Build or Buy? Why proven work management solutions beat in-house projects every time

Building your own system sounds strategic. In reality, it's often a distraction

Many organisations think building a digital work management platform internally will give them a tailored solution for managing their maintenance execution. For IT teams, it’s an attractive idea. It represents an interesting project, a chance to prove capability, and something tangible to own.

But here’s the reality: most internal builds are expensive, slow, and fail to deliver meaningful operational gains.

1. Strategy-led vs project thinking

Internal builds are often project-driven. They’re scoped for what the business wants today, and may not consider what it will need tomorrow. The result is a system that fits current processes but struggles to adapt as your business grows or transforms.

In contrast, proven industry solutions are strategy-led. They continuously evolve to meet emerging industry needs and regulatory changes, giving your business a future-proof solution.

These tools also capture best practices gleaned from working with hundreds of clients and sites around the world. No matter how skilled an internal IT team is, they can’t match the depth, richness, and value that comes from leveraging this real on-the-ground expertise.

But even beyond adaptability, internal IT solution builds carry major risks.

2. Proven results, not experiments

Building internally is risky. Consistently, research has found that 70% of large-scale IT projects exceed budgets or fail to deliver on promised outcomes. That’s millions in sunk costs with no performance gain.

Proven specialist products are different. Significant time and resources have been invested into the solutions to make sure they meet high standards of quality, performance and security while delivering value to the end users. They’re tested, refined, and scaled across asset-intensive industries, giving you predictable outcomes and immediate operational value. You know exactly what you’re getting before implementation – without the uncertainty.

3. Built by maintenance and IT experts with deep domain knowledge

Internal IT teams are experts in your systems. But building a high performing work management platform requires expertise in maintenance workflows, human factors, safety protocols, and compliance – knowledge built over years across hundreds of mining or heavy industry sites.

Obzervr’s Digital Work Management Solution, for example, has combined technical excellence with deep operational and maintenance insight gained from over 100 years collective mining maintenance experience - delivering a fieldwork automation and mobility solution designed by people who understand heavy industry fieldwork and maintenance performance.

4. Faster, smarter innovation

Proven solutions are always evolving through continuously innovation and development roadmaps. Dedicated R&D teams release improvements in months, not years, integrating client feedback, global best practices and new technologies.

Internal builds rarely keep up. Development slows once initial budgets are exhausted, and innovation stalls as teams move onto other projects or back to BAU, leaving your business continously falling behind.

5. Immediate value without the wait

Even before innovation becomes an issue, just launching your internal solution can be a challenge.

Building your own platform can take years before rollout. Proven products deliver fast. Many are live within three months, with implementation strategies that reduce change friction and drive adoption. With Obzervr, you can be up and running the Obzervr Digital Work Management Solution within 30 days or full integrated with your business systems in 90 days through our fully supported and phased implementation approach.

6. Total cost of ownership

Many organisations focus only on build costs when evaluating an internal project. But the total cost of ownership includes far more – ongoing support, enhancements, security management, user training, infrastructure upgrades, and compliance changes over the platform’s life.

Proven products deliver predictable, transparent costs and investment shared across multiple clients. Internal builds often end up far more expensive over five to ten years, with fewer benefits and slower innovation.

These high costs are compounded by hidden risks in staffing and support.

7. Ongoing support, key person risk, and maintenance burden

Internal builds often rely on a few key people with specialist knowledge of the system’s design and code. If these team members leave mid-project or after launch, your organisation faces serious risks. Without them, maintaining, supporting, and enhancing the platform becomes difficult, expensive, and slow.

Building your own digital work management platform doesn’t end at go-live. Internal teams must handle all maintenance, bug fixes, enhancements, security patches, and compliance updates. This creates a long-term drain on IT resources, limiting capacity for other strategic projects.

Proven digital work management products avoid these issues. Specialist technology vendors provide a team with broad expertise, detailed documentation, proactive updates, and ongoing support – ensuring continuity and freeing your internal team to focus on business priorities instead of system upkeep.

How Obzervr can help

Obzervr is a specialist provider of fieldwork automation and mobility solutions for mining and heavy industry.

With over 100 years collective mining maintenance experience, we understand maintenance strategy and how to operationalise it through technology and automation.

As a technology solution partner, our approach starts by reviewing your existing digital landscape. We then configure our Obzervr Digital Work Management Solution to align with your goals, support your frontline maintenance teams, and integrate with the business systems you already rely on.

In many cases, Obzervr replaces fragmented tools with a single, integrated platform, bringing everything together without sacrificing flexibility.

You benefit from:

• Fast innovation cycles and improvement roadmap, with releases in months, not years
• Immediate impact and fast time to value, with clients going live with a fully integrated solution in as little as 90 days
• Proven results, not high-risk internal experiments, backed by successful deployments across asset-intensive industries
• Future-proofed technology and support, continuously evolving to meet emerging industry needs and regulations.

The result?
Consistent execution, cleaner workflows, unparalleled visibility, and measurable ROI.

When deciding whether to build or buy, proven technology solutions like Obzervr's Digital Work Management Solution deliver outcomes that internal builds simply can’t match.

Keen to learn more?

Contact our team or book a 30-60min Introductory Discovery Session. During this initial session, we'll:

• Discuss your organisation’s asset management priorities and maintenance challenges
• Provide a tailored overview of Obzervr’s Digital Work Management Solution
• Explain how our 90-day implementation approach makes the digital transformation of maintenance easier and faster.

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