What's your personal philosophy on when it's best to build, buy, or subscribe?

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CTO in Education2 years ago
Only build what only you can build - acquire everything else
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VP Technology in IT Servicesa year ago

Agree and add "...and manage."

CTO in Healthcare and Biotech2 years ago
It depends on the $, time, and constraints you have.
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CEO in Software2 years ago
The decision philosophy should be based on time-to-value vs. team strengths. Long term revenue impact is the 3rd priority. 

Key considerations:
How much does the product or service drive revenue or cut costs and when could a purchased solution be onboarded vs. building something
What is the true quality of the team. Not just "can they build it" but can they build something that won't be a burden and keep it supported with a focus on continuous improvement
Are there leverage points that building your own offer; easier integration with on-site data sets, matches tooling and languages you already have, easy API integration points
What will you "not" be working on if you're working on this solution, tool, platform? 
If there is a belief that the potential negative impact on margins will grow significantly over time, you have to determine the cost and impact of making a change from what you purchased to something you built. 

There is definitely an opportunity to include additional considerations here, but perhaps the most important point is that you have to find a way to make a decision quickly. The worst option is usually the indecision option. 
CIO in Education2 years ago
Cost is always a factor - much like   mentions, I'm looking to buy where I can and where I don't already have the right expertise on hand. I especially don't want to be further development in legacy technologies where I'm trying to reduce that technical debt.
Chief Technology Officer in Software2 years ago
Buy or subscribe when needed and build only if necessary and a real business case exists. Spend time researching and really diving into the market as build always takes a tremendous amount of resource, time and ongoing cost
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There are so many questions here. What type of data are you talking about?
Transactional, master or all data?
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