Every story tagged Build VS BUY Strategy, curated for CIOs and IT leaders — ranked by source credibility, engagement, and freshness.
2 stories · open in the command center
After two decades of defaulting to buying software, CIOs must reconsider this strategy as three fundamental shifts have changed the economics: AI-assisted development has made custom builds 70-90% faster and more cost-effective, non-technical business users can now build applications without traditional IT involvement, and managed services have commoditized previously risky engineering disciplines. The strategic risk has shifted from whether to build to whether organizations can govern what gets built—requiring CIOs to transition from gatekeepers preventing custom development to architects ensuring competitive workflows remain differentiated rather than standardized by off-the-shelf solutions.
AI-powered development tools have reduced custom software build costs by an order of magnitude while SaaS pricing remains unchanged, driving 35% of teams to replace purchased tools with custom builds and 60% of builders to create solutions outside IT oversight. This shift is creating significant shadow IT risks, with business users building faster than procurement can provision tools, particularly for workflow automation and admin tools that never fit off-the-shelf solutions well. The current governance gap represents both a security liability and a strategic opportunity—organizations that can provide governed, fast build environments will capture ROI while those relying on traditional procurement will lose visibility and control.