Custom application development can be an advantage to businesses, but the “build versus buy” decision is complex. Custom application development can provide a healthy return on investment, drive opportunities and increase efficiency. However, this strategy only works if the company is truly ready to invest in long-term initiatives. Companies should begin by clearly articulating their processes and long-term vision. Consider the following questions:
1.) How well will your prepackaged software solutions perform over time?
Companies with legacy sever-based software applications may find it easier to build a custom solution than to piece together separate out-of-the-box software.
There are plenty of prepackaged software solutions available to address many of the basic needs of most companies. These “canned” software solutions are designed to address basic business processes like sales, accounting and invoicing.
Many companies start out satisfied with prepackaged software solutions, but find they need an alarming amount of development over time for the software to continue to suffice. You need to understand and adopt a conceptual approach to what will suit your organizational needs as your company grows and changes over time.
Companies with legacy server-based software applications may find that it’s easier to build a custom solution than to piece together separate out-of-the-box software for sales lead prospecting, customer relations management, invoicing, accounting and internal communications. Integration tends to be more complex for legacy systems. The incompatibility between legacy software and different canned solutions may lead to inefficiencies, increased costs, loss of prospects and poor performance.
These types of integration issues are greatly reduced through custom application development. If you build your own software, you gain greater flexibility and can integrate with a wider set of APIs from different software partners.
2.) How much development is your team willing to do? Are you willing to hire a partner?
The ideal partner should have the ability to review your current state, define goals and objectives, strategize and plan every step of your custom application development.
Custom application development comes down to more than being able to utilize data or create features. Consider the following questions when asking if your team can tackle custom application development:
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Does your team have the technical proficiency necessary to build a custom application? Custom application development is more than being able to work in a particular language. Custom application development requires a certain level of alignment with your organization’s goals, infrastructure and intrinsic processes.
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Do you have the resources to provide adequate resources towards software engineering? Many companies tend to underestimate the amount of time it takes to build proprietary software in-house.
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Do you have the right resources? If your team doesn’t have the necessary skills, it will be difficult to complete the projects on time or with any sort of regularity.
Many organizations find they do not have the time, resources, or capabilities to take on custom application development. If you find yourself in this situation, you should look for a skilled custom application development partner with a strong reputation and satisfied clientele. The ideal partner should have the ability to review your current state, define goals and objectives, strategize and plan every step of your custom application development.
3.) What’s your competition using?
You may find a software application that meets all of your needs in an affordable, scalable way. But there’s a good chance that your competitors are using that same off-the-shelf system, or something very close to it.
To stay competitive in a fast-paced world, you need to have an edge. Whether it’s better ways of analyzing data, generating leads, communicating more effectively, or speeding up an existing process, having an advantage over your competitors can be the difference between getting the sale or losing a longtime client. Custom application development can provide a competitive advantage that helps you to provide a better-quality product or service at a lower cost.
4.) What is the anticipated ROI of custom application development?
Increasing productivity can help you gain greater visibility into your organization's accounts, business activities and financials.
Custom application development can help your business achieve the following:
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Increase productivity. A comprehensive platform can help you gain greater visibility into your organization’s accounts, business activities and financials. With data right at your employees’ fingertips, they have more time to spend on more crucial work.
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Providing optimized products or services. No portion of your organization exists in a vacuum. Custom application development can be utilized to seamlessly transfer data between sales, marketing, operations, management and other areas of your business.
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Improving customer service. Stay ahead of your competitors with custom solutions dedicated towards creating faster response times, more customized messaging, or instant customer histories.
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Reduce delivery costs. The right custom application development software can automate workflows to improve delivery and reduce service delivery costs.
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Bettering communication. Many out-of-the-box software solutions are loaded with unnecessary features for your organization, which can lead to low adoption rates. When you use a skilled partner to do custom application development, the buy-in of key personnel is considered from the beginning. Therefore, programs are created with only the necessary features, leading to greater adoption and retention over time.
In Summary
Despite its initial costs, custom application development often provides ROI over time by providing solutions that are integrated seamlessly with your existing software and fully customized to your needs. An expert partner, like Summa, can provide your organization with powerful, flexible custom application development that creates solutions that will benefit your business now and as it proceeds into the future.
Our experienced team of designers, strategists and architects can create the tools to transform your business. Whether you're curious about creating a new tool or learning more about how custom application development can help your organization, we have the know-how to help you be swifter, smarter and get a leg up on the competition. Connect with us today!
