As your organization scales and your requirements for knowledge management become more intricate and complex, it’s natural to consider building in-house solutions to meet your needs, such as internal knowledge bases, customer-facing help centers, and ticket processing applications.
While internal solution development certainly has its benefits, such as customization to specific needs and greater control over features, there are potential pitfalls as well. For starters, nearly half of IT projects exceed their initial budgets. Another 49% take longer than expected to complete, and 14% fail altogether. The bottom line? Building in-house might be the right path for your company, but it will cost time and money, and it’s important to factor in unexpected delays, budget overruns, and the ongoing need for maintenance and support.
In this article, we’ll explore the pros and cons of developing internal knowledge systems in-house versus purchasing highly customizable solutions.
When companies build internally, they tend to view these projects as less formal than full-on vendor assessments despite the fact that these projects are often similar to vendor solutions in terms of complexity and requirements, just without the label of a proof of concept (POC).
Consider this extensive list of factors to account for when building internally. It showcases that the process is not as simple or isolated as it may seem:
Of course, like most big undertakings, this process is much easier in theory. In practice, it can take anywhere from several months to a few years to build, test, and deploy an internal knowledge system that works.
Once the system is developed, trialed, and improved based on the initial feedback, there are often various technical limitations to consider. These include scalability, performance, security, and long-term viability issues.
Questions to ask yourself when you’re deciding whether it makes sense to build a knowledge management platform in-house are:
As you answer these questions, keep in mind that technology is changing at exponential levels. This means to create a system that works in the short- and long-term, you need to build with flexibility and future-proofing in mind, allowing for easy updates and integration with new technologies.
In addition, there are major security risks to account for, with 30% of companies needing to plan for a data breach within the next two years. This means whatever you build needs to incorporate thorough security measures, such as encryption, regular security audits, and compliance with industry standards, to protect your data.
Think the hard part is over? Think again. Integrating diverse data sources and maintaining them comes with its own set of challenges. If you want disparate systems to successfully communicate in real time, you’ll need to invest in in-depth data mapping, transformation, and synchronization processes.
But this can lead to high technical debt, meaning you may have to rework the solution at some point due to earlier decisions that were expedient but suboptimal. Another downfall? Your system might work well in the short term, but not be a viable future solution. This means it may be costly, fragile, require frequent updates, and be prone to failures. Over time, the cost of addressing this technical debt can far exceed the initial savings, making it imperative to consider the long-term implications of whether it’s truly worth it to build in-house, or find a viable existing alternative.
A costly mistake organizations may make when building in-house is assigning top engineering talent to the task. It may sound counterintuitive — after all, these are the best, most talented people, so naturally, they should lead the project, right?
The answer is not always. Here’s why: Even if you’re pulling your top performers to work on building this solution, if it doesn’t align with their specific expertise, it can decrease their productivity and motivation. This can create delays and mean it may take longer for the solution to reach the intended users. Plus, if these top engineers are spending most of their time trying to build and test this system, they may miss out on other opportunities to drive the business forward — meaning there’s a direct impact to your organization’s bottom line.
The long-term impacts are even more profound. High-value projects and strategic initiatives may be delayed or shelved altogether, resulting in missed opportunities for growth and competitive advantage. Plus, your top engineers may become disengaged and frustrated if they aren’t able to leverage their skills in a meaningful way, leading to potential retention issues.
Initially, managing content in an in-house solution is straightforward. With a small team, tracking updates and verifying accuracy is manageable. However, as more teams adopt the platform and add content, this becomes challenging.
Imagine starting with a small team using a knowledge management system for project documentation. Everything runs smoothly at first, with regular updates and accurate information. Then, as the marketing, sales, and HR teams begin uploading their content, the volume of information increases dramatically. Teams may upload similar documents in silos, leading to multiple versions and inconsistencies. Updating content becomes slower as more stakeholders are involved, delaying important information.
