Industry guide
Should a large service company buy field service software or build a custom system?
Buy a product such as Salesforce Field Service when your dispatch and service process is close to standard and you want a large team scheduled on a known platform soon. Build a custom system when you would spend the license budget forcing a product to match your contracts, parts and billing, because over five years the product keeps charging per technician and a system you own has no license fee.
| What you are comparing | A product | A custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Cost over five years | License fees every year for every dispatcher and technician, plus add-ons, implementation and the consulting needed to change the system. The total grows with headcount. | A one-time build scoped in writing, then running costs such as hosting, database and messaging. No licenses, so the total does not grow with headcount. |
| Per-seat fees | Yes. The two vendors on our lists that publish a price charge per user, and several of the vendors that quote say user count drives the quote. | None. Adding a technician, a dispatcher, a subcontractor or a read-only manager adds no fee. |
| Fit to your process | You adapt the product through configuration, inside what your plan allows. What it cannot model ends up in a spreadsheet beside the dispatch screen. | Built from your process, including the contract terms, parts rules and billing steps that are specific to you. |
| Time to launch | A contract can be signed quickly, but a rollout to a large technician team is a project of its own, with configuration, data migration, mobile setup and training. | Starts with discovery and a written scope. Working screens are shown during the build, and the schedule is set in that scope. |
| Agreement with the back office | Depends on the connections the vendor offers and the integration work you pay for. Some vendors list accounting connections and others leave it to the quote. | Connected to the accounting or ERP system you already run as part of the scope, so a closed job reaches an invoice without being typed again. |
| Changes after launch | Limited by plan and by what the vendor exposes. Larger changes go through an admin or a consultant. | Anything can change, because you own the code. Changes are scoped and built as you need them. |
| Vendor risk | Pricing, packaging and roadmap are the vendor's decisions, and renewal terms can change. | No vendor to renew with. The risk moves to keeping a maintainer available, which is why every account is in your name and the code is written to be handed over. |
When buying field service software is the right answer
Buy when your service operation looks like most service operations. If your work orders, schedules and invoices are close to what a product offers as sold, configuration will cover the rest, and you are not the first company of your size to run it.
Buy as well when you already run the platform. A company with its customers and cases in Salesforce or Dynamics has a strong reason to add that vendor's field product before it considers anything else.
When building a custom field service system is the right answer
Build when keeping the product working has become a project of its own. The signs are that dispatch keeps a spreadsheet beside the system, the office re-keys jobs into accounting, and a contract report takes someone days of exports.
Build when the license bill has grown past what a system of your own would cost. Per-technician pricing means a growing service company pays more every year for the same system. A custom system has a build cost and then running costs.
How to compare the cost of field service software with a custom build
Do not compare a first-year quote with a build. Compare five years. Add up every dispatcher and technician license at the plan you need, the add-ons, the implementation fee and the consulting you already pay for changes. That is the product number.
The custom number is a one-time build plus running costs. Black Badger does not publish a price, because the figure depends on what the system has to do and how many other systems it has to agree with. A written scope gives you the number to put beside the product total.
What a custom build involves, and how to ask about one
Questions buyers ask
Is a custom field service system cheaper than a product?
A custom field service system is not always cheaper than a product in the first year. The cost over several years is the better comparison. A build is paid for once and a subscription repeats for every technician, so the comparison turns toward custom as headcount and years add up.
Does a custom field service build include the mobile app technicians use?
The mobile app technicians use is part of the build. Technicians get mobile work orders designed around the jobs they do, and the scope says what has to work without a signal. With a product the question is how far you can change the app it comes with.
What happens if the developer who built our custom field service system leaves?
A developer leaving was the main risk with custom software for a long time. Black Badger answers it two ways. Every account the system runs on is created in your name, and the code is written so that another developer can read it and carry on.