Create a comprehensive analysis to help your organization make informed technology procurement decisions
When considering new technology solutions, organizations often face the challenging decision of whether to build custom software, buy an off-the-shelf product, or customize existing systems.
Within the AI category, this decision often comes down to whether to select and host an opensource model such as Meta’s Llama, or align with a closed source vendor such as OpenAI or Anthropic.
This template helps you create a structured analysis that considers all key factors, resulting in a professional document you can share with stakeholders.
Use this Build vs Buy Analysis template when:
The Build vs Buy template creates a comprehensive, 1-3 page formal analysis document based on information you provide. Kowalah guides you through a structured conversation about your specific situation, gathering important details about your business objectives, requirements, resources, and constraints.
The conversation is broken into manageable stages, with Kowalah asking focused questions in each area to help you think through all relevant aspects of the decision. This guided approach ensures you don’t miss important considerations while keeping the process straightforward.
The final document includes these essential sections:
A concise overview of your situation, key findings, and high-level recommendation that busy executives can quickly understand.
Clarifies the purpose of the technology, problems being solved, and what success looks like in terms of business outcomes (revenue growth, cost reduction, etc.).
Documents essential features and capabilities while distinguishing between “must-have” and “nice-to-have” requirements.
Evaluates internal development feasibility, required resources, timeline, costs (one-time and recurring), and associated risks.
Assesses potential market solutions, implementation timeline, costs, and specific risks like vendor lock-in or customization limitations.
Explores whether existing internal systems could be adapted to meet the need, including feasibility, costs, and time requirements.
Provides a side-by-side comparison of all options with a clear summary table highlighting key differences.
Presents a clear recommendation based on your inputs and the overall analysis.
This template helps IT leaders by:
This template works effectively for various technology procurement decisions:
For the most effective build vs buy analysis:
Consider using these related templates to support your technology procurement process:
Ready to document your requirements list? Use our Requirements Document template to clarify what you need this solution to do.