Buy or Build your RIMS — find out which
Buy or Build your RIMS
Explore the total cost of ownership for a research information management system.
Proactively managing research information is both increasingly important and increasingly complex. Likewise, so are the number of complicated tools designed to help with effective and efficient management.
When considering these tools, a primary question to answer is whether you should buy a commercial product such as Elsevier’s Pure or build it yourself using available open-source systems.
To help answer this question, we engaged analysts from Knowledge Eopens in new tab/window to determine the Buy or Build costs.
Buy or Build: An exploration of the total cost of ownership for a research information management system
Download the white paper opens in new tab/windowWant to know more about RIMS/CRIS systems? Read our guide: Why you need a Research Information Management System.
Knowledge Eopens in new tab/window is an independent consulting company with over 20 years of experience working in research information management for organizations unrelated to Elsevier.
They did extensive research into the Buy or Build question. Their results are available in this white paper.
Research highlights
Using Pure shows a significant Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) advantage over do it yourself (DIY) solutions:
Total cost of ownership (TCO) | Build (DIY) | Buy (Pure) |
|---|---|---|
One-time costs | - | - |
Small institution | variable* | 2.5 FTE |
Large institution | variable* | 8.0 FTE |
Annual operational costs (1 year) | - | - |
Small institution | 3.8 FTE | 2.2 FTE |
Large institution | 32.7 FTE | 24.6 FTE |
Annual opportunity costs (1 year) | - | - |
Small institution | 2.7 FTE | 0.0 FTE |
Large institution | 22.9 FTE | 0.0 FTE |
Total cost of ownership (TCO) | - | - |
Small institution | 6.5 FTE* | 4.7 FTE |
Large institution | 55.6 FTE* | 32.6 FTE |
Note: Small institution: ≤ 200 research active staff members. Large institution: ≥3000 research active staff members.
* Data for internal software development too variable to include. Actual TCO will be higher. Use RIMS TCO Calculator to compare using custom local estimates.
Pure provides 70% added value over DIY
You can further reduce TCO for a RIMS solution
Based on the research with universities that implemented DIY and Pure solutions, participants reduced their TCO of Pure up to 50% by following these recommendations:
Buy instead of build
Host in the cloud
Prepare before implementation
Implement and roll out in stages
Streamline the upgrade process
Apply best practices from other institutions
Pure customers see benefits
You receive many benefits from having a RIMS system. Here are a few examples from Pure customers.
Increase international collaboration
The Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) in India implemented Pure and made their research visible to a global audience. As the first Pure installation in India, MAHE anticipated unique challenges but discovered that Pure easily met their needs.
Provide stability & reliability with customization
RTI International’s move from their DIY solution to Pure provided the right balance of a stable and reliable solution and customization. Partnering their small, empowered internal team with a Pure project manager resulted in a smooth and rapid implementation.
Manage growing research outputs
When the Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) pursued a new direction as a research university, they needed a system to manage their small but rapidly growing research output (~40% increase per year). They selected Pure and, with dedicated implementation support from the Pure team, had a smooth transition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Prioritize a flexible data model covering all research content types — outputs, projects, funding, people, and impact. Look for strong integrations with institutional systems (HR, finance) and external databases (Scopus, Web of Science, ORCID). Open access compliance tools, a public-facing research portal and built-in reporting and analytics are equally important. National assessment support, a clear implementation methodology and a strong post-go-live support model will determine long-term success. Finally, consider scalability — the right RIMS should grow and adapt alongside your institution's evolving research strategy.
Institutions with distinctive requirements may favor building a RIMS over more standardized commercial offerings, although they should be aware that the true cost of such a system extends well beyond development. Ongoing maintenance, security, and regulatory compliance — including evolving national assessment requirements such as REF and Plan S — demand sustained investment. A purpose-built commercial solution like Elsevier's Pure is continuously developed, updated to meet new requirements automatically and supported by a global team. Buying can also mean faster time to value, a proven implementation methodology, and access to a community of peer institutions sharing real-world best practices. The University of Vienna ran an in-house CRIS for six years before the cost of maintaining compliance with evolving government reporting mandates became prohibitive. As Michael Greil, Head of Research Information System at Vienna: ‘You can’t develop this in-house with normal IT services — this is an expert system.’
Watermark Faculty Success (formerly Digital Measures Activity Insight) is primarily a faculty activity reporting tool — focused on collecting and reporting individual faculty activities including teaching, service and scholarship, mainly for internal HR and accreditation purposes. Pure is a comprehensive, institution-wide research information management platform covering the full research lifecycle: outputs, funding, impact, compliance, and national assessment. Pure also offers a public-facing research portal, advanced analytics and deep integrations with the global research ecosystem. For institutions requiring a research-first, internationally oriented platform, Pure provides significantly broader capability and scope.
Data privacy and security protections vary across different Research Information Management Systems (RIMS), but most major commercial platforms offer role-based access controls and anonymization protocols for human subjects or proprietary data. Customers typically retain ownership and control of the data they upload to Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions like Elsevier's Pure, while the vendor maintains and secures the product infrastructure. Pure is ISO 27001:2013 certified (March 2025), with data hosted in institutional regions to support data sovereignty requirements. On-premise deployment is also available.
Researcher resistance to a new CRIS typically comes from two places: perceived complexity and time burden. Researchers often feel the system serves institutional leadership rather than their own work, and worry it adds to already stretched workdays. Institutions that lead with researcher-facing benefits — automatic publication harvesting, ORCID sync, public profiles, funding discovery — and minimize manual input see significantly higher adoption. Rīga Stradiņš University achieved 95% researcher uptake in year one with a structured communication and onboarding program.