Improve your business

How Custom Software can improve your business performance

In the highly competitive business market of today, the approach of developing a bespoke software solution exclusively to fulfil specific business needs is becoming a necessity. The dilemma between choosing off-the-shelf software or custom software is always present.  Off-the-shelf software can be great, but often falls short of meeting specific needs and usually includes many unused features which you do not need. On the other hand, a bespoke software solution will improve your business by digitalising operations and addressing your needs and requirements just as the business demands.

Since every business has different requirements, it is very difficult for one off-the-shelf solution to accommodate multiple needs at a single time which means you need several such systems to run your business. Bespoke software, however, is built to address the specific needs of an organisation. It is designed to ensure that all the particular preferences and business requirements are accommodated, meaning that the solution can although you may start addressing a single user group like Sales, the system can develop to manage your whole business. Not only does this streamline and simplify business management, it also reduces costs of licenses and maintenance required when using multiple systems. It also reduces training time for new and existing users when introduced to new aspects of the system. Bespoke solutions can speed up deployment as well as user adoption. They can fill a niche and optimise your business flow, rather than forcing you to change processes you already use.

Things to Consider

• • Bespoke Software Development services are usually a little more expensive than off-the-shelf. This is due to custom software addressing challenges and goals that are unique for your business.
  • Bespoke software should form a solid foundation for your business, It can be built very quickly and made to maintain high standards.
  • Before developing customised software for your business, you need to identify the exact requirements, then need to calculate the development cost associated.
  • You need to balance the benefits and maintenance costs against the cost of doing nothing or using multiple off-the-shelf systems.
  • Bespoke software is totally upgradable, so providing protection for the future, ensuring that your invested time and effort continues to pay dividends year after year.

 

Benefits of using  bespoke software to improve your business

So how can bespoke software improve your business processes and thereby add significant value to the overall business performance.

• • Simplifies the business model. To build and maintain a competitive edge, and achieve your business goals, you need to find out ways to improve the effectiveness of your business and reduce the operational costs Bespoke software enables employees to save time by reducing manual actions and providing information in a timely fashion. Sales and management reports can be provided within minutes with near real time data pulled directly from the system. This saves time and employees can focus on higher-priority, profitable tasks. In short, a bespoke solution will simplify your business model and make it more productive.

• • Tailor Made Solutions. Bespoke software is developed to fulfil specific business requirements. Any client concerns during development process can be improved while building the solution, which is one of the most significant features of bespoke software development. You can change things whenever you want to address nuances in your business which arise during the process. ‘Standard’ systems cannot do this.

 

The bespoke system can also grow and adapt as your business does, so that it always delivers all the benefits not matter how long it is used.

 

• • Speed up Reporting.  Reporting is essential for any business. Data delivered in a timely fashion is critical for any company. Instead of spending hours digging through multiple excel sheets and other reports, your bespoke solution can provide reports, summary and detailed, from where you can retrieve all the necessary data and use them effectively to achieve business goals.

• • Integration.  Bespoke software is a great solution for businesses with multiple systems, either due to scale, specific requirements, acquisitions or legacy systems. Bespoke software development allows you to integrate all of them to provide one integrated system, which can manage multiple processes. In this way you can achieve higher results and can control, manage the entire business from a single source.

• • Security.  Bespoke software is inherently secure.  It’s easy for hackers to hack off-the-shelf software as, being widely available, they are well known by hackers including the ‘back doors’ and other vulnerabilities. However, it is very difficult for anyone to enter and therefore steal information from a bespoke system which is unique to your company.

• • Maintenance.  With bespoke software development, you are able to operate the system as long as you want. If the vendor providing any off-the-shelf solutions, decides to stop their services or ceases trading, your business will be in a position where you have to replace the entire software often without warning.

• • Lower hardware costs.  Often off-the-shelf systems need to run on a dedicated server to ensure there are no conflicts which are possible when operating two discrete systems on a single device. This leads to increased hardware costs for provision and support requirements. A company-wide bespoke system only needs one server and thus incurs lower cost.

• • Scalability.  Scalability is one of the prime benefits of a bespoke business system. You can continually maintain and develop the software as your business grows in size and operations. With off-the-shelf software, you don’t have this opportunity.

• • Support.   Bespoke business solutions generally come with more efficient and reliable technical support. They come with access to a technical team who know the software inside and out as they developed it. This differs from off-the-shelf systems which often use lower skilled helpdesk staff to try and address issues before involving remotely sited development teams who are not subject to any agreed SLA’s

In Summary

Any business system you implement should match with the goals and objectives of your company. It has been proven that market leading companies save time and money by using bespoke systems in their business model. Whether it’s creating a CRM solution or a stock control system, you can choose the features you want for your business and deliver business flexibility and growth.