When should you consider building custom software?

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Building your own unique and dedicated software can bring

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your company immense value, but it often requires a significant investment.

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To ensure a net positive ROI,

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the decision to go custom should be fueled by

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individually estimated business outcomes and in-depth research

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done beforehand.

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To help you arrive at your conclusion,

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I'd like to walk you through four common cases in which

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going for custom built software will maximize the value derived

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from implementing it.

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First case, always consider going for a custom built solution when

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you're aiming to digitalize your organization's complex or core processes.

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If the process is unique and essential for your business operations,

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you will need to be particular in reflecting all the

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complexity, dependencies and mechanisms in the software.

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Digitalizing such processes requires a deep dive into

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domain expertise as well as designing tailor made

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architecture and information flow.

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Mind that the more unique and sophisticated the processes are,

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the lower the chance of finding an off the shelf solution that reflects them.

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Many software as a service solutions are made to be

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universally usable by a broad audience with a feature set

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that is relevant to the highest number of companies.

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This means that should your feature set needs turn out to be niche,

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the software as a service company might not feel it is

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imperative to address them since they primarily focus on

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handling new requests with the highest projected ROI.

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Custom software development allows you to streamline your

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processes through digitalization or modernization.

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A great example could be one of our clients, Boston Solar.

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They reached out to us to recreate the capabilities of

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their advanced yet cumbersome Excel based solar modeling and

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proposal tool into an intuitive web app.

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The tool we custom built helps them save around two hundred

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hours on proposal and contract generation annually and speeds

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up their sales cycle by thirty three percent.

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Let's move on to the second scenario.

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Your business is growing fast and you need a scalable

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solution that adapts to the growth of your company.

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If your company operates in a dynamically changing environment,

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you might not be able to predict what your internal

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process will look like in a year or two or maybe quite the

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opposite that you already expect substantial changes due

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to be introduced in the near future.

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For example, new legislation being passed.

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In these cases,

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system flexibility and scalability are fundamental.

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The software should always be adapted to your business

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processes and not the other way around.

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It should never constrain you in growth.

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Now, ready made systems often come with tried and tested

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processes, some even with support for their implementation.

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Though when you eventually outgrow them,

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you might face the vendor lock in effect.

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Software as a service platform's customization is

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limited and fixes, new features,

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and updates are done in accordance with the timeline

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devised by the makers, not you.

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Switching to another off the shelf solution might mean a

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time consuming implementation that often results in the need

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to adapt your internal processes again.

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At the same time,

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you're no longer getting the value you paid for from the

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original system.

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If you go for custom software,

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future proofing starts during development process.

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You can achieve that by selecting proper technologies,

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designing scalable architecture and building a deliberate

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upscaling roadmap.

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That's exactly how we build a solution for another client.

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Autarq, in the beginning when time was of the essence,

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we focused on building a web platform with a configurator

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module to streamline the company in reaching a wider audience.

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However, we had to implement solutions that allowed the platform's

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further scaling from the very beginning as Autarq had

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extensive plans to strengthen relationships with particular

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target groups.

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The third case in which you should consider custom software

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is when multiple solutions are required to cover an end to end process.

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That often comes with increasing operating costs and

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decreasing work efficiency.

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More often than not, the user experience is terrible as well.

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Employees having to switch from one tool to another to

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accomplish a task typically leads to unnecessarily long and

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choppy work streams.

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What if it also turns out that each of the apps has varying

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security level standards that don't match yours?

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Designing and developing your own software allows you to

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combine these tools into one unified solution.

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You can then integrate it with the other apps to synchronize

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data between them and make the whole system even more comprehensive.

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We've got extensive experience in integrating custom solutions

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with external services.

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To give an example of how valuable it might be,

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take a look at the Juilliard School case study.

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Julilliard School needed an advanced register management system that

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could streamline the complex process of register

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registration and organization.

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They also needed the app to be integrated with the other tools they were using.

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We've answered Juilliard's requirements by delivering a

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bespoke solution compatible with already implemented

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systems that did not only simplify their day to day operations,

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but also resulted in a twenty five percent increase in ticket sales.

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Last but not least,

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custom software enables you to keep control over areas crucial

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for your business.

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I've already mentioned how it can help you run processes and

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facilitate your company's growth in the way you find profitable.

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Though there are other aspects that tailor made digital

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solutions can support as well.

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For example, data security or cost management.

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These are crucial for data driven companies or any

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organization that stores and processes sensitive data.

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Security solutions in custom software can be adjusted to any

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compliance requirements applicable in an industry.

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Working with custom software development teams,

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you get to design how data is processed,

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which can be of substantial benefit not only in terms of

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security, but also strategic decision making.

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Secondly, bespoke software allows for more control over maintenance

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and scaling cost.

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Although developing a greenfield project can come

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with a steeper upfront investment,

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it might turn out to be more beneficial in the long run than

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using a few license solutions,

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especially once you start considering ROI in the long term.

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These are only some examples of situations when custom software

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has proven to be a better growth accelerator than

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licensed solutions, but there are bound to be more.

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If you need support in finding out whether or not you're in

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one such situation presently, don't hesitate to contact us.

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We'll be happy to see how Merixstudio can help you.