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Four Things To Bear In Mind When Looking At Whether To Build or Buy In Financial Technology
In the aftermath of the UK’s vote to leave the EU many questions are still waiting to be answered.
But there is one question that continues to be problematic for the financial technology sector. When innovating is it better to build or buy a platform?
Here are four reasons why, especially in today’s economic climate, you should choose to buy a platform.
- The Time It Will Take To Get To Market Using Either a Build or Buy Platform:
If you are looking for a backend financial platform it’s highly likely that you will have already built your main front end.
It’s also highly likely that the unique selling point for your business, and the gap in the market you have noticed, will be linked with your front end.
By buying a back end platform it allows you to concentrate more of your time on what you are best at, namely developing your new product.
In a fast-paced technological environment trends change at the drop of a hat, so the longer you take to bring your USP to market, the more chance you have of missing the boat.
Building a backend platform in this scenario will take you more time than buying an already established platform.
- The Cost Difference Between Building or Buying a Platform:
The cost difference between building and buying a platform covers two angles. The financial investment needed to develop or buy your platform, and the cost of the time it takes to bring your business to market.
As explained in my previous point, building a backend platform will take more time than buying a platform, and so you will be missing out on important income whilst you are in development.
It’s estimated that the cost of building a platform is typically around four times higher than buying a platform (http://fintechlabs.in/build-vs-buy/).
If you choose to buy a back end platform, for lower costs, it will also allow you to spend more of your investment on your new product, allowing you to focus your funds on where you can best spend them.
- Security Implications Between Build or Buy Platforms:
When you buy an already established and proven platform there will be a central team who will react to, and deal with, any security breaches.
This reduces your costs because this central team will be working on behalf of a number of businesses using the same platform, allowing you to concentrate on your main business – developing your new product.
On the other hand, building your own platform has its own risks. Technology is constantly under threat, and even software owned by the largest firms is being attacked.
If you choose to build your own platform you add an extra cost to your business therefore – a member of your team dedicated to checking for, and dealing with, security breaches.
- How Flexible Will Your Platform Be?
As I mentioned earlier this fast-paced technological environment means that you need to be able to adapt very quickly.
This flexibility isn’t just because of the trends in technology either.
With regulatory changes like PSD2 coming in, especially with the short window to comply with new standards, whatever platform you have will need to be able to adapt.
When you build your own platform you will have to bear the expense, both in time and money, of ensuring your platform complies with new regulations.
Buying an established platform brings the benefits of experience and pooling resources. The base platform you buy will also be used by other businesses too, and as a result will ensure you benefit from other regulatory changes, and vice versa for these other businesses, freeing up your time to develop your new product.
It’s also likely that there will be a team of central developers working to ensure the platform is compliant, saving you precious time and money.
The build v buy question is an important one for many small businesses.
It’s essential that, among other things like the time factor, you bear your budget in mind. It’s also important to realise however, that even the largest companies outsource their development, including the Bank of America (http://fortune.com/2014/06/26/big-banks-are-shunning-tradition-and-turning-to-tech-startups/).
Getting your product to market and generating revenue as quickly as possible is key to its success, and so finding the right platform to buy is important.
If you’re struggling for ideas about which platform to buy, one of the most popular events on the fintech calendar this year is Fintech Connect Live.
It runs from 6th to 7th December in London, and Trusek will be there to provide advice and more information about our own platform. You can find out more about the event here (http://www.fintechconnectlive.com).
Our SaaS platform is providing a powerful fintech solution for businesses across the spectrum, including charities and banks, and our consultative approach is gaining traction in an industry becoming increasingly crowded.
If you would like to get in touch with us for more information about how we can help with your banking platform or proposition, whether an established bank, an emerging bank, a community bank, a credit union or even a new concept bank, email hello@trusek.com or call 020 7048 0470
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