If you’ve ever been part of a data modernization effort at an investment firm, you know the question comes up fast:
Should we build something ourselves—or buy a solution?
It’s not just a tech decision. It’s a strategic one. And the trade-offs aren’t always clear.
I’ve had this conversation with many firms—some trying to build internally, others buying big platforms, and many exploring a middle ground.
Let’s check out the trade-offs between build vs. buy.
Why building can make sense—but comes with trade-offs
Some firms choose to develop an internal investment data management solution, thinking it will provide greater customization and control. While this approach can work, it requires a massive, multi-year commitment with high costs and long-term risks.
Here are the trade-offs of building:
✅ Tailored to internal workflows: The system can be designed to fit specific operational needs
✅ Internal control: No reliance on external vendors for system updates and governance
❌ Time-consuming: Development typically takes 12 to 24 months, delaying the realization of business value
❌ Expensive: Requires multi-million-dollar investments in infrastructure, talent, and maintenance
❌ Limited functionality: Internal builds often focus on data warehousing and integration but lack data quality, governance, analytics, reporting, and automation, all critical for a comprehensive modern data platform
❌ Difficult to maintain: Internal systems create key-person risk, requiring ongoing IT and development resources to update and optimize
Because of these challenges, firms often look to buy a pre-built solution, but the degree of efficiency depends on which type of vendor they choose.
Why buying isn’t always simple
Buying can often reduce time-to-value compared to building internally, but not all solutions deliver the same value.
- Investment platforms with embedded data tools
Some firms go with investment platforms that bundle data management into a broader suite of investment management tools. These platforms can promise an all-in-one solution, but in reality, they come with significant trade-offs.
✅ Broad functionality: Many include portfolio, risk, and compliance tools✅ Well-established: These vendors have been in the industry for years and offer robust security and reliability
❌ Expensive: These platforms often require a seven-figure annual investment plus a hefty implementation cost and timeline
❌ Not truly end-to-end: While they centralize certain investment data, they often lack flexible integration, robust data quality management, and real-time analytics
❌ Rigid integration: Proprietary models can limit flexibility with external systems.
❌ Long implementation: Many take a year or more to roll out fully
For many firms, these platforms fail to deliver a centralized source of truth for data across the enterprise, requiring additional tools to bridge gaps.
- Specialized investment data management platforms
Others prefer focused investment data management platforms. These tend to offer better integration and governance, but often still require long setup times and extra tools to fill in reporting or analytics gaps.✅ Purpose-built – Designed for investment data across the full lifecycle
✅ Stronger integration – Typically better support for ingesting from multiple systems
✅ Improved quality – Validation, workflows, and dashboards often included
❌ Still expensive and time-consuming – While these solutions cost less than an internal build or enterprise platform, many still require 12 to 24 months to deploy and have high licensing costs
❌ Not always end-to-end – Some software vendors focus only on integration and data storage, requiring firms to purchase additional tools for analytics, reporting, and workflow automation
Understanding the differences between these options can help you find the approach that best fits your team’s goals and capacity.
What most firms actually need
From what we’ve seen, investment teams tend to prioritize:
✅ A security master that’s flexible but governed
✅ Reliable IBOR and ABOR data
✅ Auditability across data flows
✅ Tools to validate and reconcile efficiently
✅ Reports that don’t need constant double-checking
✅ Automation that reduces manual work, not adds to it
That’s the space Rivvit was designed to support.
A different kind of platform
Rivvit was built to be both practical and complete. To date, we’ve supported firms in getting production-ready investment data environments live in under four months—with core components like security master, data quality, reporting, and workflow automation working together from the start.
And it’s not just about speed, it’s about coverage. We support the full investment book: from security/pricing data to IBOR/ABOR, and data from fund admins, counterparties, market data providers, etc. It all connects, reconciles, and flows—so your team can move faster with confidence.
Our aim has always been to keep things practical and client-driven. Here’s how that’s shaped what Rivvit offers:
✅ Fast setup: Traditional solutions take 12 to 24 months to implement, but Rivvit has never taken more than 4 months
✅ Cost-conscious design: No unnecessary layers, no complex pricing—just tools that deliver value
✅ Truly end-to-end: Unlike other vendors that require additional tools, Rivvit provides:
- Data ingestion and integration: Connects all investment data sources seamlessly
- Investment data warehouse: Purpose-built for storing, retrieving, and governing both point-in-time and time series investment data
- Data quality and governance: Ensures clean, validated, and auditable data
- Advanced reporting and analytics: Enables real-time insights and automated decision-making
- Workflow automation: Enhances transparency and reduces manual work
- Snowflake-ready: Clean data delivered into Snowflake for joining, sharing, and analysis
Build vs. buy: The clear winner
For investment firms looking to modernize their data operations, building in-house often means long timelines, high costs, and ongoing maintenance burdens. Off-the-shelf solutions can be faster—but many still require significant investment and are not fully integrated.
✅ Building gives control but comes with high costs, long timelines, and ongoing maintenance challenges
✅ Traditional buy solutions are better than building but are still slow to deploy, expensive, and not fully end-to-end
✅ Rivvit delivers a faster, more cost-effective solution with a track record of going live in under four months
Contact us today to see how Rivvit can transform your investment data strategy.