It’s always wise to second guess and thoroughly scrutinize a potential investment. Some don’t hold up to the examination, but custom software becomes more valuable the more you investigate. These custom products are among the best investments your business can make. Not only are they superior to the competition, but they enable you to take advantage of your business’s unique opportunities while protecting your most vulnerable points.
Off-The-Shelf Inefficiencies
The first reason your business needs custom software is because custom products are innately superior to off-the-shelf solutions. For instance, custom software developers build products based on the client’s needs from start to finish. Conversely, mass produced software only provides general solutions to simplified problems. Custom software considers an individual business and off-the-shelf solutions use a single product to address an entire industry. These generic solutions do not actually solve many problems. In fact, they may create stumbling blocks in your day to day workflow.
Good custom software comes as the result of detailed study of your business and your associated business needs. Developers not only listen to your input, but they actively observe how you do business. This gives them an opportunity to bring up inefficiencies they could potentially fix. Many of these come from off-the-shelf solutions. No single program will allow your employees to do their jobs. A single task may require application hopping, which drains time and resources. You may also have software that loses data when it updates, or software with updates that interfere with other programs.
Expansion complicates these issues. Most off-the-shelf software is built with pre-existing limitations. If your business needs more storage space, additional users, or even integrated solutions for a new location, off-the-shelf solutions will either fail or demand a hefty new fee. Usually, off-the-shelf developers design their products to force expanding companies to buy all new products to meet their expanding needs. On the other hand, custom software comes with built-in backdoors for future expansion, which cuts down on future cost and frustration.
Security Concerns
If you run off-the-shelf solutions, you face the threat of every hacker with access to that software. You also make yourself a more profitable target. After all, if a hacker manages to break through a popular off-the-shelf system’s security, then every business that runs that software is vulnerable. If you use custom software, hacking you won’t necessarily help the criminal hack any other business. It’s a matter of time investment and potential reward.
If you know of especially vulnerable points in your system, such as remote points of sale and wireless networks, then you can give custom software developers advanced notice. With this information, they then build special layers of protection for any software that comes into contact with these vulnerable points. Every business has slightly different weaknesses. Even the most expensive off-the-shelf software can’t address your specific risks as well as custom software developers.
Missed Opportunities
The best businesses are capable of taking rapid action. They also streamline interior workings to make it easier to turn a profit quickly. If you are wasting time and money on inefficient, vulnerable software, you are also wasting opportunities. Custom software offers more advantages than just waste prevention, however.
Athletes use tailored gear to enhance their performance. Artisans and craftspeople do, too. These tools help them do their work at not only a faster speed, but also with improved quality. If you have software that can combine everything you need for associates to handle a customer complaint on a single screen, how much better will your customer satisfaction score become? If your software allows employees to multitask or combine processes, won’t you be better prepared for new initiatives? Custom software gives you the ability to make your own opportunities. You can also use the development process to take advantage of new ideas and technology that will help you meet major goals.
Example of Industry Leaders
One of the best ways to tell if a particular product or tool is really worthwhile is to see how it works for industry leaders. Every industry can benefit from custom software, and the range of companies to benefit from such products reflects that. One of the world’s biggest aerospace and defense companies, Boeing, uses custom software solutions. Medical care company ADX and medical technology leaders like Drager and Siemens also benefit from custom software. Even RAM Products has custom software in use.
If you want your business to grow and expand, custom software development is an essential investment. It won’t hold you back or make you reinvest all over again for better storage space. Custom software keeps you safe, and it allows you to grow in unique directions. If the potential benefits don’t win you over, you just have to look at all the industry leading companies who have already received concrete benefits from their investment.