Needless to say that this is a classic debate when it comes to software. The pros and cons for each approach are obvious and well known, with the “Buy” strategy being the more expensive, yet quicker option, and the “Build” option being the more personalized and oft less expensive option. However, the real verdict depends on the requirements and business objective. It is not a good idea to purchase an off-the-shelf product when the functionality required is not as sophisticated, and less than 50% of the features provided by the product. Customizing pre-built applications could be a nuisance at times, and at times more cumbersome than custom building.  Often times, companies will purchase monolithic, comprehensive business intelligence applications to fullfil their departmental analytical needs only to find the implementation taking much longer than anticipated. There is of course then the recurring software licenses and maintenance costs. If the need is contained and specific, a custom solution is the best choice. There are many third party tools/ widgets available which makes rapid application development possible.