March 16, 2023 – Community bank technology ecosystems will continue to evolve in the 2020s to compete with larger regional and multinational banks. CIOs and CTOs will have to decide the types of technologies they should deploy, the cost and length of time needed to deploy those technologies, and the ongoing requirements to support the new technology—potentially for many years after the initial deployment. Build solutions, buy them from core and other vendors, or create a hybrid environment of built and vended components? Tradeoffs are inherent to each approach.

This report reviews several considerations and questions that bank CIOs, CTOs, and heads of architecture must examine when deciding among buy, build, or hybrid. Aite-Novarica Group reviewed its research from 2021 to 2023 as well as external articles to develop the findings and checklist for buy vs. build decision-making. This report also draws on the author’s experience and best practices that Aite-Novarica Group has observed in financial services IT organizations.

Clients of Aite-Novarica Group’s Community Banking service can download this report.

This report mentions Amazon, Finastra, FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry & Associates, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and Temenos.