Why off-the-shelf internal comms tools win every time
Your internal communications tool isn’t working.
Employees miss important updates. Frontline workers feel disconnected. Your IT team is stretched thin, and now you’re faced with a big decision: Build your own solution from scratch or buy a ready-made platform?
Building might seem like the best way to get exactly what you want. Total control, custom features — it sounds great in theory. But in reality? It’s a massive undertaking. Development takes months (if not years), maintenance is a never-ending burden, and by the time your internal communication software is live, it’s already outdated.
The good news? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Today’s prebuilt corporate communication tool offers the perfect balance of speed, flexibility, extensive customization options, and a wide range of features tailored to your needs — without the cost and complexity of building from scratch.
Let’s dive into why an off-the-shelf internal communications platform is the smarter, faster, and more effective choice for connecting your entire organization.
The evolution of internal comms platforms
You may once have scraped by with a basic company intranet and SharePoint. But internal comms have come a long way — from bulletin boards and internal email blasts to mobile-first apps that deliver real-time updates and targeted, effective communication.
Today’s workforce demands consumer-grade experiences and a modern UX. So to improve your internal communications strategy and the employee experience, organizations now need platforms that are intuitive, engaging, and integrated with existing tools.
Big changes to your comms tech may feel like a daunting prospect. But if your existing internal comms platform is holding you back, remember that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
You can leverage prebuilt platforms to improve internal comms, share company content, and elevate company culture like never before.
6 reasons to buy an internal communication tool
Still on the fence about buying or building your internal communication tool? Let’s look at all the reasons why buying a solution provides everything you need and more.
#1. Easy activation
Building your own internal communication tool requires months (or years) of development, testing, and iteration. The process dominates the time of your tech team for a prolonged period.
When you buy a platform, on the other hand, you get instant access to a proven and reliable system with best-in-class key features and minimal training required. There’s no need to worry about designing UX, managing infrastructure, or fixing bugs.
You can simply configure and launch, counting on tried and tested functionality — and incredible speed, too. A bought platform can be live within months, if not weeks. So you can start making a big difference to your internal comms sooner rather than later.
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#2. Digital inclusion
In 2025, internal communication tech shouldn’t be reserved for your office-based team.
If you want to achieve high levels of employee engagement and retention across all sectors of your workforce, you need an internal communication tool that allows you to reach every employee — no matter where or when they work.
With a mobile-first employee app, you can send company updates directly to employee smartphones. Whether you have office-based workers, remote teams, or frontline employees, you can be sure that comms are getting to every corner of the company.
Staff can log in to your platform without a corporate email address and stay informed of company updates on the go. They get push notifications that alert them to critical news. And they can access advanced features that encourage an employee social network, like a news feed and instant messaging tools.
The best employee apps revolutionize workplace communication. But creating, launching, and maintaining your own employee app is no mean feat.
To ensure digital inclusion, your comms tool should be available across desktop, Android, and iOS devices. That means building and maintaining multiple apps in the app store, which is a significant burden for an internal IT team.
Opt for a turnkey solution, however, and you ensure that no employee is left out. With a dedicated tech team on hand, you can be confident that your internal communication tool will work perfectly across a range of devices and that all employees — no matter where and how they work — can onboard in just a few clicks.
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#3. Customer success
When you create employee communication software from scratch, you’re on your own. Your internal team has to build an engaging platform — and inspire employees to use it.
A purchased platform tends to come with a dedicated success team. These experts can help to optimize platform engagement, adoption, and ROI. They can also take care of training and troubleshooting, removing the burden of support from your internal IT team.
Your platform partner has walked this road before. Rolling out their platform time and time again, they’ve built up a wealth of knowledge. So your employees don’t have to be guinea pigs for a completely new system and launch process.
A customer success team can provide on-site support during the launch phase — and advise on the best ways to drive adoption. Whether that’s through a teaser campaign, employee challenges, or the simple (but very effective!) bribery of giving free ice cream cones or lunch vouchers to every employee who downloads the app.
#4. Custom branding
A common concern about a bought internal communication tool? That it won’t look and feel like your brand. That you have to sacrifice brand identity for the convenience of a bought solution.
