“To build or not to build, that is the question!” That may not be an exact quote from Shakespeare, but it definitely brings up a very important point when deciding to implement a CPQ.  Not all companies are equals, but depending on the industry or the size of the organization, the temptation to build an in-house CPQ might be strong.

Why? Because IT departments often argue that it’s cheaper, faster and that only an “in-house” solution will fit the organization’ needs.

Let’s take a closer look at these arguments.

First, the cost. If I would like to draw a caricature or take a shortcut, I would say that yes it’s cheaper because there is no purchase, and no money taken from a budget and allocated to a vendor. Instead you allocate resources… often many costly resources.

Then, the timeline. Although it is a common perception that an in-house project would be easier to handle and faster to implement, studies tend to demonstrate that companies growing an in-house CPQ tend to spend 30% to 50% more time on the project then what they initially anticipated.

At this point, the “cheaper and faster” argument is already questionable.

Finally, the idea that only a CPQ built in-house will be able to answer the organization’s needs is also dubious.  By building in-house you will be forced to prioritize the functionalities that you want to make available. After 18 to 24 months of development users likely will only benefit from a limited range of functionalities. This is not good for sales productivity and user adoption. But let’s say you overcome all these challenges; How do you ensure the scalability and performance of your CPQ? How do you guarantee your CPQ can smoothly handle from dozen to thousands of concurrent users? The technology behind the CPQ is key for that. Leveraging a pure CSP is mandatory.  Not all the vendors in the market do, but it is certain that most “in-house” CPQs don’t.

Considering a packaged solution is the best solution to control your investment, ensure you stay on budget while sticking to your project timeline and providing a robust system at the end of the day.