Without proper oversight, manual updates also increase the likelihood of errors. Maintaining content accuracy and timeliness will probably overwhelm the individuals in charge, which will sideline their primary tasks and degrade the system’s reliability.
This means the system initially built to efficiently disseminate information no longer serves its intended purpose. Instead, employees end up losing trust in the solution, revert to old habits, and the organization misses out on the system’s actual benefits.
To avoid this scenario, organizations can leverage automated content management features in their end-to-end platforms. Automated solutions help keep information relevant, timely, and easily accessible. They reduce the burden on individuals, improve content accuracy, and streamline the update process, allowing employees to focus on their core tasks without losing productivity in the process.
Launching pilot programs is nothing new for most organizations. However, a pilot can only be as successful as its users. Without active and engaged users, it won’t work — period. Users matter because they’re the ones providing feedback and interacting with the system. These are the people who help drive improvements, identify gaps, and determine whether the solution serves its intended purpose.
When users are engaged and provide constructive feedback, they help refine the system, making it more effective and user-friendly. But, if they’re disengaged or frustrated by constant issues, the pilot program may fail to provide valuable insights, leading to suboptimal outcomes and wasted resources.
Common design pitfalls include platforms that:
These pitfalls negatively impact the user experience and can lead to dissatisfaction and reduced adoption.
One of the easiest ways to increase adoption and employee engagement is to leverage a professionally designed platform.
The advantages of doing this include:
And, by using your organization’s API, you can even facilitate bespoke UI/UX designs that match your organization’s specific needs. For example, let’s say you integrate your system with popular SaaS tools like Slack, Salesforce, or Microsoft Teams. This connection between your API and UI/UX could improve workflows and keep your teams within familiar environments, therefore improving their productivity. Or maybe you need a system that can surface vetted answers within your help center, solving many customer issues without a touchpoint. These integrations would allow you to achieve these goals easily.
When moving an internal project to a full-scale production system, aligning with broader enterprise goals involves several key considerations. These include:
Once you’ve reviewed these considerations and you’re ready to begin the implementation process, start by taking a phased approach. You’ll want to focus on integration, security, and compliance to mitigate risks and facilitate smoother transitions. Also, plan for ongoing support and maintenance to address future updates or fixes, rather than leaving the solution unattended after launch. And don’t forget to allocate internal resources, such as dedicated support teams, to continuously manage and optimize the system.
Here’s a pro-tip you shouldn’t ignore: while it might be tempting to move on quickly after launching a solution, sustaining it is crucial. Engineering talent often gets reassigned to new projects too soon, which can lead to performance degradation. In the software industry, a good rule of thumb is that it takes 17% of the original cost of the solution each year just to keep it running. This figure doesn’t even include the cost of adding new functionality; it’s purely about maintaining the existing system. Failure to plan for sustainment can result in user dissatisfaction, unnecessary downtime, and an outdated system that doesn’t perform as it should.
The reason many organizations opt to build, rather than buy, is because they think it’s more cost effective than a third-party SaaS solution. In the short term, this may seem true. But over time, the talent and money required to manage, sustain, and improve your solution is likely to cost a lot more than leveraging a third-party solution. Plus, predicting the total cost of your build can be challenging, not to mention the ongoing maintenance costs over the years.
In contrast, a third-party product allows you to budget for the exact cost over time, providing a clear financial picture. It also gives you access to a continuously updated platform that your team doesn’t have to manage. This means you can focus your resources on core business activities rather than getting bogged down by system maintenance and updates.
If you’re interested in learning more about how a knowledge management solution can help your organization improve efficiency and save money while enhancing the customer and employee experience, get in touch with our team of experts. We’ll show you how Ask-AI’s knowledge management solution can integrate with your existing SaaS tools, proactively building out your knowledge base, and identify where knowledge gaps exist. Ask-AI not only streamlines information management but it also supports continuous improvement without the hidden costs and resource strain of a custom-built system.
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