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The Price of Custom Software Development

Friday August 18th

In the most purest form, custom software development is a custom solution using programming code to solve a business problem or process issue. If your business has been around awhile, you might be using ‘legacy’ software in some form or fashion from accounting to operations, marketing to sales. Software runs business. Databases manage data…it is what runs business today. On the other hand, if you are new or just starting out, you have a significant advantage. Being new, you are nimble, fluid and can redirect your business on a dime. Established companies not so much.

Today, most established companies employ both custom and legacy systems. If you are new, the potential to harness the power of custom and legacy systems is an enormous advantage. Systems today can talk with each other. Old and new. Complex and straightforward. Wow! How cool?! This is significant, because this can dramatically lower the cost of operations, marketing and more.

How can custom lower your cost? It can in several ways.  One, you don’t need to employ an army of programmers to get them to talk—you shouldn’t anyway. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.  Two, by implementing a smart custom solution, you can stay connected to the latest third-party solutions and in effect, plug them in as needed versus complex, time consuming configuration. And because they talk to each other, they can move data securely back and forth. At a fraction of a whole system re-do. These connections come at a much lower cost to buy AND implement. Lastly, you save money, because if done right, you are improving the efficiency in the back office AND in the front facing side of your business—the side that generates business and sales. The effect is more sales at a lower cost—the holy grail of business.

Off-the-shelf vs Custom Software Development

Friday July 14th

We have unique perspective when comparing custom and off-the-shelf. We’ve experienced both. We can do both. We don’t favor one over another. It really depends your unique challenges of your situation. So let’s start with custom. We like custom because it can be designed to exact specifications—a perfect hand to glove fit. It can be easily expanded, modified to keep in stride with the speed of your business. In essence, it is flexible and can be designed with that in mind from the start. No extra parts, versions or modules that you don’t need. You only buy and create what you need. 

The downside to custom is the upfront costs and time to launch and the efficiencies gained will come later. There is also scope creep. You can easily find yourself going from need-to-have to nice-to-have adding cost and potentially unnecessary complexity. It also can become so customized that no one other than your vendor has the ability and knowledge to fix or build new or upgraded versions—which can pose a business risk.

If you need a quick solution. Off-the-shelf is your answer. Buying a trusted and proven brand or software package can also lower the anxiety level and keep your boss happy. Your upfront development time and cost is lower. That said, you may need necessary customization that can be tedious and require custom plugins adding cost. The learning curve on can be lower or higher depending on the user interface of the program. We’ve seen where it works well and others that can never get a feel for it. The other downside is that you get down the road and now realize that you need a custom solution. Arghh! Believe me, it happens! Now you are doubling costs, doubling time and your boss goes from thumbs up to giving you the stink eye.

Our advise is to pick a solution that is clean, intuitive and give you the best chance for a sizeable return on your investment. Both options can accomplish this. The key is to make your decision based on a five-year time horizon. Build in capacity and features that will benefit you now, but more importantly down the road. Nothing worse than finding yourself boxed in with a decision you made two years ago--where the cost and time required to redirect is exponentially higher