The Pitfalls of Custom and In-House Platforms

The Pitfalls of Custom and In-House Platforms for Microsoft Distributors

For Microsoft distributors, the decision of how to manage your platform is often a make-or-break choice. Many distributors started building their own systems years ago adding one feature at a time until they became massive, complex platforms. Others chose to invest heavily in highly customized third-party solutions, believing these would perfectly fit their needs.

Even today, we still see distributors convinced that paying for a custom-built platform or developing one entirely in-house is the safest path forward. The reasoning is usually the same: “If we build it ourselves, we’re in full control and not dependent on anyone else.” Or, “If we pay for a custom solution, we’ll get exactly what we need.”

The reality, however, tells a different story. These approaches often turn into a gamble—and one that doesn’t pay off in the Microsoft ecosystem. The CSP program has changed drastically in just a few years. From the introduction of the New Commerce Experience to the growing role of Azure consumption, to evolving offer types, billing cycles, promotions, and pricing models. The pace of change is constant, and platforms need to keep up.

In-House Platforms: Why They Fall Short for Microsoft Distributors

Over the years, many Microsoft distributors have decided to build their own platforms. The logic is understandable: by investing in an in-house development team, you can design a system that reflects your business model and integrates all the different providers you sell from Microsoft to AWS, Acronis, Adobe, even hardware. Ideally, this would give you a single platform where everything is managed and invoiced together, providing complete visibility across the business.

In theory, it sounds like the perfect solution. In practice, however, the outcome is often very different. These platforms typically become:

• Old-fashioned, internally focused systems that were originally built to fit legacy ERP or CRM integrations.
• Complex and stagnant ecosystems that struggle to evolve, especially when it comes to keeping up with Microsoft’s ever-changing requirements.
• Cumbersome for resellers, who often find the platform difficult to use and a disadvantage rather than a value-add.

Below are two of the biggest issues we consistently see with in-house distributor platforms.

The Reseller Experience: A Source of Frustration, Not Value

From the reseller’s perspective, in-house platforms rarely deliver the kind of experience they expect today. Many of these platforms were built 8–10 years ago, and although they may have evolved incrementally, they often feel outdated and difficult to navigate.

Even when a distributor manages to offer a self-service portal, the complexity of managing multiple providers makes it slow, clunky, and unintuitive. Resellers often complain about:

• Long training times just to use the system.
• Poor usability and old-fashioned interfaces.
• Limited functionality compared to modern, specialized platforms.

Instead of being a competitive advantage, the platform becomes a pain point. Resellers end up spending time working around the tool rather than leveraging it as a driver of efficiency and growth.

 Keeping Up with Microsoft: An Impossible Task

Even distributors with strong development teams find it extremely difficult to keep pace with Microsoft alone. Programs like the CSP New Commerce Experience, new Azure consumption models, evolving billing cycles, frequent promotions, and changing pricing structures all demand constant platform updates.

Now multiply that by the additional providers (AWS, Acronis, Adobe, hardware vendors, etc.), and the challenge becomes overwhelming. What starts as a vision for “one platform for everything” turns into a system that is always behind and never truly optimized for Microsoft.

The result? Slow time-to-market, outdated features, and resellers who don’t get the tools they need when they need them. In contrast, specialized platforms focused only on Microsoft are built to keep up with this fast pace, ensuring distributors can deliver an experience that is better than Partner Center and fully aligned with modern reseller expectations.

Building and maintaining an in-house platform across multiple providers might seem like a good idea in theory, but it spreads your resources thin and leaves you vulnerable, especially when it comes to Microsoft. With resellers expecting fast, modern, and feature-rich experiences, and Microsoft continuously evolving its programs, the risk of falling behind is simply too high.

The Pitfalls of Custom Solutions for Microsoft Distributors

Some Microsoft distributors choose a different path. Instead of building their own platform, they hire a third-party company to develop a custom solution tailored to their needs. On paper, this can look like the best option: you don’t carry the responsibility of running an in-house team, and you can simply hand over your requirements to the vendor.

In reality, however, these solutions rarely deliver on their promise. There are a couple of key reasons why.

Keeping Pace with Change and Time to Market

What often happens is that a custom platform gets a big setup project at the beginning, followed by a small annual fee for maintenance. But as Microsoft continues to roll out changes, the platform quickly falls behind. By the time updates are delivered, competitors who rely on specialized, Microsoft-focused platforms are already ahead.

It’s not just about building the integration once, it’s about staying aligned with constant updates, new requirements, and shifting priorities. Passing all these requirements to a software development company takes time, and by the moment your platform is updated, Microsoft has often already moved on.

This creates a time-consuming cycle where you’re always behind, burning valuable internal resources just to keep the basics running. And because these third-party developers don’t have the same sensitivity or focus on Microsoft’s business, the work needed to “catch up” becomes not only slow but also extremely expensive over time.

It’s About Business Knowledge, Not Just Code

On paper, the requirements for a custom platform may look straightforward. A vendor might say, “We’ll connect to Microsoft APIs and give you a platform.” But running the Microsoft business is not just about integrations—it’s about understanding the business model and knowing how to deliver value to resellers and end customers.

That value comes from showing partners how to be more effective in running their Microsoft environment, navigating incentives, and staying ahead of constant changes. A third-party software company, especially one that isn’t specialized in Microsoft, rarely has this knowledge. They might be great developers, but they won’t understand the business context that makes the platform useful.

Yes, you can spend time trying to train and guide them, but that requires a lot of internal resources from your side. And even then, you can’t monitor every development choice, which means gaps, inefficiencies, and frustration are almost inevitable. Over time, the platform ends up falling short of expectations.

Conclusion

Both in-house and custom-built platforms may look appealing at first, but they almost always fall short. They struggle to keep up with Microsoft’s constant changes, drain internal resources, and rarely deliver the business value that resellers and customers expect. For distributors, the smarter path is to rely on solutions built with Microsoft expertise at the core, platforms that evolve at the same pace as Microsoft itself and help you stay competitive, efficient, and focused on growth.