"Following information comes from Array BioPharma (Boulder, Colorado, USA) for answering the question of Build Vs. Buy Vs. a Hybrid approach". Array BioPharma used a hybrid approach to develop and deploy seven major drug discovery informatics sub-systems in 18 months. Please email us at info@twist2.com for further information.

An Optimized Compromise Defined

"Build" can be defined as using internal resources or hired external resources to develop the software system from the beginning, performing all stages of software development including analysis, design, testing, deployment and maintenance. Larger companies tend to lean toward build solutions because they have adequate resources to undertake large projects, such as developing an entire informatics system from the ground up. By internally building software solutions, the company can directly control the process, own the resulting system. However, internally built systems also can be extremely costly, frequently fail and require a resource investment that is outside the core business focus of the company. A standish group (West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, USA) report showed that in 1994, approximately 80% of all internal software projects were challenged or failed completely. In other words, the software either delivered curtailed functionality or never delivered at all.

"Buy" can be defined as purchasing products and services from an external party to deploy, integrate and maintain a software system. Smaller companies tend to buy software systems to minimize the up-front implementation costs. Bought systems quickly yield a broad array of features but make the company beholden to the vendor for business-critical system enhancements, often requiring expensive, vendor-implemented customization. As a result, the down-stream costs of the bought system can grow while the costs of converting to a more cost-effective system remain prohibitive. Thus, companies that have bought systems can find themselves locked into a contractual arrangement that becomes less and less advantageous over time. Furthermore, a company that buys a discovery informatics infrastructure can find itself adapting to the software limitations rather than tailoring the systems to fit their growing and changing needs.

"Both" can be defined as purchasing products from an external party and using local resources to employ those products in the development and deployment of the software system.

By some estimates, 80% of software costs are incurred while maintaining it, while only 20% are in the initial implementation.

Through the Both approach, the company acquires local resources that primarily are responsible for the software needs of the company; thus, the company can exert control over those resources and set priorities accordingly. Furthermore, these benefits are acquired without also assuming all the costs of developing a system and, more importantly, without committing to long-term system maintenance costs.

In fact, by some estimates, 80% of the costs of software are incurred while maintaining the software, while only 20% of the costs are in the initial implementation. Because the costs of system maintenance are shares, a company pursuing a Both approach only will incur a subset of the maintenance costs, thereby reaping continuous benefits throughout the software system's useful life cycle.

Twist2 dedicates to provide China Local Customers high-quality software, high-quality service, fast-to-respond support and a subset of the system costs compared with oversea vendors.