INTEGRATION

The Business Imperative:

Build versus Buy

A Pervasive Software White Paper

April 2004
The Business Imperative: Build versus Buy
The Business Imperative:

Build versus Buy

Executive Summary
An organization that wishes to integrate disparate computing resources can either
build an integration solution in-house or buy a packaged integration software
application. While building a custom application may seem the most cost-effective
route, this approach is fraught with problems. Gartner Group estimates about
30% of the cost of an ERP project arises from the need to build integration links
with existing applications. Packaged integration software applications now offer
a compelling alternative to the expensive, time-consuming quagmire of in-house
development.

Introduction: Confronting the Build vs. Buy Dilemma

Merger and acquisition activity. E-commerce initiatives. Application integration.
Compliance requirements. Business intelligence. Supply chain management. XML
Web services. Access to high volumes of data. All these demands drive the growing
need for integration across an organization.
Today, highly functional and flexible enterprise integration applications are available
as ready-to-go software packages. Yet many organizations are unsure of whether
they can rely on a “store bought” package, particularly if they’re accustomed to
handling complex application development in-house.
This paper covers the “build versus buy” considerations of an organization faced
with the need for an integration application. The first section posits preliminary
issues and the due diligence required to start the decision process; the second
section presents more in-depth challenges related to the build option. Section three
explains the benefits of buying an application integration package.

Preliminary Considerations and Due Diligence

Whether or not to build an in-house integration solution boils down to an honest
assessment of the needs of the organization and what it will take to meet those
needs. Sometimes the nature of the project dictates the necessary direction. Does
your organization require a solution involving a highly specialized business function
for which no marketed software exists? Then you should build that solution in-house.
Or do you need to integrate order-entry or another standard application with
established applications across the enterprise? In this case, you should give the
option to buy a solution a closer look.

The Business Imperative: Build versus Buy 3

 Evaluate the following factors in regards to your proposed integration project:
■ Availability of in-house resources, including development staff
■ Complexity and purpose of the project
■ Particular needs of the organization
■ Time to deployment
Also, consider these issues:
■ Can your project's time-to-market strategy support developing the integration
infrastructure component in-house?
■ Is your development staff large and skilled enough in the technology and
standards to build an integration engine in-house?
■ Are your resources best spent developing homegrown data integration
software? Is data integration your core competency?
Still considering a custom-built solution? The next section details some of the
problems you might encounter with developing an integration application in-house.

The Challenges with Custom Integration Solutions

The complexity of today’s computing environments only magnifies the difficulties of
implementing custom integration applications. Problems inherent in building these
solutions from scratch include:
■ Too expensive to develop
■ Too expensive to maintain
■ Too time consuming
■ No real process improvements

Too Expensive to Develop

If a check isn’t directly earmarked for your integration project, it may appear to
have no real cost. Your in-house programmers’ time is already paid for, after all.
In-house development can be much more costly than it appears though—far more
so than that seemingly expensive software package. Developers must be trained
and code must be carefully tested. Think about the salaries of your development
Think about the salaries of
team, the downtime in user departments during all phases of development, and
your development team,
the opportunity cost of not putting developers on other worthy projects that might
the downtime in user
propel your business forward. The bottom line: Labor costs dominate custom
departments during all
coding projects, which require significant investments.
phases of development,
and the opportunity cost of Too Expensive to Maintain
not putting developers on Maintaining a custom-built integration application and keeping it running on the
other worthy projects that current platform or a succession of platforms can be an expensive proposition.
might propel your business And what happens when the programmers who developed the original application
forward. The bottom line: move on to other projects and other jobs? The maintenance of custom integration
Labor costs dominate applications is complex, time-intensive and fraught with undocumented functions.
custom coding projects, Unless the integration application is well documented—another complex and
which require significant expensive proposition—you will end up throwing more money into maintenance
investments. than you ever planned for.

