Working for Telligent the last 6 years, I’ve heard all sorts of spirited “Buy or Build” arguments related to social community software.
Here are some of my favorites…
- “We only need a little bit of social functionality for now. Our developers are smart, so they’ll just build it for us. I mean, really, how hard is it to create a forum, right?”
- “IT says build it so we own it and save money but marketing says buy it to accelerate our time to market and reduce risks of project delays and budget overruns.”
- “Our digital group wants full control of the look and feel and customizations. They say we are going to need something custom.”
In just these examples, you can see how easy it is to convince others (and yourself), what position to take on the matter. The problem with these statements is that the person is usually approaching the problem as if there’s only one correct answer; to either Buy it OR Build it.
I’m here to tell you that the answer is easier to solve for than you think. With Telligent Community, you can Buy it AND Build it.
- Telligent Community is available in various sizes and price ranges to meet any budget – even when commercial software wasn’t part of the original plan. There’s a Free Edition, a Starter Edition, and an Enterprise Edition and each has full functionality. Depending on your project needs, you can start with the edition you are most comfortable with. Use Telligent to jumpstart your project.
- Telligent Community has prebuilt applications like blogs, forums (with very good SPAM and Moderation controls in 9.x by the way), wikis, media galleries, activity streams and more, that can be implemented as is, or they be customized or extended by your developers in an upgrade-safe manner using our developer-friendly tools built within the platform and available at GitHub.com/Telligent.
- Telligent Community can be “skinned” or “themed” any way you want. You can be as creative and engaging as you want your brand to be. Compare Telligent-powered communities to any other product on the market and you’ll see why the most demanding Creative and Digital Agencies choose Telligent.
So, what’s the answer to that “Buy or Build” question?
It’s Yes. Buy it AND Build it with Telligent Community.