Weighing the pros and cons of out-of-the-box martech

Buy or build stack components? That’s an issue martech practitioners confront all the time.

Like it or not, no one will ever get everything they want or need. An important question is whether the cost (effort and budget) is worth building something and then maintaining a custom solution to get closer to meeting all of one’s needs. However, a custom solution will never completely meet all requirements. Sorry.

Given that, there are certainly virtues to out-of-the-box (OOTB, as some folks abbreviate). 

As for trends in out-of-the-box and homegrown martech solutions, the 2024 MarTech Replacement Survey (no registration required) asked respondents about the role of homegrown and commercial applications when they replaced a martech solution in the past year. The survey found:

• 96% of the martech replacements involved a commercial application as the replacement application.
• 76% of the martech replacements identified by survey respondents involved a commercial application replacing another commercial application.
• 18% of respondents replaced a homegrown application with a commercial
  application.
• Only 2% of respondents used a homegrown application to replace another homegrown application.

Dig deeper: Features drive marketers to replace martech, but cost is top of mind

Off-the-shelf benefits

Implementation

It is easier to implement default products. The vendors that build and maintain them very likely have detailed infrastructure requirements and implementation guides to follow. 

While implementation always requires some planning, deploying a custom solution will likely be more complex and complicated. Thus, in addition to spending more to develop or customize a solution, getting it off the ground will likely take more effort and funding. Is getting closer to what one wants and needs worth that extra investment?

Maintenance

OOTB platforms and products are also easier to maintain. The vendors continually update them. Sticking to the default functionality makes it easier to update. These updates include enhanced functionality as technology progresses. For instance, many products now have artificial intelligence features. This increases the product’s capability and makes it easier to operate.

Updates also respond to changes in tactics and consumer behavior. Suppose a company sells widgets as its core competency. In that case, it is rather difficult to argue for and get resources to enhance a software package fulfilling a necessary but different objective, like rewarding employees for referring others to apply for job openings at the company.

Perhaps most importantly, product updates include bug and security fixes. In addition to improving a product’s functions, keeping it secure and performant is paramount. No company wants a reputational blow of a data breach or embarrassing defacement of a website or channel by hackers. 

While sticking with off-the-shelf code doesn’t completely take the onus away from a company, it simplifies what a company needs to do to keep its systems up to date with current technical and consumer trends, performant and secure.

Integrations

Further, it is easier to integrate off-the-shelf platforms with other platforms and systems using existing connectors. Vendors exert a lot of effort to develop and maintain ecosystems of connections. 

One of the great aspects of off-the-shelf products is that using them with other off-the-shelf products is far easier. This certainly helps mitigate some complexity and risk. That will help practitioners focus on their core responsibilities instead of ancillary ones. For instance, a paid search specialist is tapped to increase brand awareness and revenue — not maintain an integration.

Major martech players must establish and maintain vast integration ecosystems, since customers must connect the platform with other systems. While this doesn’t completely remove the customer from monitoring integrations, the provider or their partners bear much of the onus to maintain them. 

Dig deeper: Marketing software: Think three times before you customize

Some caution

While buying a platform has a lot of virtues, there are some important things to consider.

Making modifications

If you’re using an open-source platform like Drupal or WordPress, instead of modifying core code, look for an existing extension or consider building one to add, enhance or change functionality. 

When using an open-source solution, your organization must assume responsibility for maintaining the core and add-on code. Fortunately, large and robust communities of users, developers and vendors keep these platforms secure and continually relevant. However, keeping your instance updated requires planning and attention.  Even so, you may get blindsided by something like WordPress cutting off WordPress Engine’s access to its API.

Roadmaps

There is certainly a virtue in allowing a vendor and its partners to maintain products and integrations. However, there is a cost beyond not getting all that you want.

As a customer, you’re very likely not the sole stakeholder of vendors. They have different customers, investors and partners to consider. Thus, a single customer’s needs can’t completely dictate a product roadmap.

Thus, it is not uncommon for a vendor to change a platform in a way that differs from a customer’s needs. This risk is pretty hard to avoid, which is why it is important to maintain a good client-vendor relationship and understand the pressures different vendors face so that you can influence the roadmap to your advantage.

Vendor risks

Vendors sometimes dramatically increase pricing, are acquired or fold. There are also risks independent of the client, ranging from their sustainability, supply chains, vendors, faulty security practices and stakeholder pressure. This is why business continuity and disaster recovery planning are crucial.

Dig deeper: What to do when your vendor has a data breach

Buy and build

Recently, Scott Brinker started a conversation on LinkedIn about the blurring lines between building and buying software. Several people chimed in by listing several options. In addition to buy vs. build, there are also buy and build options. 

For instance, there are now plenty of low/no-code integration platforms that make it easier for organizations to buy a product off-the-shelf and then extend it. This approach certainly pulls from the advantages of using an established platform managed by another organization while enhancing it with custom solutions. However, there are also the cons of the vendor deciding how the product evolves along with the need to maintain the customizations. 

Just with buying or building, the buy and build approach requires similar considerations.

An art, not a science

Judging a buy versus build decision is never easy. Each situation is unique. That’s why martech practitioners must do their due diligence to help surface all the costs and benefits of both options for relevant stakeholders. 

However, it is important to consider the main benefits and virtues of buying and using out-of-the-box products. While they may not meet all needs (nothing ever does), they decrease many costs and risks.

As I’ve said numerous times, martech is far more an art than a science. When making such a decision, remember that martech is a team sport.

Dig deeper: A practical guide to building a marketing technology stack