4 The Business Imperative: Build versus Buy

Too Time Consuming
Traditionally, in-house application integration projects have involved long learning
curves and slow deployment schedules. Time consuming custom development
requires considerable due diligence to scope and plan the entire integration project.
Once again, your developers’ time is better spent—and time is money.

No Real Process Improvements

One danger of in-house development lies in the tendency to fall back on tried-
and-true methodologies. Unfortunately, following the old ways of doing things
won’t necessarily yield the optimal solutions. Development methodologies are
always changing. Unless your programmers are versed in the latest integration best
practices, you risk ending up with something that’s less than what you hoped and
planned for. Even if your organization’s business processes have evolved over time,
they may still not be refined enough to reflect best practices.

The Benefits of Buying an Integration Solution

In most cases, a packaged integration application can overcome the challenges
presented by custom-built solutions. Packaged solutions leverage existing
technology and offer the following compelling reasons to buy:

■ Low total cost of ownership (TCO)

■ Faster time to market
■ Flexible, scalable implementations
■ Higher level of integration with third-party technology
■ Integrated, cross-functional processes
■ Automated, standardized design processes
■ Optimization of development resources
■ High reliability through proven performance
■ Self-documenting

Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

As stated in the previous section, high costs remain the primary drawback
to developing in-house integration applications. Development and especially
maintenance costs are often underestimated. Integration costs in general continue to Unless your programmers
skyrocket as enterprise-wide computing environments become ever more complex. are versed in the latest
integration best practices,
The most comprehensive packaged integration products keep integration costs
you risk ending up with
down through:
something that’s less
■ Automation and standardization of the design process, which eliminate the than what you hoped and
need for costly custom coding. planned for. Even if your
■ Optimization of development resources, as programmers can plug into new, organization’s business
more exciting development projects that will further organizational capabilities processes have evolved
and efficiencies. over time, they may still not
■ Fast implementation and deployment, which reduces the cost of the entire be refined enough to reflect
integration process. best practices.
The Business Imperative: Build versus Buy 5
 ■ Broad range of connectivity options for standard messaging schemas and
disparate platforms, for leveraging of existing protocols and formats.
■ Project scalability, which allows the organization to start with smaller
integration projects before investing in the whole enterprise.

Faster Time to Market

The long development cycle of a custom-built solution isn’t an option if your
organization needs to deploy an integration application quickly. Packaged software
can offer some or all of the following features that speed the time to value of your
integration solution:
■ Easy to learn, so developers can immediately begin working on integration
projects after a short training period.
■ Easy-to-design integration processes and transformation maps for faster
implementation.
■ Short deployment period on fundamental projects.
■ Easy to use, for IT staff at the company-wide deployment level as well as end
users who simply need to port data into other applications.

Flexible, Scalable Implementations

Instead of leaving your organization to its standard old methodologies, the best
integration packages provide maximum opportunities for flexibility. Most include
customization features for fine-tuning the integrated computing environment as it
changes with business needs. Logic and business rule definitions, for example, can
be customized to work with native data formats and schemas through user-friendly
interfaces. Open architectures accommodate emerging applications, allowing new
technologies to plug into the enterprise. Through all this adaptability, the integrated
application can remain up to date with best practices.
In-house integration In-house integration applications are often developed to meet the needs of the
applications are often moment, without taking into account rising user demands and data volumes.
developed to meet the Integration packages, on the other hand, meet growing levels of user requests and
needs of the moment, transaction loads with real-time, event-driven, scalable solutions. The most cutting-
without taking into account edge packaged integration applications will also maximize flexibility by providing
rising user demands and project scalability. Proven, successful project design components can be reused
data volumes. Integration in other departments, and departmental integration projects can be linked across
packages, on the other divisions and built up to a global implementation.
hand, meet growing levels
of user requests and Higher Level of Integration with Third-Party Technologies
transaction loads with real- When an organization sets out to develop an integration application in house, it
time, event-driven, scalable may not consider additional technologies that may be adopted after the fact. In
solutions. The most effect, the new integration application may not end up offering enough in the way of
cutting-edge packaged integration.
integration applications will Fully functional packaged integration applications provide a broad range of
also maximize flexibility connectivity options to such data sources as message buses, Web services and
by providing project common ERP and CRM applications. Support for standard document schemas—
scalability. including XML, EDI, SWIFT, EDIFACT and HIPAA—saves integration time and

6 The Business Imperative: Build versus Buy

improves data accuracy. Transport-independent solutions allow you to choose the
data transport model that best fits your business, and the appropriate APIs make
the integration seamless.

