Pros and Cons of Custom Software Solutions

As new domains and industries appear, businesses must keep up with the times and adjust to the new reality to stay afloat. Integration of software solutions into business processes has already become one of the well-spread trends. The number of services IT world provides today is really enormous. Software and app development, support services, design — almost every other IT development company provides these today. There is no mission impossible. A mobile app is needed? Or a web platform is required to improve business performance? Or a chatbot is planned to bring communication with clients to a new level? Today is the time when all clients’ ideas turn reality.

Nowadays there are many off-the-shelf solutions available to all businesses and individuals to get used to. There are hundreds of ready-made packages targeted at various domains (healthcare, education, e-commerce, oil & gas, etc.). However, custom solutions are still in high demand. How does it fall out like this? What do off-the-shelf and custom solutions differ in?

It’s all about the audience the final product is targeted at. As a rule, a product is designed and developed for a specific user with special requirements envisaged or mass public with needs generalized. This is what differs ready-made applications from custom ones. To be more precise, custom development (also known as bespoke or tailor-made software) is the creation of a product (a mobile app, software, a website. etc) for a specific user or a group of users within an entity or organization. Such development deals with their needs directly, and the product is used only by that customer who it is designed for. It can be really hard to choose between the use of ready-made apps and custom development because both of these variants have their own advantages.

Today we’d like to take a closer look at pros and cons of custom software solutions. The following advantages of custom apps can be applicable to the majority of businesses:

It’s custom

As it has been mentioned, the final product is generally designed for customers and their businesses’ needs, so the development is tailored to the specifications and requirements provided. Each business may have very specific requirements for the product’s goals and its purpose. There also can appear design and functionality requirements, system requirements, scalability and integration requirements, etc. Thus, personal expectations and particular needs are considered, and that is what customers like about custom app development.

It’s Business-oriented

Custom solutions are client-oriented. Such type focuses on the needs of a separate and independent business. Also, custom applications differ from each other since domains and industries specifics are being considered in the whole course of development.

Professionalism

Specialists working on the project dive into the details, and already have the technological background necessary for the project development. What is more, a company, which has expertise in developing similar solutions, will be able to deliver a better product in the final account, because its specialists already know how to carry out specific tasks and resolve emerging challenges.

No business adjustments needed

No special business processes adjustments and setting ups are required for custom development as contrasted with ready-made solutions. Moreover, custom applications get easily adapted to all existing processes that are customary at the client company. It means that a great deal of time and effort are being saved for the sake of both sides — the customer and development team. What is more, custom solutions are able to be adjusted to any scenario, so as a result, they can provide powerful data insights and accelerate all working processes significantly.

There can be other advantages custom apps can bring in the perspective, but we’ve been speaking about the most well-spread ones. Now let’s have a look at some of drawbacks of custom solutions development.

Time

In general, the development of custom solutions requires more time than the implementation of off-the-shelf solutions. However, it should be kept in mind that even ready-made SaaS services will definitely require some time to get adjusted to the customer’s needs.

Cost

At first sight, it may seem that cost of custom development will be higher (and in a short-term perspective it will be so), but in the final account the ROI of custom apps is usually higher, what can be considered as a positive economic effect of such type of solutions.

Would the use of ready-made applications which in most cases don’t take into account customer’s peculiarities turn to be the best option? Choosing between off-the-shelf and custom solutions, totally adjusted to the needs and demands of a business, it should be kept in mind that both options may turn advantageous. A lot depends on the market situation, a company’s size, business processes and budget, etc. While custom solutions turn to be effort-efficient and quality rich, it stays up to a business to decide which of the two varieties to opt for.

‍Originally published at https://sumatosoft.com.