Build or buy?
Anyone asking that is already off track. Because the real answer is more complicated.

Ever since administrations around the globe started digitising, the same question keeps coming up: have software built, or buy an already finished solution. Sounds like a simple decision. But reality, as always, is more complicated.

A recent piece from the European GovTech programme on the Interoperable Europe Portal points out: big administrative applications shouldn’t be treated as a single technical block, but as the sum of many parts.

What do I mean by that? That you have to break every administrative product down into its individual parts, in order to then decide whether a standard solution is enough, or whether new custom programming is needed.

Take a digital funding platform, for example. It might consist of: login and identity management, lots of forms, a document store, notifications, and an approval process. On top of that come specific specialist functions. And a lot of authorities would now discuss whether to buy a funding platform as a complete package, or have it programmed from scratch.

But that way of thinking is difficult. The better question is: which parts already exist? Because for a login, an administration doesn’t need to develop its own solution for the 100th time. Probably not for document management either.

So wherever possible, a proven solution should be used. And where one doesn’t exist, of course a tender for new development should be issued. That saves time, nerves, and above all, taxpayers’ money.

Sources:
https://lnkd.in/eqKsW5CR
Image: This image was created with AI.

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