CONFIGURE, CONNECT OR BUILD — DECISION RECORD
Horizon Dynamics | 7 October 2026 | Editable planning worksheet

WORKED EXAMPLE — FICTIONAL DISTRIBUTOR
Outcome: an approved quantity amendment reaches the warehouse once,
preserves stock rules and remains visible during an accounting outage.
Assumptions: existing CRM and ERP support their internal workflows.
The interface has not yet been tested. No vendor trial is claimed.
Business owner: operations owner. Technical owner: integration lead.

CONFIGURE
Evidence needed: demonstrate amendment, permissions and exception report;
confirm licence requirements and who maintains configuration after upgrades.
Status: unknown until trial. Do not mark supported from a feature list alone.

CONNECT
Evidence needed: stable identifiers, ownership, available API, interrupted
exchange and duplicate retry, with a visible reconciliation outcome.
Status: provisional path for assessment, not implementation approval.

BUILD
Evidence needed: a specific business rule that configuration and available
interfaces cannot reasonably support, plus a bounded prototype and support owner.
Status: no full replacement justified by the current evidence.

DECISION
Assess the connector first with one order, amendment and interrupted exchange.
If configuration passes the complete scenario at an acceptable operating cost,
choose configuration. If integration cannot support the handoff, reassess the
boundary or prototype a custom component. Unresolved stock ownership pauses
implementation until the business process is agreed.

YOUR DECISION — FILL IN BELOW
Business outcome:
Normal workflow:
Difficult exception:
Systems retained:
Field ownership and acceptance rules:
Business decision owner:
Technical reviewer:

Repeat for each option: CONFIGURE / CONNECT / BUILD
Specific product, interface or component:
Supported / needs configuration / needs development / unknown:
Evidence observed (document, trial result, source sample):
Assumptions still untested:
Operating constraints, access and export requirements:
Build/configuration cost and exclusions:
Operating period and cost assumptions:
Support and change owner:
Smallest next check:

PROVISIONAL DECISION
Chosen next step:
Why the evidence supports it:
What would reverse the choice:
Who approves and when:
Unresolved question that must not be treated as a pass:

Use the same workflow and operating period for every option. No numerical
score can compensate for an untested essential requirement.
Complete locally; share only a non-confidential summary.
https://www.horizon-dynamics.tech/blog/custom-crm-erp-build-or-buy