In-house IT builds are falling flat and going way over budget – here's why

Fewer than three-in-ten in-house IT builds are delivered on time and on budget, new research shows, largely thanks to hidden costs and a drain on productivity.

In a recent survey from Exclaimer, 71% of IT and security leaders reported their in-house builds are eventually abandoned.

That figure rises to an overwhelming 83% in heavily regulated industries like manufacturing and finance, the survey found.

“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 and 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."

What’s the appeal of in-house IT?

One-third (33%) of UK teams build in-house to meet compliance and data residency requirements, while US teams build primarily for integrations with legacy systems (28%).

However, US IT leaders report higher rates of downtime from internal tools, at 74%, compared with 50% in the UK.

Nearly half of IT teams told Exclaimer that they still prefer to build their own tools, but only 8% of those projects are delivered on time and just 11% stay on budget.

More than half take 1.6 to two times longer than planned, and 46% of all in-house IT projects end up costing almost twice the original budget.

Meanwhile, 63% of teams said they spend between 10 and 50 hours per month maintaining internal tools, and 66% require an additional $20,000 to $100,000 a year to keep them running.

Roughly two-thirds (64%) reported security-related downtime, and 31% compliance and data protection challenges.

Only 6% of US builds are finished on time, and 11% in the UK, while 89% of US projects exceed budget, compared with 84% in the UK.

Buying, rather than building

As for those that buy rather than build, the main reasons were speed (30%), access to expertise (29%), and reliability (28%).

UK teams tend to turn to specialist vendors for compliance and control, while US teams cite faster scalability and reduced maintenance.

Both regions show a decisive shift, researchers noted, with buying for efficiency now outweighing building for control.

In terms of security, UK leaders are more likely to say vendors offer greater protection (51%), while US leaders express stronger confidence in their own builds (59%).

“As organizations race to modernize and scale securely, we’re seeing that IT leaders recognize that buying from trusted partners delivers faster deployment, predictable performance, and built-in compliance without the constant drain of maintenance and patching," said Hammond.

"The research shows that these partnerships now represent trust, visibility, and control, backed by enterprise-grade governance and security. The question is therefore not whether IT teams can build, they must decide when they should.”

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