Software & usage
Include fixed costs, user-dependent costs and any store or market components.
Price structure →ROI & Costs
Look beyond the software price.
Search’s Total Cost of Ownership consists of software, implementation, infrastructure, management, optimization, support and the internal capacity that remains necessary.
Implementation
Include product data, storefront, tracking, testing, project coordination and migration.
Implementation →Infrastructure
Self-build or open source explicitly includes hosting, capacity, monitoring and upgrades in the model.
SaaS vs open source →Management
Measure hours of analysis, synonyms, merchandising, product data, incidents and change management.
Governance →Operations
Take monitoring, incident response, releases, rollback and performance management with you.
Operations →Further development
Do not count future features, new stores, markets and integrations as free expansion.
Multi-store →Opportunity cost
Internal engineering for search cannot work on other product or commerce priorities at the same time.
Build vs buy →Exit & migration
Also include possible migration costs, portability and transition risk in long-term comparisons.
Migration →Same period, same scope
TCO Is only similar if you count the same responsibilities.
Setting a license price next to a self-build project without taking hosting, engineering and operations does not give a useful comparison.
Cost layerTakingExample
DirectYeahLicense/hosting
ImplementationYeahIntegration/testing
OperationalYeahMonitoring/management
CapacityYeahEngineering time