White Papers Buy? Build? Why Not Both? | Page 4

Buy? Build? Why Not Both?

A ComTechAdvisory Whitepaper

IS THERE A THIRD OPTION?
There is a third option in terms of taking a hybrid buy and build approach. In the past such an approach has
proven to be a problematic integration issue; how to integrate a variety of third-party platforms that have over
lapping functionality? Additionally, each ‘buy’ required its own selection and implementation process while the
maintenance of all of these third-party applications could become a nightmare as each vendor rolled out upgrades
independently of the other. The ‘build’ component became the integration rather than the strategic or proprietary
functions that gave the business its advantage in the market.

However, things have changed. Today, there is the cloud,
the Internet and there are new technologies, architectures
and approaches that theoretically suggest a hybrid approach
should be reconsidered. Integration ought to be a significantly lesser problem in the modern world of Internet-based, XML
services and the like. The key to the puzzle becomes identifying the services that can be procured versus those that should
be built while defining an appropriate architecture. In such an
approach, for example, transaction management can be separated from analytics and reporting allowing superior performance in both areas as an additional benefit.

can also be less difficult to handle such as the resource issue
where ring fenced functionality delivered as a distinct service
can require less of the experts time. By using non-traditional
development approaches, issues around shifting requirements
might also be lessened in terms of impact. To some extent, the
maintenance issue is also diminished using such an approach,
as each service is essentially independent of the other. It’s not
a panacea however as specialized IT skills and project management are still required in an area of technology that is in
high demand. However, many of the E/CTRM vendors have
moved or are moving to such an architecture themselves recognizing its cost and flexibility benefits.

Many of the other issues around the buy v build argument

BRADY – THE CORE OF YOUR HYBRID
SOLUTION?
One CTRM vendor that provides leading commercial E/CTRM software across almost all commodities is Brady
PLC. A leader in the metals space, it also has significant capabilities in bulk commodities from cotton to coal and
across many energy commodities. It has pursued a strategy of both organic growth and acquisition and in order to
knit all of its capabilities together in a coherent manner, it has embraced the cloud and a services-related architecture. Today Brady sees more than half of its revenues coming from recurring sources in terms of cloud delivered
solutions and offers 30 and growing services to its clients.

Brady has developed a common framework for service
development that can also be made available to customers
known as the Software Development Kit (SDK). This allows
Brady and/or customers to quickly extend Brady’s services
and solutions or third-party solutions and even build custom
services. The SDK includes data services for easy integration

of any data source and presentation services to insure a rich,
consistent and modern browser-based user interface. Brady
uses the SDK itself to build out additional services faster, to
ensure consistency and an upgrade path.
Brady’s SDK means a hybrid approach can be utilized by

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