Build vs. Buy: Customer Portal Strategy for Consumer Finance

When was the last time you looked at your customer portal and thought: Is this really doing what we need it to? 

In consumer finance, the customer portal isn’t just a convenience - it’s the digital front door to your business. It’s where borrowers pay bills, view statements, and access other key documents. For many, it’s the only interaction they’ll have with your company all month. 

So, when it comes to improving that experience, the stakes are high. Whether you're considering building a new portal, replacing an underperforming one, or enhancing what you already have, your customer portal strategy will shape your operations, client satisfaction, and bottom line for years. 

And while building internally might seem like the most flexible option, it's often the most complex.  

At first, building your own portal sounds empowering - complete control over features, branding, and integrations. But that control comes with full responsibility for development, compliance, support, and scalability. 

A few critical factors to consider: 

• Long timelines - building a user-friendly, secure portal can take 12–24 months 

• Heavy lifting - integration with your LMS and payment systems is rarely straightforward 

• Accessibility - compliance with WCAG 2.2 AA is increasingly expected and not always easy to implement 

• Regulatory shifts - State-level privacy laws like CCPA are shaping how organizations collect, present, and give customers access to their data — which directly influences what your portal must support. 

If your internal team can’t keep pace, the portal and your customer experience will fall behind. 

You Don’t Have to Choose Between Start-Over or Status Quo 

The good news? You don’t need to rebuild from the ground up to get meaningful results. 

DataOceans offers a smarter approach: enhance the platform you already have. Our customer portal solution is designed to fill the gaps in your existing customer portal - without replacing your entire infrastructure. 

With DataOceans, you can:  

• Add secure, embedded payment workflows 

• Enable digital document presentment  

• Improve UX with mobile-first design and WCAG-compliant accessibility 

• Offload maintenance and updates with managed hosting and monitoring  

• Seamlessly integrate with your LMS and backend systems 

It’s a fast, strategic way to reduce operational strain while meeting customer expectations and improving digital adoption. 

Make a Long-Term Decision That’s Built for Growth 

Building something yourself might feel like the most “custom” option, but that doesn’t always make it the smartest. Enhancing your portal should be about sustainability, security, and scalability - not starting from scratch just because you can. 

To help guide your evaluation, we’ve developed an in-depth resource: Build vs. Buy: The Critical Customer Portal Decision That Impacts Your Operations and Bottom Line 

Download the eBook for a side-by-side comparison, risk assessment insights, and key factors to consider before moving forward.