We build each organisation its own system, and we say that it costs less than the rent you pay today. That statement needs proof, because a build of your own has always cost more. This article works through the full cost. It shows the largest cost that most comparisons leave out, which is your own staff. It compares an organisation with a technical team against an organisation with none. It then shows which part of that cost a shared body removes.
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There are three costs. Most comparisons show only the first cost.
The second cost is usually the largest, and a business case rarely includes it.
About 70%. The usual plan divides a budget into 70% running, 20% improvement and 10% new work.
Organisations with older systems have a higher figure. Industry analysis reports 75% to 85% for maintenance. This leaves 15% to 25% for all new work.
The public figures show the scale. UK councils spend £1bn to £2bn each year on IT. As much as £1bn of that spending keeps legacy systems. NHS trust IT spending reached £4.1bn in 2024/25, an increase of 9% in one year. IT was 2.3% of a trust annual budget.
Examine a team of five people that runs an estate. The salaries below are UK medians from advertised vacancies in the six months to July 2026.
Employment costs increase each salary. Employer National Insurance is 15% above a £5,000 threshold. Employer pension contributions add 16.6% for the Local Government Pension Scheme, and 23.7% for the NHS scheme.
| Role | Median salary | Cost to a council | Cost to an NHS trust |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solutions architect | £85,000 | £111,110 | £117,145 |
| IT manager | £55,000 | £71,630 | £75,535 |
| Systems administrator (two) | £45,000 each | £116,940 | £123,330 |
| Developer | £55,000 | £71,630 | £75,535 |
| Five staff | £285,000 | £371,310 | £391,545 |
Apply the 70% running figure to the council total. The result is £259,917 each year, and £1,299,585 across five years.
An estate with older systems is at 80%. The same five staff then cost £297,048 each year to run the estate.
Most of the running budget pays for work that produces no new function.
None of this work makes your organisation different from a competitor. Each organisation in your sector does these five tasks this month.
Examine the same organisation under three approaches, across five years.
| Cost | Subscription today | Usual bespoke | Hub approach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supplier | An increase each year. You get no asset. | One build cost. | One build cost. |
| Change of structure | A price for each change. | A migration for each change. | A dictionary entry. No migration. |
| Your own staff | The full running cost. | The full running cost. You also own the code. | A lower cost. The hub does the shared running work. |
| Shared cost | None. Each buyer pays separately. | None. | One specification serves each member. |
| After five years | You own no asset. | You own the system and its migration debt. | You own the system. |
Column two explains the usual result for bespoke work. You accept the build cost, and you keep the full running cost. Column three changes that result, because the running cost is the largest figure.
One requirement makes column three possible. The shared foundation already contains identity, access control, encryption, retention and audit. Your build therefore covers only the part that is specific to your organisation. We explain the market effect in what does an interoperable software market look like.
Yes. A supplier that says something different is incorrect.
Your team keeps the work that needs the knowledge of your organisation. It decides the purpose of the service. It decides the importance of each change. It decides whether a change is correct for your users.
The hub does the work that is identical for each member. The mapping rules, the migrations, the regulatory changes and the supplier management.
Measure this number with your own figures. Multiply your technology staff cost by 0.7, then multiply by five. A hub fee must be less than that total.
Most care providers, schools and charities employ no technical staff. Their arithmetic is simpler, and the difference is larger.
A medium care group pays £55,000 to £60,000 each year for its care software. Across five years this is £275,000 to £300,000, and the group owns no asset at the end.
The alternative is one build cost and full ownership. You then pay a flat annual fee of a few thousand pounds, with no fee per bed. Our published figures cover a small or medium residential home. They show a bespoke build at £20,000 to £50,000. Maintenance is 10% to 15% of the build cost each year. A group is above that range.
Two differences control the five-year result. The subscription continues, and it buys no asset. The build cost stops.
We show the full care sector figures in care home software costs. We explain the renewal arithmetic in your software bill goes up every year.
We build your system on engage.re, and you own the result.
For each sector we then create a sector technology hub with the first organisations.
We are developing the first hub for the care home sector.
A council runs forty systems from twenty suppliers. Its five estate staff use about £260,000 each year on running work. Most of that spending pays for mapping rules and migrations that each adjacent authority also pays for.
A care group with three homes employs no technical staff. It pays a supplier £57,000 each year, and it absorbs the rest as manager time with no cost record. The total is smaller, and the part of the budget is larger.
The care home software and charity software pages cover the sector in detail.
About 70%. The usual plan divides a budget into 70% running, 20% improvement and 10% new work. Estates with older systems are at 75% to 85% for maintenance. This leaves 15% to 25% for all new work. UK councils spend £1bn to £2bn each year on IT, and as much as £1bn keeps legacy systems.
Five estate staff cost a council £371,310 each year, with all employment costs included. The team is a solutions architect, an IT manager, two systems administrators and a developer. The UK median salaries are £285,000 in total. Employer National Insurance adds 15% above a £5,000 threshold, and the Local Government Pension Scheme adds 16.6%. The same team costs an NHS trust £391,545, because its pension rate is 23.7%.
No. Your team keeps the work that needs the knowledge of your organisation. It decides the purpose of the service. It decides the importance of each change. It decides whether a change is correct for your users. The hub does the work that is identical for each member. That work is the mapping rules, the migrations, the regulatory changes and the supplier management.
You accept the build cost, and you keep the full running cost. You then own the code and its migration debt. The running cost is the largest figure, so a bespoke build that does not decrease it makes no saving.
Directly. An organisation with older systems has 15% to 25% of its technology budget available for all new work. AI competes for that part with each other project. A lower running cost creates the space, so the limit is the estate and not the AI budget.
We build your system on engage.re, with no fee for each seat. You own the code, the data and the instance. A new record type is a dictionary entry, and not a migration. We then create a sector technology hub that runs at cost. Each new member decreases the fee for all members. One specification serves each member system.
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