Just like every other industry, the IT industry too is trying hard to offer customized solutions with custom made software. Small and big IT companies alike have realized the need for offering customized solutions and are offering custom made software solutions as per the customer’s needs and budget.
As an entrepreneur, I too had been toying with the idea of getting custom software made for my manufacturing unit and only recently did I commission one to a very promising start up firm. I took a lot of time to decide whether I should get such software made as obviously, the cost involved is quite substantial but when I carefully thought about the advantages of having custom business solutions, I decided to go for it. Now that I am absolutely convinced about the many benefits of having a custom software made, I would like to pen down a few key points to help my readers in their decision making process too.
Firstly, let us understand what custom made software is. So, as the name suggests, this is a software application that has been designed keeping your specific needs in mind. This software primarily targets the specific problem areas in your business that you want to streamline. And here we discuss more on the key advantages of such custom made software.
Targeted Solutions:
There is much off-the-shelf software available for purchase but in most cases these do not solve the specific issues that particular industries face. As such, if a company wants to streamline a particular aspect of its business, it has to commission custom software development so the specific issues can be effortlessly tackled. One particular business may need several different kinds of software solutions to tackle the issues in its various units like manufacturing, quality analysis, logistics, payroll management as well as inventory management and only custom made software solutions can help with each of these domains.
Better Scalability:
With custom designed software, an organization always has the freedom to expand its capacity. Bespoke software solutions always have that flexibility to add in more users and as such, as the business operations increase, the software too can be modified to add in more users or take up more work load. This is not always possible with off-the-shelf products as firstly, they do not have that much capacity and secondly they would become too expensive if deployed on a large scale as they are usually licensed only for a particular number of users.
Cost Mitigation:
When a bespoke software solution is commissioned, the organization working on the project always factors the existing IT infrastructure of the business that requires the solution and tries to build a product that can work within the existing infrastructure. This eliminates the need for buying additional hardware to run particular software, thus bringing down the operating cost of the business while streamlining its operations.
Better Integration:
With custom made software there is always room for better integration with any existing software that a business already uses. For instance, a textile manufacturing unit already uses software to detect defective fabric but now the organization wants a solution that would not only detect the defect but also highlight the remedial action so workers can take the necessary steps to salvage the product. In this case all they would need is an extra function that must be integrated with the existing software and such actions are possible only when there is custom made software.
Better Reliability:
When you get custom developed software, you own the product and have unhindered access to it. You do not need to depend on anyone else to keep updating it or add in functions as per current industry standards. This way you are in control of things and can rest assured that your software will always perform as per your expectations.
I decided to go for custom made software after carefully analyzing all these factors and even working out on the cost and I am absolutely sure that I am going to benefit from it.
Sign in to leave a comment.