Integrated, Cross-Functional Processes

Custom-built integration applications may only address a limited spectrum of
integration issues, including hooks into other processes. The best packaged
options go beyond application integration to aid in managing data workflows,
including third-party processes. For example, even with several applications linked
together, users might get one point of view on the organization’s process flows—
they don’t have to toggle between applications.

Automated, Standardized Design Process

When it comes to application integration, most organizations have similar needs.
So why reinvent the application integration wheel when it already exists in the form
of packaged applications? Integration packages automate and standardize the
application design process. While there’s plenty of opportunity for customization—
as described above—the basic implementation is ready to go.

Optimization of Development Resources

A custom integration application project pulls programmers away from an A custom integration
organization’s regular development work. After the fast deployment of a packaged application project pulls
application, on the other hand, you can focus development resources on your programmers away
business’s core competencies. Developers can get to work on exciting new from an organization’s
projects that will further organizational goals and add to the bottom line. regular development
work. After the fast
High Reliability Through Proven Performance
deployment of a packaged
Building an integration application in-house is only the beginning. Next comes application, on the other
a time-consuming iterative testing process, during which developers fine-tune hand, you can focus
the application and hope for the best in terms of reliability. In contrast, a good
development resources
packaged integration solution offers high reliability by definition, right out of the
on your business’s core
box. The vendor and other users can attest to its proven performance.
competencies.
Conclusion: Buy Trumps Build
In today’s complex IT landscape and competitive business environment, custom-
built integration applications can’t stand up to available packaged software.
Quick-hitting, cost-effective packaged solutions meet your organization’s
integration demands by leveraging existing applications and technologies while
taking the burden off of internal development resources. Where custom-built
Where custom-built solutions present expensive development and maintenance solutions present
considerations, packaged options counter with proven lower total cost of expensive development
ownership. Where in-house integration involves long deployment cycles, easy- and maintenance
to-learn and easy-to-use software packages speed time to value. Where custom considerations, packaged
applications can get mired in old methodologies and lack scalability, available options counter with
integration software offers the flexibility of customization options and the scalability proven lower total cost of
that meet your organization’s needs—now and into the future. ownership.
The Business Imperative: Build versus Buy 7
 Packaged software integration applications offer other compelling advantages
over traditional custom-built approaches. Reusable components, high levels
of integration with third-party technologies, integration with cross-functional
processes, automated and standardized design processes, and high reliability
through proven performance—all of these make it easier to maintain a highly
functional, organic integrated computing environment. Instead of “reinventing the
wheel,” your developers can focus on the organization’s core competencies and
help to propel the business forward.
Even though a custom-built integration application may seem to offer control and
flexibility, it will only lock your organization into a suboptimal solution. Is integration
really your organization’s core competency? Can you spare the programming
resources? Do you have several months to develop, test and fine-tune your
application? If like most organizations you answered “no” to all of the above, buying
a highly reliable and functional packaged integration application is your best option.

The Pervasive Integration Solution

Pervasive integration software solutions help reduce the complexity, costs and risks
associated with traditional integration deployments by providing a versatile and
configurative integration architecture for rapid implementation, superior scalability,
low total cost of ownership and high ROI. The award-winning software features a
comprehensive set of easy-to-use visual design tools that allow organizations to
rapidly build and test integration processes—regardless of size and complexity—
across hundreds of data formats and applications, within and outside of the
enterprise.
The complete line of Pervasive data infrastructure software for database
management and integration products enable businesses to manage, integrate,
analyze and secure mission critical data for the industry’s best combination of
performance, reliability and total cost of ownership.
More information about Pervasive Software is available at www.pervasive.com.

