At a recent chamber of commerce meeting, a fellow member asked me what my company does. I replied that I create custom software solutions for businesses. He was incredulous that people actually paid for custom software. Sadly, this wasn’t a small business that might struggle to see the benefit of custom software — this was a large, well-established local business. Exactly the kind of customer that has much to gain from custom software development. But what do businesses stand to gain from custom software development? First and foremost, custom software allows the organization to have tailor-made solutions to their problems. Software is not a one-size-fits-all solution. The application that works great for a small business may not be flexible enough for a large business. Conversely, an application that works great for a large business may be needlessly complex for a smaller business. Even more importantly, off-the-shelf solutions don’t take into account the things that make a business unique. After all, doesn’t every business have something that makes them special? Maybe your organization makes custom products — how do you quote the product? Maybe your organization is an innovator in your market space — how do you implement process to aid in that innovation? Whatever it may be, your company is like no other — and custom software solutions can aid you in exploiting the things that set you apart from the competition. Second, off-the-shelf software may be updated or changed in the future in ways that break functionality you depend on. Remember the last time you updated Windows? Did everything go smoothly? Off-the-shelf software is the same thing — maybe it works great, maybe not. But as a business, is that a risk you’re willing to take? Custom software can mitigate that risk since you — the customer — are in control of any new features in the application. Furthermore, you can have the software modified to ensure compliance with new laws, new processes, or new requirements of any kind. Try having off-the-shelf software updated to meet your new requirements. Third, custom software can be written to integrate with your other systems. Integration of systems can ensure that data is not required to be entered multiple times, it can enable faster processing of information, and it can greatly improve operational efficiency. Custom software can be written to read inventory from your existing inventory control system, update employee data in your employee management systems, integrate with your customer management systems, or interface with any other systems your company depends on. Off-the-shelf software simply can’t compete with that. Fourth, custom software can be supported by the developers who wrote it — developers you have interfaced with, developers who understand your business and what makes it unique. Off-the-shelf support may or (more likely) may not meet your needs as an organization. Late on a Friday night, do you want to call a foreign call center for your software and hope someone can help or would you rather call the local software company and have them stop by tonight to diagnose and solve the problem?
As a software engineer for nearly 20 years, I can site countless samples of work I’ve done that has improved an organizations revenue, improved workflows, aided in reporting data to senior management, and ultimately aided the organization in increasing market share. And isn’t that exactly what businesses want? To increase market share? Why a company would not want custom software is a better question!