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Buy vs. Build: Why Companies Choose Leverage Instead of Building Workflows Internally

Frank Reilly
by Frank Reilly
Jun 1, 2023

In today's digital age, workflows are crucial to the success of any business. From managing customer data to automating tedious tasks, workflows can significantly improve productivity and efficiency. 

 

However, many companies face a tough decision when it comes to developing workflows: Should they rely on their IT teams to build the workflows internally, or should they leverage existing solutions offered by third-party vendors?

 

While some businesses may be tempted to build their workflows internally, leveraging existing solutions can provide significant advantages. Here’s a few reasons why:

  1. Save Time and Money
  2. Access Expertise, 
  3. Scale elegantly,
  4. Reduce Risk, 
  5. Constantly Improve and
  6. Future proof their team

 

Let’s break each down.


1. Saves Time and Money

Building workflows internally is a time-consuming and costly process. IT teams must spend months, if not years, designing, developing, and testing the workflows, diverting valuable resources from other crucial projects. On the other hand, leveraging existing solutions can significantly reduce the time and costs associated with building workflows. Third-party vendors have already built and tested their workflows, making it quicker and more affordable for businesses to implement them.

 

2. Access to Expertise

When IT teams build workflows internally, they are limited to their own knowledge and expertise. However, leveraging existing solutions provides businesses with access to the expertise of third-party vendors. These vendors specialize in creating workflows and have a deep understanding of best practices, common pitfalls, and industry trends. By leveraging their expertise, businesses can implement workflows that are more efficient, effective, and tailored to their specific needs.

 

3. Scalability and Flexibility

As businesses grow and evolve, their workflows must adapt to changing needs and requirements. Building workflows internally can make it challenging to scale and modify workflows as needed. In contrast, leveraging existing solutions provides businesses with a scalable and flexible workflow infrastructure. Third-party vendors can easily make updates and modifications to their workflows, ensuring that businesses always have access to the latest features and capabilities.

 

4. Reduced Risk

Building workflows internally can be a risky endeavor. IT teams must ensure that the workflows are secure, compliant, and free from errors or bugs. Any mistakes or oversights can result in significant downtime, lost data, and reputational damage. Leveraging existing solutions can significantly reduce the risk associated with building workflows. Third-party vendors have already tested their workflows extensively, ensuring that they are secure, compliant, and free from errors.

In conclusion, while building workflows internally may seem like an attractive option for some businesses, leveraging existing solutions can provide significant advantages. By saving time and money, accessing expertise, providing scalability and flexibility, and reducing risk, third-party vendors can help businesses implement workflows that are more efficient, effective, and tailored to their specific needs.

 

5. Constant Improvements Based on Expert Feedback

Due to long backlogs across many teams, IT teams must constantly shift  from one project to the next, building a tool, and then putting it into ‘maintenance’ or ‘keep the lights on’ mode. The Leverage software team is singularly focused on ensuring that the technology is constantly evolving and improving. Every day, we issue updates, improvements and enhancements based on user feedback. This leads to a platform that will never be in just ‘maintenance mode,’ but instead will always be innovative and ahead of other market options. Since we are consistently getting feedback from all of our customers and partners, you take advantage of a wide range of ongoing new features that were conceived by world class supply chain teams all around the globe.

 

6. Leading the Way to the Future

By hiring world class software engineers and architects and AI experts, Leverage ensures that your team will always have access to world-class cutting edge technology. This includes technology such as Artificial Intelligence. Every few months, the state of the art in AI is seeing step change improvements. Without a dedicated team working on this everyday, a product becomes stale and antiquated extremely quickly, and will leave your team far behind before you even get started.

 

Building or configuring your own solution to automate purchase order status collection, supplier visibility, and ERP data accuracy is not an easy decision. 

 

If you have more questions about why hundreds of supply chain teams have chosen to buy Leverage, don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our product experts. Reach out to sales@tryleverage.ai to learn more.

Frank Reilly
Post by Frank Reilly
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