What’s the ROI of Replacing Your In-House Customer Platform With a Vendor Solution?

If you already have a homegrown customer portal, the idea of replacing it might sound… expensive.

You’ve already sunk time into building it. Your team knows how it works. Customers are using it (at least a little).

But if you’re starting to wonder whether it’s holding you back, you’re not alone. More and more forwarders are retiring their in-house builds—not because they failed, but because they stopped moving the business forward.

Here’s a breakdown of the real ROI drivers behind switching to a purpose-built commercial platform—and how the math often tells a different story than you’d expect.

Internal Portals: What’s Working, What’s Not

You’ve likely built something functional. But here’s what we hear most often:

• Adoption is low. Customers still default to email.
• The UX feels clunky. It wasn’t designed for the way shippers think.
• Your team is buried in maintenance. What started as “MVP” is now another full-time job.
• It doesn’t help you win deals. Sales teams don’t lead with it, and prospects aren’t impressed.

If any of that sounds familiar, it might be time to revisit the total cost—not just what you’ve spent, but what you’re missing.

The ROI of Replacing Your Internal Build

Here are five areas where teams typically see return on investment after switching to a commercial platform:

1. Sales Lift

Your portal becomes a demo asset—not a liability.

“When prospects see it in action, they immediately recognize the value. It’s helped us close deals that might have been tougher otherwise.”

— Davis Kannapell, Branch Manager, V. Alexander

2. Customer Retention

High-value accounts are less likely to churn when the day-to-day experience feels modern and reliable.

“Importers have so many choices and can easily hop around to other providers, but our customers don’t.”

— Mike Hoffman, Branch Manager at LOGISTEED America

3. Wallet Share Expansion

When your services are easier to see, track, and manage in one place, it’s easier for customers to say: “How can we work together more?”

“We’ve had long-term customers who didn’t even realize we offered warehousing. Giving them a single, unified experience sparks new conversations and opens the door to more business.”

— Adam Hill, CEO at Scarbrough Global

4. Operational Efficiency

Less time answering “Where’s my freight?” emails. Fewer manual reports to create. More time for your ops team to focus on high-impact work.

5. Opportunity Cost Recovery

Your engineering team stops being a product team—and gets back to projects that actually move your business forward.

“We needed a partner who could focus 100% on the technology side while we focused on what we do best—international transportation.”

— Daniel Hallock, VP of Business Development at V. Alexander

The Hidden Cost of “Good Enough”

When the customer experience is clunky, disconnected, or half-adopted, it’s not just a tech issue—it’s a growth blocker.

Every day you spend maintaining something that isn’t moving the needle is a day you’re giving competitors an opening.

Final Thought: You’re Not Just Replacing Features. You’re Replacing Friction.

Switching from an in-house portal to a purpose-built platform doesn’t just change your tech stack—it changes how your brand shows up, how your team prioritizes, and how your business grows over the next 12–24 months.

If you’re exploring the tradeoffs, we’re happy to help you run the numbers. No pitch—just a clear-eyed look at the value.