Is history repeating itself?
Learning from the past
Back in the day, when CMS were still a rather new way of building websites, custom CMSs seemed to be the way of life. And sure, custom code is usually created to fit the exact architecture relevant at the time and will probably work marvelously.
But what happens when you need new integrations, or new software versions, or when other components in the stack are replaced.
As taught by the past, custom-built components tend to sneak up on you and knock you over when time passes. Because what often seems like a manageable undertaking, might grow big, complex, and cumbersome.
This goes for content federation as well.
Why custom can grow unruly
The cons of customised
Yes, implementation agencies and companies can build a custom content federation layer themselves and will probably end up with a perfectly customised and fully operational solution.
However:
- 👉 They will need highly skilled backend developers to build it and maintain it
- 👉 They risk lock-in on the people that do the building
- 👉 The coordination and process management are time consuming
- 👉 The development requires extensive documentation and logging
- 👉 The solution will need heavy adjustments when new integrations is needed
- 👉 They cannot necessarily reuse the custom code across projects
Don’t waste your developer resources
Is building yet another custom solution really a good way to spend your developers’ time?
In most organisations, developers are a scarce resource. They are too few and often highly paid. And if you wish to build a well-functioning content federation layer, you’ll need to put some major skills to work.
This will not only mean taking some of your most talented developers away from other tasks. It may also leave you at a developer lock-in, where you cannot easily put someone else to maintain the code. What happens then when those who built it move on to new adventures?
Also, your frontend developers still rely heavily on the backenders. When a new idea pops up and the creative coders come up with new use cases, they need backenders to modify the data delivery. That’s a major disruption to both the frontenders, who need to put in the request and wait for it to be solved, and the backenders who are distracted from their main responsibilities.
Custom is never done – and hard to reuse
Make your code work for you. Not the other way around.
Building new infrastructure is no small task and often takes much longer than planned. Both the project coordination and the process management are highly time-consuming. This can affect your time to market in the negative.
Not least because such a project requires extensive documentation and logging. If you build custom, you’ll need to carefully document everything (!!) so you minimise the risk of lock-in. That is hugely time-consuming – not just in development, but in maintenance too.
Furthermore, custom code is usually created to the exact architecture relevant at a specific time. What happens when you need new integrations, new software versions, or when other components in the stack are replaced? Once again, you’ll have to break out that top talented developer to modify the custom solution.
Finally, you might find difficulty reusing your code across projects. So, you know that great code you just wrote to utilise your product data faster and more flexibly? You can’t just take that and use it for that new integration project you’ve been entrusted. Because it’s custom.
Next generation content federation
Welcome to the future
Not too keen on building custom anymore? The reasons to opt for an off-the-shelf solution is almost overwhelming, we would say 😁
For the implementation agencies, the benefits are evident:
- 👉 Economies of Scale
- 👉 Reduced complexity = reduced risk
- 👉 Better customer experiences
Choosing Enterspeed as your standardised content federation layer provides you with a great opportunity for Economies of Scale by allowing you to reuse your code across projects.
Simultaneously, you achieve significant time and management savings as Enterspeed will give you access to open-source integrations, which will increase the speed of your implementations – giving your customers a much faster time to market and thus a better customer experience.
Altogether, this will provide any implementation partner with less risk in projects.You can provide your customers with more precise estimates and faster delivery, and you’ll not need to concern yourself too much about scalability responsibilities, as they will be transferred to Enterspeed.
Meet the market demands
Faster implementation – better CX
It’s a known truth that the tech industry is heavily influenced by a lack of developers and other tech specialists. Everyone from start-ups to major enterprises struggle to fill open positions – and as a result salaries are skyrocketing.
Never has it been more important to use your developer resources carefully. Software implementation partners will recognise this too.
When your developers are both expensive and strapped for time, you risk hurting your customer experiences with a too long Time to Market as well as a risk of mistakes do to time pressure.
Using Enterspeed, you can achieve more using less.© 2020 - 2023 Enterspeed A/S. All rights reserved.
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