INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY
Exclaimer report reveals 71 % of in-house IT builds fail to deliver on time or on budget
Exclaimer, a leading provider of email signature management solutions, has announced the results of the 2025 Build vs buy: The true cost of DIY IT solutions report, delivering a global view of how IT and security leaders are reassessing the true cost, risk and return of building software in-house versus buying from trusted vendors. The findings, based on insights from over 2,000 IT and security decision-makers, reveal that 71 % of in-house builds are eventually abandoned. This insight, termed‘ The DIY Mirage’, reveals the false sense of control and efficiency that fades as maintenance demands, compliance risks and long-term costs grow.
The research also reveals regional differences: UK teams are more likely to build in-house to meet compliance and data residency requirements( 33 %), while US teams build primarily for integrations with legacy systems( 28 %). However, that speed often comes at a cost as US IT leaders report higher rates of downtime from internal tools( 74 % vs 50 % in the UK).
“ We commissioned this report to bring clarity to a question every IT leader faces: do you build, or do you buy?” said Paul Hammond, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Exclaimer.“ The data shows that while building in-house can feel like control, it often comes at the expense of time, security and scalability. At Exclaimer, we’ ve seen how easily operational burden creeps in when IT teams are forced to maintain tools that were never meant to scale. This research helps organisations see the full picture, that true efficiency isn’ t about owning every line of code, but freeing teams to focus on growth and innovation.”
The findings point to a widening gap between perceived efficiency and real outcomes regardless of region. Nearly half of IT teams still prefer to build their own tools, but only 8 % of those projects are delivered on time and just 11 % stay on budget. In reality, more than half take 1.6 to 2 times longer than planned, and almost half of all in-house IT projects( 46 %) end up costing close to twice what the organisation originally budgeted for.
The hidden demands soon follow as 63 % of teams say they spend 10 – 50 hours per month maintaining internal tools, and 66 % require an additional US $ 20,000 to US $ 100,000 a year to keep them running. With 64 % of organisations reporting security-related downtime and 31 % citing compliance and data protection challenges as key barriers, what starts as a costsaving initiative quickly turns into a long-term liability rather than a strategic advantage.
The data also reveals that delivery performance remains a global weak spot. Only 6 % of US builds finish on time compared with around 11 % in the UK, while 89 % of US projects exceed budget versus 84 % in the UK. Despite the regional differences, both markets underestimate the time and cost required to maintain homegrown software.
In heavily regulated industries like manufacturing and finance, 83 % of internally-built tools are eventually abandoned, which underscores how complexity and compliance pressures make homegrown systems difficult to sustain. x www. intelligentcxo. com
31