EFFICIENCY

It’s pretty common for businesses to end up with a hodgepodge of off-the-shelf solutions, but this isn’t usually the most efficient way to get stuff done. In many cases, using multiple solutions in this way can result in everything from duplication of work to poor integration. This is because multiple pieces of software are often not designed to work together effectively, and duplication of work often means that issues fall between the cracks. As a result, you end up needing people just to check for data errors and redundancy. This level of efficiency clearly isn’t ideal, and it can result in large business expenses.

INTEGRATION

Drilling down into efficiency, most businesses, at some point, need to transfer data from one system to another, whether it’s internally or externally. You might need to integrate actions and data between your systems and the system of a service provider, for example, or you may need to transfer information between consumers, business clients and yourself.

Again, multiple systems are often poorly designed to handle this, and, again, the result is more hours wasted on checking data or even transferring it. Integration is often what makes or breaks many potential solutions, but custom software can be designed around the systems you use and need — both now and into the future.

SCALABILITY

To be completely successful, businesses need to scale. But scaling brings its own set of issues, creating more complex processes. In some cases, the process of scaling can require a complete software overhaul. If you expect rapid expansion, the software that you use initially may not even be able to cope with that, or it may increase the workload of your software system until it breaks.

At that point, custom solutions come to the fore. You get an easily scalable solution that’s designed with future use in mind.

EXPLORE ADDITIONAL AREAS OF PROFITABILITY

In business, money matters. Whether you are going for increased turnover or profitability, a bespoke software solution can be the answer. The rise of software as a service means that if you have an idea for a piece of software that can improve your business, you can license it to other businesses for a fee. This brings in additional revenue.

Alternatively, you may have identified a specific business need but lack the resources to get it to market. A custom project can allow you to build an alpha version that you can use to gain interest as a proof of concept, allowing you to gain investments to build a beta and final release.

Increasing scalability also increases the opportunity to sell more services and add to profitability.

ENHANCED SECURITY

Enterprise-level software is often designed to be accessed from anywhere in the world. And those with malicious intent know this. There is no piece of software so secure that someone, somewhere cannot break into it.

However, a lot of codebases have serious security flaws, which can lead to businesses losing control of their computers and data. That’s why it’s important to have a developer who develop secure code that remains secure. When security is at the forefront of your development plan, you get code that ensures:

• Your data is secure
• Your client data is secure
• You won’t lose data to ransomware

EASIER UPDATES

Deploying software across any business can be a hassle, particularly with multiple devices and integrations. And this also applies to deploying updates to that software — in many cases, developers release code, but you don’t always have the opportunity to fully test that code. If you do and find a bug, what then?

Custom solutions make it far easier to deploy updates across all your machines, as you can ensure the code works with your specific set of devices before deployment. Any bugs can be ironed out beforehand. After all, you don’t want to break a business-critical process for an update that simply improves the GUI.

ECLIPSE COMPETITION

Custom software allows your organization to provide services faster, reduce operating expenses and ensure fewer client issues. For example, with a new automated system, you collect more data and new data points, which allows machine learning tools to be created to assess opportunity and risk. This risk assessment is sold as a new product in real-time to clients based on address or another identifying item.

The result? You can use this to demonstrate why you are the better choice for your client than your competition.

ENSURE CONSISTENT BRANDING

Branding is a key part of your business, which is why every medium or large enterprise should have a branding document. However, when your software doesn’t permit branding integration, your staff and customers end up experiencing a disparity between the way you want to present yourself as a business and what is actually presented.

This can cost you sales.

Creating your own software allows you to integrate your own branding within the software, creating a custom user interface. The result? A consistent customer and staff experience that makes it easier to create sales opportunities.

INCREASE PROFITS

While custom software naturally has a one-off cost, it can save you money in the long term. This can be through increased efficiency of staff, but it also means that you don’t have to pay for extra features that you won’t use.

These features cost money to develop, so even if they are “free” with the software, they still cost money to develop, so you end up paying for them in the license fee. And you don’t have to pay for additional maintenance costs.

Even better, custom software allows new products with new revenue streams.

CUSTOM SOFTWARE, ULTIMATELY

Custom software brings a huge host of benefits to businesses, ranging from saving money and delivering increased efficiencies all the way to eclipsing your competition and improving deployability. If you need a custom software solution, talk to us today to see what we can offer you.