Custom Software Development

Custom Software development comes in many shapes and sizes

Do You Need Custom Software Development?

Software should be designed to fit your business, not the other way around. If you find that off-the-shelf software is forcing you to mold your processes to the software, Custom Software Development may be necessary.

Off-the-shelf software can get your business more than 80% of the way under most circumstances. It is rare that off-the-shelf software cannot accommodate the majority of your business processes. Custom software usually allows you to cover the remaining 20%.

Before we discuss the pros and cons of Custom Software, you should also probably look at our blog series on selecting software – a 10-part series on the topic starts here.

Pros of Custom Software Development

So, what are the pros of Custom Software?

• The main benefit to Custom Software is that you have full control of how it looks, feels and functions with very few exceptions
• Secondly, you control the roadmap of future features and functions that get put into the software. You are not at the mercy of a roadmap that you do not own
• Finally, you have the flexibility to pivot the software you build into something that can be resold more easily – this is especially beneficial if you create something unique for your market or industry

Cons of Custom Software Development

Next, the downsides to Custom Software:

• Custom Software is generally going to cost more than basic off-the-shelf software, which is why you should typically evaluate off-the-shelf solutions first
  • Make sure you understand the full costs associated with off-the-shelf software:
    • Per User Subscription Fees
    • Charges for configuration and customization
• Updates don’t come for free: There are development costs associated with each feature you build
• Hosting costs – you will also need someplace to run your software. Off-the-shelf software includes these hosting fees (including maintenance, security and backups) as part of their subscription

One of the most important takeaways, regardless of the pros and cons, is that software is an ongoing investment. Whether it’s subscription fees and configuration or development and hosting, you will have fees monthly and/or annually.

Here are some basic questions you can ask yourself when you are considering custom software:

• Can we salvage and build on top of any of our existing software?
• Is there off-the-shelf software that can get us 80%+ to our goal?
• If we actually need to build the software from the ground-up, what do we want to do differently this time?
  • In other words, how has your business changed, and how can new software serve you better?
• What does your ideal process look like and where can we take advantage of that process with custom software?

Some Final Thoughts

Custom software helps to take your organization into the future. Every organization has a distinct set of circumstances. If you’d like to discuss your specific situation, we’d love to hear from you:

Looking for more information about choosing the right software and how custom software fits into that? Check out our 10-part series on the Topic.

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