Inside MCI's decision to build or to buy IT applications

In the past year, MCI had to make a decision about whether to buy or build a system to track third-party services inventory. The following series of questions illustrates how the company arrived at a decision to buy the application.

Should we build?

Q: Is there competitive advantage in building?

A: No competitive advantage.

Q: Is the project covering core or generic business processes?

A: Generic.

Q: Is there business expertise in-house to build something world-class?

A: Yes, but resources are tight and this is not a priority.

Q: Is there technical expertise in-house or available on the market to build something world-class?

A: Same as previous answer.

Q: What is the total cost of ownership?

A: Low to medium.

Should we buy?

Q: Do capabilities exist that meet or nearly meet our needs?

A: There are two packages that meet our needs.

Q: Can our business processes fit those imposed by the package?

A: Yes.

Q: Is the vendor going to be around for a long time? Many of the best solutions come from smaller vendors, so it is necessary to review their financials.

A: Both vendors are viable.

Q: Does the vendor fit into our cornerstone technology stack? (For MCI: Microsoft .Net on the portal side, IBM Websphere on the back-office OSS side.)

A: Yes, for both vendors.

Q: Does the vendor have a vision that is compatible with our vision of future growth needs for the package?

A: Excellent vision; better than we have in this area.

Q: Does the vendor have a demonstrated ability to deliver releases on time?

A: Yes, based on reference checks.

Q: What is the TCO (total cost of ownership)? Is it less than building and maintaining this ourselves?

A: An RFP was conducted and significant concessions were obtained. TCO is favorable.