What are the disadvantages and advantages of a custom software solution?

Are you thinking about what suits you, a customized software solution, or an application to purchase? Either of these two options has cost and time implications. Discover the disadvantages and advantages of a customized software solution.

Before making such a decision you should analyze the advantages and disadvantages of a customized software solution versus purchasing a generic software application. Choosing a custom software solution can be a good option, but you need a responsible and competent software agency. On the other hand, an off-the-shelf software solution can be a much more economical option and can be tailored to your business needs.

Flexibility

Custom software is inherently scalable, allowing your business to evolve naturally.

Unlike an off-the-shelf application, for example, which remains more or less constant and cannot be easily changed. For this, you would need to wait for the company that deals with the software development of the application to improve its performance in accordance with your needs. It is a difficult thing to achieve, considering that they have to serve several companies and the functionalities of the application server the needs of a larger group of companies.

In order to able to benefit from the flexibility and scalability of the software used by your company, it is recommended to work with a custom software agency to help you develop a customized solution.

Integration under a single application

The use of several software is necessary for carrying out the business activity. And transferring data or processes between platforms is sometimes necessary, but without support from these software platforms, you have to transfer data manually, which means a lot of time.

In the case of developing your own software solution, the major advantage is the implementation of your own functions and the possibility of integration with other systems. A software platform customized to your needs will also allow the development of your own variants of the functions used within other platforms or the integration of your system with other platforms.

Investment recovery

Developing a customized software solution may seem at first sight to be an extremely expensive alternative, but in reality it can prove profitable in the long term. Sometimes additional costs are necessary, such as the payment of licenses for other third-party software or the purchase of better hardware equipment, but all of these will amortize your investment in the long term and help you develop your company.

System Security

Among the advantages of a customized software solution is the security of the system, designed around the company and its needs.

Scalability

Any company has an expansion plan, at least they should have it, if not on paper, at least in the imagination of the team. But what happens when the company reaches that point, the off-the-shelf software, developed by a company that develops software for entry-level companies? The processes and needs of your company will be different, so you will need a different software system, and the adoption of another “off-the-shelf” solution implies the transfer of all data from the old system.

But with your own application developed for your company, scalability is not a problem, as new modules or functions can be developed at any time.

Price

The price is a big disadvantage in the development of a customized software solution. Using a SaaS solution is obviously much cheaper and can be integrated in less than a few hours at the company level. But when we talk about creating a dedicated system for your business, the price is high, and the development can vary from a few weeks to a few months, depending on the requirements and its complexity.

But the choice of a customized solution should not be viewed only from one angle, that of the price, but rather of the productivity offered in the long term and the profitability of the company.

Time for development

It takes time and developed skills to define your software needs and determine how you can best meet those requirements through custom software development. This may take time before implementation begins.

Since you’re designing custom software from scratch, you have to wait for your developers to build it. But since it fits your business perfectly, it’s still worth the wait.

Conclusion

Long story short, the best option depends on the circumstances of your business.

The advantages of custom software are many and it also gives you better control over how you want to run your business and the changes you might need later, but the decision should be made after carefully evaluating the benefits that you will get both in the short order. in the term and in the long term.

This was originally posted on https://cmevo.com/blog/advantages-of-a-custom-software-solution/