Building vs. Buying Enterprise BCM Software: A Practical Guide

When your organization outgrows spreadsheets for business continuity planning, the next step is software. The big decision? Whether to build your own or buy a commercial solution.

Spoiler: For most organizations, buying is faster, more affordable, and far easier to maintain.

That doesn’t mean building is always the wrong move, but it comes with higher costs, longer timelines, and more risk. This post will help you weigh both paths and make the right call for your organization.

Is it Better to Build or Buy Business Continuity Software?

There’s no single right answer to whether it’s better to build or buy business continuity software. The best choice depends on your organization’s priorities, internal resources, budget, and long-term goals.

That said, it’s essential to approach the decision with clear expectations, particularly regarding cost and timeline.

Commercial business continuity software typically requires an annual investment of $10,000 to $100,000, with implementation taking several weeks to a few months. Over five years, the total cost of ownership for a mid-to-large enterprise generally falls between $350,000 and $500,000. Most subscriptions include support, updates, and maintenance.

For a more cost-effective option, consider BCMMetrics. It offers the core functionality most organizations need at up to 4x less than traditional enterprise tools. Our modular pricing model lets you bundle only the tools you need and scale as your program grows. The more you bundle, the more you save, with discounts of up to 35%.

It’s also worth noting that around 70% of software costs occur after initial implementation. That makes commercial solutions even more economical over a typical 7–8 year lifecycle, especially when factoring in ongoing support, updates, and the cost of maintaining internally built tools.

In the sections that follow, I’ll outline the types of organizations that may be better suited to building a custom solution and those that are likely to benefit more from purchasing off-the-shelf solutions.

You Should Buy Off-the-Shelf Business Continuity Software If …

If most or all of the following are true of your organization, your best bet is probably to shop around for a good off-the-shelf BCM software package:

• Your organization is small.
• Your organization does not have access to a development team.
• You are not confident that your organization can handle the ongoing burdens and expense of supporting a proprietary software tool.
• Your organization does not have highly complex business continuity needs. You would be perfectly well served by a “vanilla” Business Impact Analysis (BIA).
• Your business continuity planning has just started.
• You want to get something implemented quickly.
• Your organization is budget-conscious.

If this sounds like your situation, take a virtual tour of BCMMetrics. The platform is designed for organizations that want to set up a reliable business continuity program without the overhead of building or maintaining custom software. It includes everything you need to conduct BIAs, track compliance, and assess residual risk all in one place.

You’ll see exactly how the tools work, how they’re configured, and how they scale as your program matures.

You Should Build Custom Business Continuity Software If … 

However, if most or all of the following are true about your organization, you might want to look seriously at building your own enterprise business continuity solution:

• Your organization is of medium or large size.
• You have access to a strong in-house or third-party development team.
• Your development team has the expertise, time, desire, and budget to build, maintain, update, and support the tool for as long as it is in use, including staffing a help desk.
• You will have the authority to hold the developers accountable for the quality of their work.
• You are currently using, but are dissatisfied with, an off-the-shelf product (for example, because it is too difficult to use or has unnecessary bells and whistles).
• Your organization is unusually complex and has special needs or wants that are not met by any of the available off-the-shelf solutions or would require extensive customization of them. 
  • For example, if you want a BIA tool that asks for specific information, your organization has specific security needs, or you have been given unique reporting requirements by management.
• Your company has been doing business continuity for a while, giving you have a good understanding of your needs and requirements.
• You have plenty of time. Building proprietary software takes a great deal of time to complete successfully. It almost always takes longer than you think it will.

And finally:

Notice that I don’t say, “Your company has an in-house development team which needs something to do.” That by itself is not a good reason to begin building a proprietary business continuity tool. If ready-made software does not meet the other requirements, the program will likely fail, causing problems far greater than having underutilized staff resources.

Still Not Sure Whether You Should Build or Buy Business Continuity Software?

The lists above might have already helped you see whether your organization would be best served by building its own tool or buying something off the shelf. If not, here are some steps you can take to help you get a clearer idea of whether you should build or buy:

• Assess your organization’s software development capabilities. Ask yourself if you are up for the challenges of building and supporting your own tool.
• Consider whether your organization can sustain the long-term expenses of maintaining your own tool.
• Examine your organization’s appetite for facing unforeseen challenges.
• Assess how much time and budget you have. (Based on my experience and observations, it is usually much cheaper and faster to buy than build.)
• Analyze your requirements and do the research needed to determine whether off-the-shelf products are available that will meet them.
• Consider hiring a business continuity consultant to help you sort through these issues and make an informed decision. BCMMetrics’ sister company, MHA Consulting, provides such services.

To put it in a nutshell: If a commercial business continuity software program meets at least 80% of your requirements, you would probably find it better to buy than build.

Read this blog to help you decide on the best business continuity software.

Deciding on Off-the-Shelf Commercial Enterprise BCM Software

If you do end up deciding that your organization would probably be better off buying than building, you’ll then face a whole other series of questions. This isn’t the time to get into the topic in-depth, but here are a few quick points that are worth your consideration:

• There are some excellent products out there. Unless your organization is extremely unique, there are any number of off-the-shelf software packages of proven effectiveness that will probably meet your needs.
• Ease of use is key. If the tool isn’t easy to use, the staff will lose interest, and will not do the work. This will result in your program will lose its effectiveness and fall out of compliance with your chosen standard.
• Watch out for products that are overly complex. Unnecessary bells and whistles come at a cost in terms of efficiency and user-friendliness.
• A completely customizable and personalized software can become complex and hard to use. 

Consider BCMMetrics Business Continuity Management Tools

Finally, if you are thinking about buying a business continuity solution, you might consider our tools. The software tools developed by BCMMetrics can provide just these types of benefits. If you’re searching for business continuity software, take a look at BCMMetrics. Our cloud-based solutions facilitate compliance across your business continuity program and include tools to help with:

• Conducting BIAs. BIA On-Demand gives you all the right questions to ask for every BIA interview. It also organizes the data to provide insights and easily share with your team.
• Evaluating standards compliance. Compliance Confidence (C2) makes it simple to assess your program’s level of compliance against key industry standards. It also gives you a “FICO-like” score that helps identify areas for improvement.
• Assessing your program’s residual risk. Residual Risk (R2) quantitatively identifies where pockets of residual risk exist and helps you evaluate how to handle them.

Our tools are intuitive, secure, and get the job done. If that’s what you’re looking for in a business continuity management system, schedule a free demo of our software today.