But with more comprehensive and robust customization options available, this is no longer the software sticking point it once was.
Modern employee communication platforms allow for full customization. You can add company colors, logos, and fonts. Your company name and logo will appear in the app store, on people’s phones, and inside the platform itself.
The best internal communication software allows you to apply this customization on a micro-level within your organization — by team, role, and geography — to provide a branded and personalized employee experience.
With extensive customization options, you can use your internal comms tool to create a company culture of belonging.
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#5. App personalization
Of course, it isn’t just the look of your internal communication platform that counts. The functionality it offers should be tailored to meet the needs of your employees.
This is why some companies choose to go down the build route. They see it as a way to get a custom solution that perfectly meets their requirements.
But again, bought solutions are keeping pace. They’re going beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to give customers a tailored tool, without the hassle of building it themselves.
With intuitive platforms that offer a user-friendly interface, you can create communication channels, custom workflows, control layouts, modify notifications, and ensure employees receive relevant content for them.
Features you don’t need? No problem — turn them on and off as you see fit. Concerned about real-time messaging? All good — set up alert and time zone parameters as needed.
Bought solutions are also agile. With your platform partner’s support, it’s easy to keep up with internal communication trends and employee expectations. And you don’t have to pay for ongoing development costs every time you need a new feature.
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#6. Integration
Internal communications don’t exist in a vacuum. Your platform needs to integrate with the other workplace software you use, including HR systems, payroll, scheduling, team collaboration tools, and much more.
Creating deep integrations for a self-build solution is time-consuming and costly. It often requires expensive API development and ongoing maintenance just to keep things connected.
But a purchased solution comes with prebuilt and seamless integrations for software like Workday, ServiceNow, Microsoft 365, and more.
Via secure, single sign-on technology, employees can access all the workplace tools they need. Your employee communication tool acts as a digital company hub, providing easy access to things like employee surveys, training, peer recognition and rewards, employee feedback forms, pay stubs, and shift swap tools.
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#7. Future-proofing
The right internal communications platform shouldn’t just solve today’s challenges. It should evolve with your organization and keep your workforce connected no matter how work changes.
Building an in-house solution may seem like a way to tailor communications to your exact needs, but without ongoing investment and dedicated resources, these systems can quickly become outdated. They can struggle to keep up with shifting workforce expectations, mobile-first engagement trends, and emerging technologies.
A prebuilt platform, by contrast, is continuously updated, giving you access to the latest and greatest capabilities without the burden of maintaining and upgrading the technology yourself.
Keep in mind: Not all prebuilt platforms are created equal. Some workplace tools are owned by larger corporations, where internal comms are just one of many priorities. This can leave customers vulnerable to shifting business strategies or product sunsets.
With the right internal comms partner, you get long-term stability, continuous innovation, and a platform designed to adapt and grow with your workforce — so you’re always ahead of what’s next.
Build or buy? Get the best of both worlds with Blink
Building an internal communication app may seem like a great way to get exactly what you want. But it’s often a long, costly, and risky investment.
In contrast, buying a prebuilt platform gives you speed, scalability, and best-in-class technology. You also enjoy the expertise of a team that lives and breathes internal comms tech.
Choose a comprehensive solution like Blink and there’s no trade-off. You get the best of both worlds. The ability to brand and white label the platform. Powerful integrations with other workplace software you use. And a speedy launch — most of our clients go live within 6 to 12 weeks.
Our support is also second to none. Our team comes onsite at your company to assist with the platform launch and ensure high levels of adoption. The proof is in the stats.
With Blink, Domino’s achieved a 94% adoption rate and 81% monthly active users. A company news feed, chat features, and integrations with benefits, payslips, and shift swap tools make it easy for Domino’s to cultivate an informed and motivated workforce.
Over at Stagecoach, Blink has helped increase employee satisfaction by 46% and reduce staff turnover by 26%. What’s more, 100% of employees said they would recommend Blink’s internal communication platform to a colleague.
Don’t spend months reinventing the wheel. Ask the right questions when choosing a new employee communication tool and you can find a single platform that meets your ever-evolving comms needs and builds human connection — today, tomorrow, and beyond.
Blink. And connect your workforce with a ready-made internal comms platform.
