In the realm of software development, the age-old question about building software in-house or buying it from vendors is very common. It is not surprising that this question is also very common when it comes to enterprise-level Trust & SafetyThe field and practices that manage challenges related to content- and conduct-related risk, including but not limited to consideration of safety-by-design, product governance, risk assessment, detection, response, quality assurance, and transparency. See also: Safety by design (T&S) tools. Luckily, there is a long history of research on this question, starting from the 1990s when process support and automation software, such as SAP and Oracle appeared and eventually became commonly used – and later on Salesforce, Zendesk, HubSpot, and the likes.
The core goals of T&S tools revolve around efficiency, accuracy, completeness, and nowadays compliance with emerging regulations around the globe. These tools serve as backbones, ensuring operational efficiency, quality of company policy enforcement, data quality, but also innovation, and fostering confidence in safety and security for both the company and its users, and stakeholders. Platforms cannot afford to lose customers because of T&S challenges!
This blogpost aims to explore how these– and other– considerations can determine the buy vs. build choice. Based on many years of research, we have also developed a simple tool that can help you make this decision!
Trust & Safety Software – 4 key factors
At Tremau, we believe there are 4 key factors that can determine if building or buying is the best decision for you: we want to make your decision simple and most effective! These include:
- Strategy and competitive advantage;
- Implementation Effort;
- Total Cost of Ownership (beyond startup costs), and,
- Regulatory Risks.
1. Strategy and Competitive Advantage
Efficient and effective T&S tools and processes play an important role in eliminating business risks and retaining satisfied users while ensuring cost-optimised operational excellence. Your company’s capacity to continuously improve its T&S practices, align them with evolving business needs and industry (best or good) practices, can prove critical for you not to fall behind your peers over time. At the same time, properly identifying proprietary practices that are critical for your business is also important. However, “not everything invented here exists only here”.
Moreover, your T&S technology strategy should also align with the core competencies of your organisation. It is no surprise that over the past decades, many companies across industries have opted for buying enterprise software for example for their customer support or customer relations management processes.
2. Implementation Effort
Implementation effort – how many resources you need to redirect to the development of your T&S systems – is a key factor for your decision. Assessing your capability to execute software development or opting to outsource typically becomes a key part of the discussion early on. Initiating a project from scratch demands a comprehensive understanding and mapping of the required functionalities, scale, complexity, and technological innovations. Evaluating the intricacies of existing T&S/moderation processes and tools becomes pivotal. Assessing internal resources—ranging from business and technical expertise to regulatory know-how — helps you understand the actual implementation effort needed.
The ever-evolving nature of T&S also mandates a grasp of industry changes at a near-constant pace, necessitating ongoing development to remain up-to-date. Moreover, while building in-house can be efficient with the right tools and capabilities, sustaining your systems through continuous improvement and maintenance can eventually prove critical for long-term success.
3. Total Cost of Ownership
Looking beyond the initial investment, building enterprise software incurs continuous expenses. Understanding the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) becomes critical. TCO encompasses not just the initial costs but also extends to operational and retirement expenses. Initial costs span purchases, hardware, implementation, data migration, licences, training, and customization – among others. Operational expenses include maintenance, user licences, updates, training, support, security, disaster recovery, and downtime – among others. Retirement costs encompass data exports, systems archiving, and managing inactive licences – among others. There is plenty of research about all these “hidden costs” based on the experiences of thousands of companies over the past decades.
4. Regulatory Risks
If there is one significant change happening in the T&S space these days, it is the development of new regulations that can significantly impact your business. Everyone is talking nowadays about the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) as well as the more recent UK Online Safety Act (OSA). If you have users in the EU or in the UK, you’d better watch out as these regulations will start already biting you – with significant fines in case you do not comply – already in Q1 2024!
Nobody wishes to be in the news for breaching regulations, costing you not only cash but also reputation. Of course, how much you need to do depends on your current state of T&S processes and practices as well as the specifics of your business. You will definitely need to assess your regulatory risks and gaps from the new and evolving requirements and take action accordingly. Any gaps you may have relative to your regulatory requirements, but also the number of jurisdictions you operate– as well as the expected evolution of regulations– are all factors that you need to consider.
How can you assess all this?
By aligning all these factors with your core competencies and business priorities, the decision between building and buying T&S software becomes more informed and conducive to your overall business objectives.
At Tremau we have developed a simple tool that can guide you through this process. It is based on many years of research and can be very effective in helping you and your teams with this decision. It is a simple 10-question test you can take!
We are here to help you!
When considering T&S solutions, and the build vs buy question, Tremau is here to help! We are an ideal partner for you seeking a comprehensive, expert-driven approach to this question, as we have been studying this question for years! Our team also includes world experts on T&S-related regulations that you may be required to comply with, including both the EU’s DSA and the UK’s OSA. Our experts can also help you assess potential gaps you may have from regulatory requirements or common industry practices – we have already worked with a number of Very Large Online PlatformsAn online platform refers to a digital service that enables interactions between two or more sets of users who are distinct but interdependent and use the service to communicate via the internet. The phrase "online platform" is a broad term used to refer to various internet services such as marketplaces, search engines, social media, etc. In the DSA, online platforms... (VLOPs) and other platforms (from social media to gaming, marketplaces, dating, and others) on this. We have extensive experience you can benefit from!
We do not want you to buy T&S solutions when that is not the best decision for your business!
And if you decide to buy, Tremau offers a portfolio of T&S tools built around our world-class T&S platform, Nima, that is meticulously designed for efficient and effective moderation and compliance, helping you always have best-in-class T&S operations in the most cost-efficient way.
To find out more, contact us at info@tremau.com
