As a developer, I am familiar with the concept of “build vs. buy” – the idea of considering whether it’s more cost-effective to create a solution in-house or purchase a pre-existing one. Sometimes, purchasing a solution that covers the “plumbing” – the foundational components – can be more efficient and then build on top of it to tailor the solution to our specific needs.

Recently, I was tasked with finding a way to integrate our exchange calendars with ServiceNow and other systems. During my research, I came across Nylas, a platform that allows us to connect to our current exchange calendars and allows us to seamlessly transition to Office365 in the future without having to rewrite the connections. Additionally, Nylas provides a user-friendly calendar scheduling interface that can be used by our entire staff, similar to Calendy.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cost for Nylas for our company, which has several hundred employees, would only be a few hundred dollars. I will provide updates on our progress with Nylas in the future.

Build vs. Buy Framework:

https://www.windwardstudios.com/white-papers/build-buy-software-development