Considering software for any of the business needs, companies always face the choice. It is all about whether they need to develop a custom solution or purchase ready-to-use software. It’s obvious that the market has a great variety of solutions to choose from. So why then do businesses decide on custom software development?
It’s worth starting with the definition of custom software. It is a solution specifically designed and delivered for a certain organization. That means that the team goes through the overall development process. The first stage is the discovery, where the product owner and the development team have to specify and document all the project requirements. It covers the software architecture, chosen functionality, and development approaches. The second stage is creating UI/UX design.
The designer team works on the visual view and organization of user workflows within the software. The next stage is development itself. The developers work on backend and frontend implementation while QAs run the test for better performance and efficiency of the solution. When the product is ready, the team starts the release. It can take several days to weeks to launch the software. Besides, the post-launch support, maintenance, and updates remain as important as the product delivery itself.
Considering the custom software development process, teams understand that it is a complex and lengthy process. Not every business is ready to put some effort into it. However, they shouldn’t forget about some distinctive benefits they can get with it.
Project-focused functionality
One of the main benefits is that the company can specify the functionality they need to implement within their software. It allows the team to exclude excessive features and only add what they really need for usage. If we compare it with off-the-shelf solutions, businesses often mention the fact that they don’t use all the included features but still need to pay for them. Besides, it’s always hard to find software that completely meets every requirement of the business. Therefore, choosing custom software development doesn’t require giving up your initial needs or pick several solutions to meet them.
Flexibility
It can easily turn into a decisive aspect for many companies why to choose custom software. Flexibility is normally considered as an ability of the solution to adapt to rising needs and possible changes. It is a common situation when businesses grow, and their requirements change. As for the ready-to-use software choice, it’s harder to compete within this category. Companies cannot add some functionality or change the presented workflows. On the contrary, custom-built software is designed with specifically outlined requirements. For example, web app development allows the team to focus on the scalability of the app. Scalable software is adaptable in terms of availability, maintenance, and performance. The development team can start with the basic functionality and continue advancing it gradually.
Security
Secure software for your business is a major requirement regardless of the way you get this solution. Nobody wants to face the risk of losing data, customers, revenue, or public trust. Ready-to-use solutions with default security measures can be more vulnerable in comparison with custom solutions. The distinctive benefit is that it differs structurally. Custom software allows the team to achieve a high level of security through business-focused specification and uniqueness. It is a great chance to adopt the best security practices during the whole development process and have the ability to fix issues right away.
Cost-effectiveness
When the company is limited on the budget, ready-to-use solutions seem cheaper. And it’s partly right because the team doesn’t need to spend on building software from scratch. But we forget the fact that lower up-front costs don’t always mean fewer expenses. Ready-to-use solutions can guarantee some savings at the beginning, but you need to estimate monthly costs, additional paid features, new user subscriptions, etc. Therefore expenses on custom software development are fully justified from a long-time perspective. Once you build the solution, you have all the rights to manage future expenses but not depend on the policies of others.
Ownership
The last one but not the least is that the company has the ownership rights for custom software. It’s always harder to deliver business value if the company lacks ownership. Taking into account the fact that businesses grow, you need to have the tools to adapt to needs and meet new requirements. Choosing the ready-to-use software, you completely depend on the third-party provider. Whereas owning custom software, you can make changes you need to happen. Also, you eliminate the situation where external policies influence the overall company culture. Custom solutions support consistent actions and business improvement, covering your specific needs.
Competitive advantage
In many cases, companies decide on custom-built solutions because they want to differentiate their products and services on the market. If we talk about managing the external processes for reaching your customers, it’s better to select custom software development. For example, mobile app development can present a new channel for better user experience and engagement. The branded mobile app enables better recognition among your audience and the additional platform for communication. It brings the opportunity to extend user experience through new channels or even start a business with it.
We hope that this article helped you with defining the main benefits of custom-built solutions. When considering custom software development for your business, it is important to start by outlining the necessary requirements. It’s clear that business needs vary from project to project. Therefore it’s easier to address with custom-built solutions. We recommend looking from a long-term perspective and select software that can scale based on your future needs.
Development efforts need to be to your advantage as the project requirements always remain business-focused. It’s a perfect chance to implement your ideas into an efficient solution. Custom software will grow along with your business. It ensures that both employees and customers have all the necessary functionality to streamline business processes and support communication. It aims at addressing your business and marketing opportunities. It helps to improve efficiency, productivity, and consumer satisfaction. Businesses gain more flexibility in their solutions and will be able to adapt quickly to rising needs.
