Nowadays, every business – small or big – is aiming towards custom software to fulfill its own specific needs. Since every business has its own set of functions and conditions, custom software is gradually becoming popular among new businesses as it can fulfill specific business needs of that particular company.
Choosing between ready-made off-the-shelf software and custom software is an ever growing dilemma in the business industry. In most cases, ready-made software falls short of meeting the specific needs of a company. They also come with a bunch of unnecessary and unwanted tools and features which slows down production rather than speeding it up. On the other hand, custom software as the name suggests can be customized to meet the requirements of that specific business in mind.
Custom software offers a ton of benefits. The most obvious are that since they are tailored to fit just your needs – no more, no less – they can reduce your cost and time. They can also speed up your production process since they can be optimized to your business flow instead of forcing you to adapt to a new interface and process it optimizes itself according to your needs.
But there are other, perhaps less obvious benefits from Custom Business Software too, such as:
It works the way you want it to
The common problem faced by businesses using ready-made software is that, they are forced to change their business process according to the software to fully utilize it. But, custom software are specially developed to accommodate the requirements of your business. So, the final software would be based on your directions during the development stage so that it works just the way you want it to work. You will end up with a product that is equipped with all the necessary functions that your business needs. Thus, it will simplify the entire business process and it will also save you time and effort.
Minimal interface problem
As custom business software is built according to specific requirements, there are fewer complications than that of a ready-made software. As the custom software is built with features fit for your specific business, it is easy to use and requires minimal training to learn to use it. Again, as the software is optimized for each department of your business, every employee will have the idea of how it works thus mitigating any interface problem in the software.
Enhanced Security
A ready-made software is used by many businesses, but custom software ensures that your business process and information remains private and secure. The security offered by a custom software is unmatched as no other company is going to use the same method. Most importantly, other businesses cannot gain any insight on how your business operates from the inside.
Custom software can also protect your business from potential external threats. As hackers target the vulnerabilities of commonly used ready-made software to hack into the system, a custom made software is a much less attractive target for hackers as it requires a lot more effort to breach the system.
Overall Lower Cost
Ready-made software are initially cheaper than custom software. But you might have to pay a monthly fee which will eventually add up to a lot of money. On the other hand custom software is a one-time cost. The long term benefits of a custom software is far more valuable than a ready-made product.
Again, the ready-made software might require a specific hardware. Which will add up to the cost of the overall product. But custom software can be optimized to the hardware you currently have. Thus, cutting down on the cost.
Tighter Integration
Custom software is great for business program integration. Businesses need different solutions for different departments. Custom software can integrate all of them in a centralized system which will give you a higher control and ease the management of your entire business.
More Scalable
A customized software is far more scalable than any ready-made software. The custom software can be scaled on the basis of business requirement and size. The problem with ready-made software is that, it is inexpensive to buy but it falls short when it is time to scale it up as your business grows. Even when it could be scaled to large businesses, it might be too expensive to license. Custom software development allows your business to grow without being limited by the software.
Unmatched Support
One of the major benefit of a custom software is a highly efficient and unmatched technical support from the developers. You will have access to the support team who developed your software. Any problem you face could be solved in an efficient manner.
Overall Business Improvement
The two things essential to achieve business objective are good infrastructure and high-end technology. Custom software ensures a good business development as it can be updated as new technologies come to market. The biggest advantage of custom software is that all the solutions are introduced on the basis of existing process.
Final Thoughts
Custom Business Software can be the right answer, whether your business is small or big. At some point, you should absolutely consider a custom-developed software to speed up your production process.
If you’re not ready for a fully customized solution, you should consider Odoo – an all-in-one business management software toolkit – that is super-customizable to your business. It offers a range of business software and applications that form a suite of enterprise management applications that can be customized to the requirements of your company. The range of solutions are enormous. You can avail the services needed for your specific business, even add more later if needed.
Get in touch with us if you’d like to talk about how an Odoo implementation can help your business. We’d be happy to demo it for you!
Or if you have a Custom Software project in mind, our team of experts is ready to make it a reality, on-time and on-budget. Trust us, we’ve done it before!
To keep up with the consumer needs and to be ten steps ahead of everyone else in the market, you must choose custom software over a ready-made license-based software. The choice is yours but surely, the smart choice will boost the growth of your business.