Field service management platforms have reached functional parity, so the software can no longer be your advantage. Here is the build-vs-buy split that works: buy the commodity core, build the two or three capabilities that encode how your business actually wins, and engineer the seam between them properly.
A spreadsheet has become a system and someone has to decide: build the replacement on Microsoft’s low-code platform or commission software you own outright. This guide puts real UK figures on both routes — the full Power Apps licence bill including Dataverse storage and premium connectors, custom build costs at current day rates, the delegation and request-limit ceilings that surface after the demo, a 40-user worked example (£44,676 vs £80,136 over three years), and the seat-count crossover calculation that tells you when the answer flips.
Microsoft Copilot and a custom AI assistant are not rivals for the same job — one is a £13.80-a-seat licence inside Office, the other is software built around your data, your customers and your process. This guide puts verified UK figures on both: Copilot’s real pricing and the measured government trial results, what a custom build actually costs at £1,100 a day, a 50-person worked example run down both routes over three years, the hybrid pattern that uses each for what it is best at, and a five-question decision framework that settles the choice for most businesses in an afternoon.
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