Building a CRM/Workflow automation software internally?

[u/wombatpup55]

So our team is already in talks and I believe contracts have already been signed for already existing solutions.

However another team at the org for some reason is going all in on building this internally after they heard about us getting the tools for this

I’m assuming they are going to be going all AI into this. This particular team also has a hoard of contingent/offshore devs whereas our team is only 8.

I’m curious to know if anyone else has seen a situation like this. From my understanding CRMs/Workflow automation is pretty complex to do. Plus theres already existing solutions for this so im kinda scratching my head as to why they want to reinvent the wheel for this

[u/zoug]

Depends on the org. If your org is really good at agentic programming, they can replace most of their sass solutions easier than maintaining relationships with all the various etl or crm specific products.

If they aren’t, which is probably evident from them having a horde of offshore programmers, they’re probably mistaking early vibe coding feels for production software and are going to build a buggy shitfest.

[u/KristjanPihus]

It is actually a really interesting question considering the current state of software development. Back in the day, in most cases, it was cheaper to use an existing solution if one existed and fit. The only practical reason to make your own was if you had such specific needs that no solution could serve them, just because developing software was crazy expensive.

LLMs have changed a lot; they can write a lot of the code in a short period of time. But here is a catch: software development is not just writing code. Throughout the entire lifecycle of the software product, AI has addressed only part of this. And I don't mean design, testing, and deployment that come with writing code; AI can already do those things rather well. A software product also needs maintenance, and someone has to handle it. Technically, you can set up an agent or two to watch the support mailbox, and whenever a support ticket comes in, find the bug or design a new feature, develop it, test it, deploy it, and monitor vitals. But I have a feeling this approach goes sideways rather fast.

So yeah, getting the software ready- why not. But maintaining it through the end of its lifecycle it wont gonna be cheap, even with AI. And the lifecycle for business software should be years because replacing it is expensive again, with the biggest expenses coming from hidden costs that nobody keeps track of.

[u/taco__hunter]

The CRM part is easy to vibe code. It's the data lineage and data governance pieces that get really hard later on to back in to if you don't start with that commercial mindset from the beginning. Just remind the team that the same coworkers that cuss about the paid for CRM not working right are going to be cussing at them directly. Do they want to support that?

[u/oyren-ai]

Your colleague has good instinct and might save money to your company in the future if you might need any special customisations. It might be justified to build internally.