What is custom software?
In essence, custom software development allows you to imagine a digital tool, and let professional innovators turn it into reality. According to IBM’s more technical definition, it is “the process of designing, creating, deploying and maintaining software for a specific set of users, functions, or organizations”. The strategy is also known as “bespoke software.” Stemming from the old English term for a “tailor-made suite,” it captures the essence of a perfect-fit software.
What can custom software do for your business?
Whereas commercial software packages, bought off the shelf, lack some desired functions and/or include others unneeded (for which a company also must pay), custom software is designed to fit a business’s exact requirements.
Specializations such as select machines, unprecedented ideas, or brand-marked services all demand tailored digital solutions that offer quality and reliability in their services. Such exacting standards simply can’t be met by basic, cookie-cutter programs. By opting for custom-made software, enterprises find a remarkable increase in:
Productivity
Efficiently built just for your operations, custom software gives confidence to teams and seamless function to their services. Enterprises don’t have to sift through the useful and not, and instead can dig into their work with 100% productivity.
Scalability
Because custom software comes with maintenance and flexibility, it can grow alongside your business. The expert teams that build your platform can stay up-to-date with company needs, meeting demands so as never to truncate success with software limitations.
Savings
With a one-time, up-front cost, custom software may seem pricey. But it’s proven to save money in the long run: it eliminates the need for constant adjustments to packaged software, also streamlining processes for higher performance and, therefore, higher revenue.
Service Quality
Combining all the above factors, custom software gives businesses the edge of quality in modern practices. And that’s what sets them apart in a sea of competition.
Creating the Right Software for Your Needs
To prepare for a successful custom software development collaboration, you must first choose the right partner. Understand the difference between outsourcing strategies, and make sure that you contract a software development company whose approach combines both expertise and efficiency.
Next, be ready to clearly communicate your business needs. If you’ve chosen your IT company well, it will offer English-fluent professionals working in your time zone, allowing clear and convenient meetings that save time and confusion. You will present business ideas or problems, and together brainstorm digital solutions; explore pricing and timelines, and establish working expectations.
The entire process takes, on average, only 4.5 months, during which a team of innovators will collaborate on the software’s development.
However, these months should not pass in silence; rather, the development should keep you informed on the process. Make sure that you choose an Agile company, whose strategy not only involves you in each step of the process, but also has the ability to respond quickly to emergency changes.
Outsourcing Custom Software Development
Without an oompa loompa-like team of techies on hand, many companies opt to outsource custom software development. In other words, they contract a third-party IT company that takes on the software design process and turns in the final product upon completion.
This saves a business from contract hiring for a single project (not to mention the time and resources that go into that process), and opens possibilities otherwise beyond the reach of a single organization. It pools talent, ideas, and resources, leveraging great teamwork to obtain great results.
By following this outsourcing strategy, one company in Australia saved an estimated $93,000 in one year. Avoiding hiring costs, bonuses, payroll taxes, and turn-over; the no-mess collaboration with a quality outsourcing company provided digital solutions at a fraction of the cost.
Custom Software Development Methodologies
Agile
61.5% of software development companies opt to implement agile methodology. It focuses on incremental goals and open communication, taking on projects on hunk at a time. This opens key advantages like rapid communication and efficiency, a high level of client involvement, and the ability to quickly adjust to any needed changes.
SCRUM
In fact an adaptation of Agile methodology, SCRUM likewise leverages effective communication and flexible stone-stepping towards a final goal. It follows the value system of Agile development, but implements more specific standards and processes for software development. 23.1% of business go the extra mile by using this approach, and have experienced proven best results.
Waterfall
Waterfall is the least commonly used, mostly focusing on design and development in the engineering field. It emphasizes front-end planning, with sound logic that efficiently outlines each step of the process. Although this breakdown requires impressive planning prowess, it loses its edge of efficiency if changes must be made.
Bringing it all together: custom software development builds answers to companies’ specific problems; outsourcing that process avoids creating new ones. Of course, selecting the right partner company, whose methodology is most effective, is a vital piece of the equation to guarantee success and profitability. You want a team that’s high-quality, flexible, communicative, and smart– that collaboration will change your business game.
