‘Build vs. Buy’ is always an important decision for many businesses. While each option has its pros and cons, there are multiple factors that govern this decision. The recent global events have led to significant shifts in the market, forcing many organizations to shift their priorities. Digital transformation
has become a necessity for all businesses. Many organizations already have a transformation initiative in place today with customer-centricity, digitalization, automation, and the remote nature of work at its heart. Between 2020 and 2023, direct investments into digital transformation are projected to reach a total of 6.8 trillion U.S. dollars, according to a report by Statista.
Whether to buy a readymade, off-the-shelf software or to develop custom software tailored to the organization’s processes and models is a crucial decision. Here’s a look at why organizations need to consider custom software development and the five best practices to enhance productivity and efficiency.
Why Custom Software Development?
Building custom software can prove beneficial in the long run in terms of agility and flexibility for enterprises of all sizes. Buying software off-the-shelf can seem easier and faster, but such software is usually generic and might not cater to specific user requirements. In many cases, organizations often struggle with automating business processes years after purchasing readymade software and end up spending more on integration. Custom software requires more resources to develop than readymade software, but the end product is tailored to the organization’s processes and can address various challenges your teams might face in the future.
Business Process Optimization
Each organization has its own business model, and changing or replacing that model to suit an off-the-shelf software can be challenging. Such organizations can develop custom software that suits their business model and enhance its productivity and efficiency. Custom software enables organizations to optimize various in-house processes rather than replacing them completely.
Adaptability, Reliability, and Flexibility
Adapting to the market changes and catering to the ever-changing demands is critical for all organizations which can be easily facilitated by using custom software. Organizations can easily integrate their custom software with new technologies and tools over time and get a competitive advantage in the market. Since custom software is tailored to an organization’s process and people, it is more reliable and flexible than any ready-made software. Custom software can also be modified any time in the future as per the need to cater to the changing market demands and run processes seamlessly. Subsequently, custom software can enable organizations to scale.
Compatibility
Most organizations have an architecture that involves complex structures like using output from one process as an input to another. It is important to ensure that the flow of data among these processes is secure and seamless. Using ready-made software in such cases can affect the data flow since they depend on third-party systems to facilitate data communication. Custom software can enable organizations to maintain the compatibility of such processes and facilitate operations seamlessly.
Security
Data security remains one of the top concerns for all organizations today. Not only do organizations want to keep their user data secure, but also want to ensure secure data flow within their processes. While readymade software has inbuilt security features, they are often generic and not custom to the organization’s needs. Buying additional security software to ensure safety and security can prove to be a costly affair. Custom software can be developed with maximum security according to the company’s requirements, thus ensuring all-round safety.
Cost-effectiveness
One of the biggest advantages of developing custom software is that it can be done in an agile manner. Organizations don’t have to invest a huge sum in the initial stage to reap its benefits. Organizations can choose to automate processes by priority in an organized manner and modify the software as the development progresses.
Even though custom software takes time to develop, organizations need to think long-term and ready themselves for any challenge like the one we faced during the pandemic in 2020. To know more about how you can develop custom software for your organization, write to us at contact@vsplc.com.
