Deciding whether or not your business would benefit from hiring developers to create custom software packages for your business can be a daunting decision. Listed below are six benefits that can be realized by your business should you choose to utilize custom software.
1. The most important benefit of custom application development is that it is tailor-made by developers to your specifications in order to best serve your business’ needs.
It is not unusual for businesses to license software from a software vendor and then discover that it is simply not suitable for their business. With custom business software, you will be guaranteed that the software makes a great fit for all of your business’ requirements.
2. Custom business software is more scalable than off-the-shelf software packages.
Since custom software developers operate on a contractual basis, they will continue to maintain the program as your business grows in size. With off-the-shelf software, you typically run into the issue of the software either being inexpensive to purchase but not suitable for large businesses or software being able to support businesses on a large scale but very expensive to license. Custom software development meets the needs of your company while allowing your business to grow without being limited by your software.
3. Custom software development can help protect your business from external threats.
The majority of successful hacking attempts performed on business are as a result of hackers exploiting known software vulnerabilities in commonly-used software. Custom software will be a much less attractive target for hackers as it will require comparatively much more effort to learn how to breach the system.
4. Custom application development is capable of operating with the software packages your business already uses.
It is almost never the case that multiple off-the-shelf software packages interact with each other perfectly and without errors; licensing business software that is not tailor-made for the software environment your business runs on can lead to your employees’ productivity dropping as they experience continual errors and cannot effectively complete their work. Custom software development avoids this problem, as it can fit perfectly within your business’ software ecosystem.
5. With custom application development, your software is maintained for as long as you require it to be.
With off-the-shelf software, your business is at the mercy of the software developer you are purchasing from; if they go bankrupt or decide to no longer maintain the application, your business will be put in the position of suddenly needing to change to maintained and supported software. This can be a debilitating sudden expense for your business.
6. Custom business software helps you save on hardware acquisition costs.
Licensing software packages often means purchasing extra hardware to go with it in order to run it effectively. Custom software developers will tailor the program to both the vendor of your hardware and your hardware’s capabilities. This ultimately helps your business save money, as you will not need to purchase unnecessary additional hardware.
Custom software can certainly be the right choice for your business. It offers a number of benefits over licensing off-the-shelf software; notably, in the areas of scalability, guaranteed maintenance and integration into your business’ existing software environment.
Licensing extant software carries the risk that it will not meet the needs of your business either now or in the future; with custom software, this risk is averted. Overall, custom applications provide an excellent foundation to build upon for the continued success of your business.
