Buy vs. Build

Consider the following model of the investment and return profile of a 10-source system. (For context, many restaurants operate using 20 to 40 different systems.) Costs and returns have been indexed against a theoretical 100-unit QSR brand.

The analysis compares a custom setup that requires full planning, integration, and deployment before generating value to an incremental rollout of a prefabricated system that can be integrated and deployed over time as value is unlocked. Even assuming the same all-in three-year cost in both approaches – however unlikely given the greater efficiency of a prefabricated system for setup and deployment – the total ROI on the prefabricated system is nearly 3x that of a custom build.