Using Vibes for Your Mobile Wallet vs. Building Your Own

In recent years, there's been a lot of talk about how “all companies are now technology companies." It’s a phrase often meant to imply that it’s virtually impossible to run your business without adopting a wide array of technology solutions, some of which you buy and others your company builds.

The emergence of SaaS solutions over the past two decades has made the task of buying technology solutions much easier and more appealing. Rather than building your own email system from the ground up, for instance, you probably purchase a subscription to Microsoft Office 365 or Google Workspace. You probably also use Zoom or Microsoft Teams for virtual meetings.

The decisions about whether to buy or build an email or collaboration system might be easy ones, but as a technology leader, each time there’s a problem to solve you will likely be asked the same question: should we build it or buy it?

When going about answering this question, a great place to start is to go back to the mission of your business.

Whether you’re in the business of incentivizing your customers or rewarding your loyalty members, Vibes is in the business of optimizing your marketing programs with mobile solutions like Mobile Wallet that drive results.

At Vibes, we aim to be the world’s most trusted mobile engagement platform that intelligently creates personal and revenue-driving engagement between consumers and the brands they love. We choose to build technology solutions that help us drive our mission and create differentiation on the market. We run our entire platform on a public cloud provider because building our own data center is not core to our mission - it’s undifferentiated heavy lifting. We build our own machine learning models trained on over two decades of engagement data because these models create differentiation for us and for our customers.

Since Mobile Wallet’s inception in 2012, the Vibes mobile engagement platform has successfully created and managed millions of digital offers, loyalty cards, mobile tickets and more through its premier Mobile Wallet solution.

Still thinking about building your own Mobile Wallet solution? Consider what it could cost you.

With cost almost always the primary factor, organizations attempt to answer this question through an economic lens, and it can be tempting to build something with a team of software engineers on your payroll. However, the costs of a custom-built solution can quickly grow when you consider the initial development, maintenance, support, monitoring, incident response, and more. It’s also easy to fall into the trap of underestimating the scale and scope of the solution you will need to solve your problem. And let's not forget that, as with many software projects, many new requirements emerge as the project evolves.

Built to absorb any and all challenges an internal development team is likely to face when building a solution on their own, we enable brands to focus on other aspects of their business while designing the perfect program that provides them with exceptional results like those seen by Chipotle, KBP Brands, Polo Ralph Lauren, and more.   

Customer Spotlight: Chipotle

When having the build vs. buy discussion with Chipotle, it was clear that building all of the plumbing required to manage the Chipotle Rewards loyalty pass themselves in their mobile app was undifferentiated heavy lifting and not core to their mission of cultivating a better world by serving responsibly sourced, classically cooked, real food with wholesome ingredients.

This is because the list of capabilities needed to launch a Mobile Wallet management solution is surprisingly long. When Chipotle chose to team up with us instead they were able to launch their program in weeks instead of months (or longer).

Why Vibes’ intelligent mobile engagement platform is ready to launch with you

There are three key reasons why you should choose Vibes for your Mobile Wallet partner:

1. Connected to the systems you’re already using. We can deliver and manage mobile wallet passes at scale and can seamlessly integrate with other CRM/CDPs.‍

2. Efficient program deployment. Everything we have in place today enables our customers to test and learn faster and troubleshoot issues more quickly, ensuring their time and resources can be dedicated to other aspects of their business.‍

3. Faster time to market. We get you launched and live in a matter of weeks, not months. Plus, our APIs integrate with POS and CRM systems to help manage redemption data and provide real-time updates.

If you’re considering building your own Mobile Wallet solution, we already have the following pieces in place that, without them, risks making a solution unviable. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our robust Mobile Wallet capabilities, and how they can enhance your business and get your solution to market faster.