If the last year has taught us anything, it’s that business as usual is no longer sufficient when it comes to how companies-and governments-operate.
With that belief in mind, Own has joined dozens of other tech leaders in sending a letter to the Biden Administration encouraging them to rethink the federal governments’ procurement process for technology solutions.
As stated in the letter, federal acquisition rules require agencies to prioritize and procure commercial items, to the maximum extent practicable, over custom development. Unfortunately, those rules are not always followed. Many federal agencies continue to favor custom-built, more expensive solutions, even when there are proven, widely available commercial solutions that, in many cases, can be modified to meet unique requirements.
As a result, many technology companies conclude that it is too difficult to work with the government. Rather than miss out on private sector innovations, the government should consistently enforce laws and policies that give preference to commercial software and technology solutions and support these domestic industries, including startups and small businesses.
While we’re certainly hopeful that our efforts motivate the federal government to make meaningful change, the issue in question goes well beyond Washington DC. Public sector and private companies alike tend to favor developing custom solutions instead of procuring commercial products. The question is, why?
There’s a popular saying that goes, “a jack of all trades is a master of none.” This line of thinking argues that a generalist, while possessing knowledge that covers a number of areas, only scratches the surface in all of them. Specialists, on the other hand, have a high level of expertise on a specific subject. A similiar line of thinking can be applied to businesses. Specialized companies usually have developed their products over the years, gathering feedback from clients and transforming them into valuable features.
We see this often when it comes to SaaS backup and recovery. For many companies, it may seem like building your own SaaS backup tool will be faster, cheaper, and more secure than giving a 3rd party access to your data. But in reality, creating your own tool consists of many moving parts and unexpected considerations that could lead to a high opportunity cost. Organizations are better off focusing their company’s valuable resources on their core business rather than creating an in-house backup tool.
At Own we have over 450 employees who, collectively, have put in hundreds of thousands of hours into building a world-class SaaS backup and recovery solution. As the #1 cloud data protection platform for Salesforce, we help over 3,500 companies from every industry-including public sector- protect their mission-critical data.
Whether it’s for the federal government or a small business, we always believe the best solution should win. To see if Own is that solution for your organization, reach out to us below.
