COMPARISON
OpX vs build-it-yourself.
Most enterprise IT teams can build an improvement platform. The question is whether they should.
The build option
A typical enterprise improvement platform built in-house involves:
- · 6–12 months of design and build (Power Automate, SharePoint, Power BI, custom forms, Cornerstone integrations)
- · 1–2 dedicated developers in perpetuity for maintenance
- · Vendor-management overhead for the underlying components
- · A platform that solves last year's requirements
The OpX option
- 5 business days from contract to production tenancy
- 16 weeks to land an end-to-end improvement programme on the platform
- Vendor-managed updates, security patches, and feature releases
- A platform that gets better continuously, not after a 6-month upgrade project
Honest TCO over 3 years
| Build | OpX | |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 build / setup | £180k–£350k | £55k subscription |
| Year 2 ongoing | £80k–£150k (1 FTE) | £55k subscription |
| Year 3 ongoing | £80k–£150k (1 FTE) | £55k subscription |
| Total 3-year | £340k–£650k | £165k |
| Risk | Slip risk, scope creep, internal resource displacement | Vendor lock-in (mitigated by 90-day data export, no fee) |
- Year 1 build / setup
- Build
- £180k–£350k
- OpX
- £55k subscription
- Year 2 ongoing
- Build
- £80k–£150k (1 FTE)
- OpX
- £55k subscription
- Year 3 ongoing
- Build
- £80k–£150k (1 FTE)
- OpX
- £55k subscription
- Total 3-year
- Build
- £340k–£650k
- OpX
- £165k
- Risk
- Build
- Slip risk, scope creep, internal resource displacement
- OpX
- Vendor lock-in (mitigated by 90-day data export, no fee)
When build wins
There are cases where building wins: deeply regulated workflows with bespoke validation needs, very large-scale deployments that breach SaaS economics, or organisations with a strategic position on platform sovereignty. We'll be honest about whether your case fits.
