solutions, and is responsible for managing the teams that are building and deploying industry-leading construction project management solutions. Prior to 03 Solutions, Girvin worked at Atlas RFID as SVP of product and market strategy. He holds a degree from Princeton University.
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