You are comparing building, buying and extending for an AI feature. What belongs in the analysis?
Why A is the answer
Total cost of ownership and ROI criteria for each option
ROI needs total cost of ownership, which covers running and maintaining an option as well as buying it.
In detail
- Compare total cost of ownership and ROI for each option.
- Compare every option over the same number of years.
Use case
An illustrative scenario, not a real incident.
A custom assistant looks cheap until a team adds hosting, model use and two engineers for upkeep. The full picture favors extending Copilot.
See it in different ways
flowchart LR A["Costs: build, run, change"] --> C["ROI analysis"] B["Benefits: time, revenue, quality"] --> C C --> D["Decision"]
mindmap
root((Business case))
Cost
Build
Run
Support
Value
Baseline
Measured time saved
Risk
Data quality
Skills
Scope
Contained use case
Clear ownermindmap
root(("Option cost"))
n1["Up front"]
n2["Licenses"]
n3["Build"]
n4["Over time"]
n5["Hosting"]
n6["Support"]
n7["Upkeep"]Key point: Compare total cost, not purchase price.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. The license cost of the cheapest option, over a one-year term
- One year of license cost leaves out run and support costs.
- C. Developer preference and the skills the team has today
- Preference is not a business case.
- D. The number of models each option makes available
- Model count does not measure value.