When building a site, campaign or environment there is always the temptation to develop custom code or suites of services that can be provided for multiple clients.  In most instances, this is not the best solution. Here is why I often like to use packaged solutions to provide functionality where such offerings are available from third-parties.

  • Solution is provided by a company with the service as their core product with thousands of sites using the tested technology support with an ongoing product roadmap and dedicated product management, development and support teams. This is really the core difference that I think should drive such a decision.
  • Frees up agency/company technology teams for more specialized and important tasks to provide solutions that truly require custom services.
  • The real cost in the longer term is usually lower for the client and the agency.
  • Setup can usually be completed by less expensive generalists thus freeing technical staff for projects requiring their specialties.
  • Technical issues can be resolved by a dedicated product service team with own set of monitoring and alerting tools across thousands of campaigns.
  • The services can be based upon and evolve from best practices and needs from a larger pool of users.
  • The services are clearly packaged and productized including complete easy-to-understand setup documentation and details.
  • Setup and adjustments are usually much quicker (and less expensive)than with custom in-house development.
  • Reduces agency/company overhead as no longer the requirement to maintain code base and service long after the solution is a focus.

Am I right, wrong or have anything else to say?  Let me know in the comments.

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