When inheriting a CRM mess, one of the first big decisions you'll face is whether to build a custom solution in-house or purchase a vendor-provided integration. Each approach comes with its own set of advantages and trade-offs, so making the right choice depends on your organization's resources, needs, and long-term strategy.
Understanding the Trade-Offs: Build vs. Buy
Selecting the best approach impacts both the speed and effectiveness of your implementation. Here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons of each option:
Why Build?
- Greater control over customization – Tailor every aspect of the integration to fit your specific workflows.
However, building an in-house solution also presents challenges:
- Higher upfront costs – Requires significant engineering resources and development time.
- Ongoing maintenance burden – Your internal team is responsible for updates, bug fixes, and scalability.
- Slower deployment – Custom solutions take longer to design, test, and implement.
Why Buy?
- Faster time to value – Deploy a vendor-supported integration quickly, often with minimal setup.
- Lower costs – Typically more cost-effective than developing and maintaining a custom solution in-house.
- Regular updates – Vendors continually refine their integrations to keep pace with Salesforce advancements.
- Access to expertise – Vendors bring best practices and built-in support, reducing the learning curve.
- Reduced dependency on internal teams – Free up your development resources for other priorities.
The downside? Vendor solutions may have limitations on customization and may require budget approvals for licensing fees.
Assessing Your Internal Resources and Readiness
Before making a decision, evaluate your team’s technical capabilities and availability. Consider:
- Do you have highly experienced Salesforce strategists and developers on staff?
- How much time can your team dedicate to building and maintaining a custom solution?
- Have you successfully developed similar Salesforce integrations before?
If internal expertise is limited or stretched thin, a vendor solution like SaaSTrack is the better choice.
Defining Time-to-Value Expectations
Time is a crucial factor in Salesforce customization. Outline:
- How soon do you need the integration live?
- What business impact do you expect within that timeframe?
- Will a delay in implementation affect revenue, efficiency, or customer experience?
If you need rapid deployment and immediate ROI, a vendor solution like SaaSTrack is likely the smarter move.
Why SaaSTrack is the Better Option
If you're looking for a solution that balances functionality, speed, and cost-efficiency, SaaSTrack is the ideal choice. Unlike starting from scratch in-house, SaaSTrack is pre-built with SaaS best practices.
Key Benefits of SaaSTrack:
- Purpose-Built for SaaS – Designed specifically to align with the Winning by Design framework.
- Rapid Deployment – Get up and running quickly without the need for an extensive design phase.
- Continuous Innovation – Regular updates to keep pace with Salesforce advancements and best practices.
- Data-Driven Insights – Winning-by-Design-vetted analytics to track Bowtie progression, SPICED coaching opportunities, and pipeline issues.
- Expert Support – Access to CRM strategists who understand both Winning by Design and Salesforce inside and out.
With SaaSTrack, you get the best of both worlds—customization where it matters and a hassle-free implementation process that enables your sales teams to focus on selling, not troubleshooting CRM issues.
Next Steps
Ready to streamline your SaaS data and processes? Book a demo today and see how quickly you can build your revenue factory to drive growth—without the headaches of building in-house.
