To Build or to Buy, That’s the Question: What’s Right for Your Mentoring Software?

Structured mentoring programs deserve a home of their own. Trying to run them off spreadsheets or an internal mentoring system often doesn’t do them justice. You might think you are on top of decisions and making good matches, but the truth is that your program simply isn’t running to its full potential.

OK, you think, we need dedicated mentoring software. An easy fix, right? Just pick a software, and you are ready to get off the starting blocks with matching mentors and mentees. However, this isn’t really the case.

Most people recognize the need for mentoring software, but then they might not necessarily understand the value in using a third-party platform. Instead, they delegate a task to someone to build an internal tool, or even just use a program they already have. Can this ever work? Let’s explore the case for build vs buy in this employee development niche, and the options open to you.

The Case for Building Software Internally

Let’s say that you get the green light to build a full custom solution. On paper, this might seem like the best option. You can build an app that perfectly meets the precise needs of your organization, whatever they might be, and choosing this path could deliver the following benefits to you:

The Software Is Built for You

Firstly, and most obviously, any mentoring platform you develop internally will be designed perfectly around your existing requirements and needs. Whatever terminology, approval structures, or reporting requirements you usually use can be accommodated from the outset. From peer mentoring to a buddy system for onboarding, all steps you usually take when creating and implementing a mentoring program can be stored on the system.

Rather than pay for a bunch of features your employees are unlikely to ever use, you can prioritize the ones your workforce actually needs.

The Software Integrates With Your Existing Systems

Software integration can be a major issue in organizations with existing highly technical and complex environments. Adding one more tool into the mix can be difficult, especially if the program comes from a third-party vendor no one has worked with before. Building something custom internally could, if done well, integrate more naturally with your existing systems.

In turn, this can create a more consistent experience for the employees who will be using the system the most. Rather than have to learn a new set of controls from scratch, they have a system that is intuitive from the start.

You Have Control Over Future Development

By choosing to build internally, the organization has direct ownership of future development. Whatever features, workflows, or integrations you might envision for the future, no matter how your mentoring formats and programs scale or transform, you can ensure the software is able to keep pace.

You don’t need to wait for a third-party provider to update you with their release schedule; you are the one driving development.

Why Shouldn’t We Make Our Mentoring Software Internally?

Everything above might sound good, but there are some considerations we need to think about before we go ahead and get programming.

Senior leadership tells HR to build the mentoring software.

Who then actually does it?

Do you have anyone with the capability on staff? Who is going to take on responsibility for this custom development and all the project management that comes with this enterprise? The most likely candidate becomes someone working in HR, or maybe the person in charge of the mentoring program admin (if this person isn’t one and the same!).

Who is going to take care of the ongoing maintenance costs that come with running a program internally? You can’t keep the program updated with your latest news and opportunities if the platform is losing functionality by the day.

Many people turn to AI and vibe coding for help here, and it could be an option, but it might not deliver the full results senior management expects to see from an effective mentoring program.

What is Vibe Coding?

Vibe coding is a style of software development that uses an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant to help build the code. This allows people who may not be versed in writing programming code to use plain language prompts and everyday words to work towards creating an app, database, or dashboard that best meets their needs.

For HR and administrators who may not have a technical background and are more accustomed to using AI tools for other tasks, this solution could actually create the basis of a workable mentoring platform.

AI-assisted development may help teams create an early prototype or internal proof of concept. However, a prototype is not the same as a secure, scalable, and fully supported mentoring platform. Organizations still need technical oversight, testing, data protection controls, ongoing maintenance, and clear ownership of the underlying code.

Can We Just Use Other HR Tools?

Before comparing a custom build with specialist software, it is also worth considering the middle-ground option: adapting a tool your organization already uses.

You may already use other HR tools to govern aspects of employee engagement and wellbeing within your organization. Could you also possibly just use these to track your mentorship activities, even if the platform is not strictly built for mentoring? Will this actually work, though? Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons:

Pro: Making Use of Existing Technology

There’s no need for a new buyer’s process or to go out shopping for options. You already have access to a platform that works, and that your staff are familiar with. They might be using the platform in a slightly different manner than they have before, but they don’t need to undertake a full onboarding process to master something new.

Con: Limited Functionality

General HR tools may not have the purpose-built features needed to meet the specific needs that arise from mentoring programs. Mentor matching, goal tracking, and even just program-specific reporting can all make tracking mentoring easier.

Pro: Integration with Wider HR Data

If running your mentoring program via your existing HR platform, you already have access to participant data. This can speed up the background administration since duplicate data entry won’t be required. Should someone choose to engage with mentoring in any capacity, their enrollment in the program may be much faster and smoother than in a completely separate program.

Con: Less Meaningful Reporting

We would like to double down on the lack of reporting here, since good reporting is a vital metric in measuring program effectiveness. Though a general HR system may record program participation, it may not be able to give insight into the quality of connections being developed, any meaningful outcomes, or any issue that may require intervention. Your system might see the numbers, but not the story.

Pro: May Work for a Small Pilot

If you have a small pilot scheme you want to get off the ground with a small cohort, maybe a small reverse mentoring program or something similar, then you may not need specialist software to track it just yet. A simple program to track milestones may be sufficient.

Con: Harder to Scale

What you have for a small program won’t work as you scale it up to the full organization. Easy workarounds for 20 employees become inefficient or even just not possible when handling 200 or more, or multiple mentoring programs running concurrently. Dedicated software is needed to stay on top of connections and ensure participants and administrators alike have the support they need.

What You Get With Dedicated Mentoring Software

If your own platform isn’t an option, and using your existing HR platform won’t do the job, you need to explore what mentoring software can offer. Yes, this will mean having to introduce a new tool to your team, but the benefits it will bring vastly outweigh the time and resources it may take during implementation and onboarding. Some of the benefits that come with choosing specialist mentoring software include:

Smart Matching

Choose a platform with a smart matching algorithm. Rather than run something off spreadsheets and make connections manually, you can use a program that has access to all your participants’ data from the get-go. In as little as one click, you can match at scale.

Easy Connection and Communication

Many mentoring programs can start off well, but low engagement later leads to them slowly fading. The right platform will make connection and communication easy for all, so relationships can continue to grow and partnerships flourish naturally. From a mobile app for participants to surveys and automated communications, the platform needs to be able to handle it all.

Detailed Reporting Dashboards

OK, you won’t always need a full and detailed report, but the platform should be able to give you one. Some days you might just want a quick summary of development and relationship satisfaction. On another, you might want to dive deep into your ROI, employee retention, and engagement. The right platform will allow you to do all this and more.

Try MentorcliQ, the Centralized Hub for Your Mentoring

Hopefully by this point, we’ve made a good case for dedicated mentoring software. Yes, you absolutely can develop your own tool or make use of the resources you already have. However, neither of these paths might produce the outcomes you need to show that your mentoring programs are actually delivering results. You can see mentoring is happening, but you can’t see how your workers are making use of the relationships. You don’t know if it is effective or not.

A centralized mentoring hub like that offered by MentorcliQ’s award-winning platform puts the control back in your hands. Whether you are running a small-scale pilot program or managing multiple schemes across a multinational conglomerate, you will have an overview of it all. No more compromises, no more wasted capabilities, just the support and understanding you, your participants, and your program administrators all need.

Book a demo and see how our software can transform your approach to program management today.