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Live Webinar, 30 Sept 2026

Build It or Buy It?

Two PMC leaders took opposite sides. Vishal Shah and Valay Patel worked through the five questions every retailer faces when modernising an integration platform. Read both views below, then watch the recording.

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Vishal Shah

Engineering Director

Build

Valay Patel

Head of Solutions Engineering

Buy

30 minutes

recording of the live webinar

2 leaders

taking opposite sides

5 lenses

to test your own decision

2 customers

one built, one bought

They disagreed on four things and agreed on one.

Cost, ownership, flexibility and speed all depend on your context. On one point they had full agreement: whichever route you take, choose the right partner.

In 2005, you were buying a monolithic package. Today, you’re choosing a partner and the architecture they build on.

Vishal Shah, Engineering Director

Five lenses for making the call

Vishal and Valay answered the same five questions from opposite ends. Pick a lens to read both views.

Ownership and control

Vishal’s view: Build

Ask why you should own it, not just how much. Does your IT team have the capability to support ownership, and is this a strategic platform you must control or an operational system you can hand off? One customer on the Microsoft stack had the in-house skills and wanted full control on Azure, so build was the right call.

Valay’s view: Buy

The question isn’t whether you can control it, but whether you should. Everything you control, you also maintain and support. Control without capacity is just a responsibility. One UK omnichannel retailer owns its strategy, data and customer experience, while PMC runs the platform.

Flexibility

Vishal’s view: Build

Is your product a square peg in a round hole? If so, take build seriously, because a vendor’s roadmap moves at its own pace. But past a point, extra features work against you. Don’t pay iPhone prices for phone calls.

Valay’s view: Buy

Modern buy isn’t lock-in. You get a proven core, plus APIs and extensions to add what’s unique to you. Most organisations need less flexibility than they think. When no product fits how you trade, build makes more sense.

Intellectual property

Vishal’s view: Build

Is this an operational system that just needs to work, or a capability you want to build on and monetise? If your data must stay within your own boundaries, or you’ve already invested in a cloud estate, build deserves serious thought.

Valay’s view: Buy

Nobody chooses a retailer for its middleware. Protect what makes you different, and rent what you just need to work. One health and beauty retailer put its effort into the store experience and bought the platform underneath.

Cost

Vishal’s view: Build

This is the first question on every CFO’s list. Big bang programmes lasting three years are largely behind us, so go staged, and factor in three to five years of running costs whichever route you take. A jewellery retailer with a complex data model built its own pricing components because off-the-shelf products were too rigid.

Valay’s view: Buy

Ask what it will cost in five years, not today. Upfront cost is visible, but support, upgrades, security and people come after go-live, and big programmes often overrun. Buying brings more predictable running costs, though you need to plan for peak.

Speed and convenience

Vishal’s view: Build

AI and agentic tools have made building faster, so speed is now an advantage. Test it against the risk, and be honest about how much pain your IT team can absorb. Vishal doesn’t buy the claims that SaaS is finished.

Valay’s view: Buy

AI makes code cheaper to write, not cheaper to own. Buying gives you a proven core, so you build only your own rules, data and journeys. You’re buying the roadmap other retailers have already tested.

Two customers, two different answers

Both faced an ageing integration platform. They chose opposite routes.

100+

integrations moved in four months

Bought and extended

Ann Summers

An integration hub linking finance, logistics, payments and the website had grown by bolting each new need onto the last. The original builders had moved on, documentation was thin, and nobody could fully explain more than 100 integrations. PMC now runs the platform, and Ann Summers owns the journey.

6 to 8

months to design, build and go live

Built

A UK transport provider

Heavily invested in AWS and running an ageing legacy iPaaS platform, this customer needed flexibility its vendor’s roadmap couldn’t give, and wanted its data to stay within its own boundaries. PMC built the replacement on their own estate. More than 10 front-end channels now connect to it, and costs have fallen by nearly half.

Whichever way you lean, choose your partner carefully

This was the one point both speakers fully agreed on. Four things to look for.

  • A track record you can check. Vendor platforms get bought over and roadmaps quietly stop.
  • Evidence they’ll still be here. Look for commitment to their roadmap three to five years out.
  • Honesty about what suits you. Even if it costs them the deal.
  • Someone who stays for the outcome. Not just someone who delivers and leaves.

A supplier delivers to you.

A partner stays for the outcome with you.

Valay Patel, Head of Solutions Engineering

Five questions to settle before you commit

Build, buy or a mix of both, your answers will point the way.

1

Is this core to how you win, or just plumbing?

Protect what makes you different. Rent what you just need to work.

2

What actually needs your control, and what just needs to work?

Everything you control, you also maintain and support.

3

Who owns it in year three?

Support, upgrades, security and people all come after go-live.

4

Can you exit, and do you own your data?

Modern buy shouldn’t mean lock-in, and some data has to stay within your own boundaries.

5

Can you move in stages, or does it have to be a big bang?

Big bang programmes lasting three years are largely behind us.

More from the session

On the buy side, watch peak pricing and renewal limits, and agree terms early. On the build side, the big one is scope creep. It’s a known unknown, and it’s hard to manage once a build is under way.

Vishal’s advice is to work in stages rather than big bang, starting with the part of your platform that most needs replacing and keeping scope tight. Valay adds that every custom change on a bought product adds cost, so switch off the old integration quickly and only pay for the parts you’ll use.

Build on a stack that will last, such as a major hyperscaler, and make sure it’s maintainable. Don’t rely on individual developers: choose a partner who gives you service assurance. Valay’s rule is to build something only you can build, and buy what’s already available in the market.

Watch the full session

Prefer to hear it in their words? Here is the full conversation.

Facing this decision?

Talk it through with the team behind the webinar.

Whether you lean towards building, buying or a mix of both, we’ll give you an honest view of what fits your organisation. No obligation.

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