Even though a custom-built

integration application may
seem to offer control and
flexibility, it will only lock
your organization into a
suboptimal solution.
8 The Business Imperative: Build versus Buy
... What our customers are saying
“We selected Pervasive to replace a custom program designed to extract data from
a billing application and populate SQL tables. Pervasive not only runs 10 times faster
than the custom application, but also gives us the flexibility to make changes to the
structures without custom coding. By using Pervasive we have cut in half the time
we spend on data migration.”
Jeff Thomas
Manager PC/Network Operations
Health Midwest Medical Group

“Pervasive allowed us to convert 100’s of manufacturer data sources all in one

project and enabled us to save thousands on custom programs to clean and import
the data. Data Junction’s ability to handle several format types really saved us many
headaches and gray hairs.”
Richard Campbell,
CTO
McAdams Technologies Inc

“In terms of getting our data warehouse to be a usable commodity for our staff, the
value of Pervasive has been priceless. It would take a programmer five times as long
to program, debug and maintain our system coding by hand. Also, one of the goals
with data warehousing is to evolve with the users’ needs quickly. With a simple,
visual tool like Data Junction the design of integration projects is easier and faster.”
Luke Evans,
Business Process Manager
Salvatore Ferragamo

If I had to write all of the conversions into programs it would have taken over 2000
hours. I did the whole conversion in about two weeks.
Skip First
Applications Support
BP - Toledo Refinery

Pervasive saved us 8 weeks and allowed us to stop trying to write a custom

conversion tool.
Jerry O’ Loughlin
Assc. Eng.
Pitney Bowes

We receive provider data from multiple sources in multiple formats and schemas.
Pervasive allows us to aggregate the data and cleanse it quickly and efficiently
based on complex business rules. These business rules are easy to create and
maintain. The data transformations are executed twice a week, taking the data
from the various sources and sending them to SQL Server. This data is then made

The Business Imperative: Build versus Buy 9

 available on the Web (searchable) and is also used to generate hard-copy provider
directories. This tool has been indispensable and has provided quantifiable business
value by eliminating the need to write custom programs to handle these data
transformations and ensuring data integrity and consistency.
Christopher W. Myers
Manager, Applications Development
Educators Mutual Life

Without Pervasive our last conversion project would have been a disaster. In under
six weeks my team had to convert inbound data files from over 30 different sources
in numerous different formats and Data Junction allowed us to meet that deadline.
Matt Czmer
Director of I.T.
FlexBen Corporation

When reviewing all methods to provide data conversion from our ERP system to
our Data Warehouse solution, no other product on the market came close to Data
Junction. We had a tight delivery date and could not afford the extra time to develop
an in-house solution. I created all the conversions needed in a few days from the
time I opened the box. The intuitive design was easy to follow and I grouped the
entire process together via the Project Manager. Now the project is a one-click
solution made possible by Data Junction.
Tim Gieske
Manager IT
SunChemical

Truly a product that provides the ultimate in data conversion, transformation and
transportation between a wide variety of platforms, data types and environments
with minimal effort required and the complete elimination of externally coded
programs in ANY language. Be sure to consider on-site training, We had a Pervasive
Support person on-site for training using our real data and it drastically reduced
our learning curve and helped us learn and at the same time solve real world data
conversion and migration problems.
Chuck Ballinger
Information Analyst
Avista Corp

Pervasive’s ability to encapsulate data transformation rules made the task of

migrating dozens of tables from a custom legacy system to SAP 4.6 possible. Only
one developer was needed to handle this task. The resulting transformation “code”
not only served it’s purpose, it still serves as valuable documentation. Not having to
hand-code a batch conversion module for each data source was a real time-saver.
Crew Reynolds
Software Development Manager
Daydots International

10 The Business Imperative: Build versus Buy

The Business Imperative: Build versus Buy 11
 Unleashing the value of data

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