Project management guide
Should an operations team buy work management software or build a custom system?
Buy work management software such as Smartsheet when your operation runs on common patterns and you need the team working in it soon. Build a custom system when the rules of your operation are what make it yours, because a product meters automation and charges per seat every year, and a system you own does neither.
| What you are comparing | A product | A custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Cost over five years | Per-seat fees every year at the plan that carries the automation, approvals and sign-on you need, plus an Enterprise quote if you grow into capacity planning or audit history. | A build priced once in a written scope, then running costs such as hosting. Nothing is licensed, so the total stays level as the team and the number of sites grow. |
| Per-seat fees | Yes. Operations tools touch most of the company, so seat counts run high, and some vendors charge for anyone who edits. | None. Operators, supervisors, requesters in other departments and executives all sign in with no fee per person. |
| Fit to your process | General shapes such as boards, grids and task lists. Rules that do not fit are handled by people remembering them. | Built from your process, with your routing, approval thresholds, deadlines and exceptions written into the system. |
| Time to launch | Quick to start for one team. Rolling out to every department and site is a project with setup, permissions and training. | Begins with discovery and a written scope that sets the schedule. Working screens are shown as the build goes on. |
| Recurring work and automation | Often metered. Several vendors publish a monthly count of automation actions or runs, and it rises with the plan. | Not metered. A process can run as often as the operation needs without drawing on an allowance. |
| Approvals and audit history | Available, with the history and the finer permissions often on the highest tier. | Every decision is recorded as part of the system, and who can approve what follows your own matrix. |
| Reporting for leadership | Dashboards inside the tool, limited to the data the tool holds. | Reports built on your own database, which can include data from the other systems named in the scope. |
When buying work management software is the right answer
Buy when the operation looks like most operations. If your requests, checklists and approvals follow common patterns, a product has them ready and your team can be using it almost at once.
Buy when you are still learning what the process should be. A product is a cheap place to experiment. Once the process settles you will know whether the product still fits.
When building a custom work management system is the right answer
Build when the rules are the business. If the way you route, approve and escalate work is what keeps quality up or cost down, those rules belong in software and not in the memory of two supervisors.
Build when the tool no longer holds all the work. A work management tool surrounded by spreadsheets, email approvals and a weekly report assembled by hand is no longer one system. Replacing all of it with one that you own is usually simpler than adding another product.
How to compare the cost of a subscription with a custom build
Count every seat. Operations tools are used by the operations team, by the departments that send requests and by the managers who approve them. Price the plan you need for all of them, across five years, with the Enterprise tier if audit history or capacity planning is on your list.
Then get a written scope for the build. Black Badger does not publish a price, since the figure depends on what the system must do and connect to. The scope gives you one number to set beside the five-year product total, with running costs listed separately.
What a custom build involves, and how to ask about one
Questions buyers ask
Can a custom operations system replace several tools at once?
Yes, a custom operations system can often replace several tools at once. Intake, recurring tasks, approvals and reporting usually sit in different products or spreadsheets. A custom build can bring them into one system, and the written scope says which ones it replaces and which it connects to.
What if our process changes after the system is built?
If your process changes after the system is built, the system changes with it. You own the code, so a new step or rule is scoped and added. Nothing waits for a vendor roadmap.
Is a custom system only for the largest companies?
No, a custom system is not limited to the largest companies. Black Badger works mainly with companies of 50 or more employees. At that size there is an established process, a sizable license bill and enough at stake to justify owning the system.