How a build vs. buy debate plays out in muni tech

With an ever-changing landscape that now includes artificial intelligence, firms in the municipal market can be overwhelmed by the technology choices facing them, and their decisions will impact their bottom line. As new technology tools are developed will the current infrastructure become obsolete, requiring new investment? These questions and others have brought the build versus buy argument to the forefront as industry players and firms try to determine what is the best fit for them. While buying may be faster, building can provide a competitive advantage. “In this world, if you want to be top 20 in most businesses, you have to have a competitive advantage and that’s going to be in your technology,” said Jim Perrello, an advisor for MultiLynq, a provider of electronic fixed-income trading connectivity and integration solutions, and a member of SOLVE’s advisory board. Buying is usually cheaper and quicker to implement, and it can be 10% of the cost it takes to build a system, Perrello noted. Furthermore, the “long-term cost of buying is the overall efficiency,” said Jennifer Fredericks, a sales director at market data platform provider SOLVE. “The market 10 years from now will be different than the market today,” she said. “The platforms today — the back end technology, the evolution of machine learning, the evolution of AI — all of those pieces are going to continue to change. And so when you’re buying, you’re buying the legwork, and testing and staying abreast of all of those changes.”