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The real advice here is build your core competencies. Another way to say this is "buy what you can, build what you can't", where "buy" includes using open sour

The real advice here is build your core competencies. Another way to say this is "buy what you can, build what you can't", where "buy" includes using open source software. When I'm choosing a new tool, I always look at if a solution already exists, and make a focused effort on determining all ongoing costs, such as maintenance, adding new features, managing the vendor relationship, etc. My preference is always to buy if it's something another company might need, because then I get the benefits of the features for that other company, but tempered with what my internal cost to build would be (including maintenance and adding new features).

NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
I mean, sure - if I want to make sure my staff have a word processor and a spreadsheet, I'm going to buy Microsoft Office rather than writing it for myself. On the other hand, for enterprise software, there's usually some seriously non-trivial integration cost - particularly if you're not starting from a green field. So the problem is "you can't buy a solution - you just need to decide how much of it you're going to build yourself according to your needs, and how much you're going to buy and tailor/integrate."
georgeecollins 4y ago
>> The real advice here is build your core competencies. Another way to say this is "buy what you can, build what you can't", where "buy" includes using open source software. Except that the most valuable company in the world has consistently tried to own or control every part of their value chain, including businesses they had little experience with and probably no "core competency" in. And that's not an outcome of them having so much cash they can go into chip design, tv production, software tools etc. Steve Jobs would have made his own microprocessor in the '90s if he had the resources. Maybe that's the exception that proves the rule?

NovemberWhiskey 4y ago

I mean, sure - if I want to make sure my staff have a word processor and a spreadsheet, I'm going to buy Microsoft Office rather than writing it for myself. On the other hand, for enterprise software, there's usually some seriously non-trivial integration cost - particularly if you're not starting from a green field. So the problem is "you can't buy a solution - you just need to decide how much of it you're going to build yourself according to your needs, and how much you're going to buy and tailor/integrate."

georgeecollins 4y ago

>> The real advice here is build your core competencies. Another way to say this is "buy what you can, build what you can't", where "buy" includes using open source software. Except that the most valuable company in the world has consistently tried to own or control every part of their value chain, including businesses they had little experience with and probably no "core competency" in. And that's not an outcome of them having so much cash they can go into chip design, tv production, software tools etc. Steve Jobs would have made his own microprocessor in the '90s if he had the resources. Maybe that's the exception that proves the rule?