Remember when companies built their own ERP systems? Right…neither do we. But at one time, they did, with regularity. Now, it seems an antiquated notion. With ERP systems fully mature and quite powerful, there really is no business case to build out your own at this point. The same shift has now occurred with e-commerce platforms.

As companies push the envelope of their e-commerce technologies to support multichannel and international strategies, many are replacing their existing commerce platforms in the search for richer functionality, greater flexibility and superior scalability. As e-commerce teams begin the voyage to best-of-breed platform nirvana, an early question is often posed: build or buy? Commerce platforms have evolved significantly over the past 10 years, and there is an unprecedented level of powerful features and functionality baked into the top commercial platforms.

Many times, retail I.T. departments have very limited resources. When it comes to this question of build vs. buy, companies that choose to build an e-commerce platform and applications in house are often putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage. They’re essentially following the market rather than leading if competitors buy an e-commerce solution with the latest practical or cool features already bundled in. There are a whole host of other arguments that make the case for buying over building. One of the key analysts covering the market, Forrester’s Brian Walker, is the latest to weigh in. We’ll let you take his word for it.