Software dominates modern day to day business activities. From your email client, messaging service, CRM, accounting software...the list of software that organisations can use is near endless!
Off the shelf software has its place, but most businesses need to be able to personalise their software functionality. Bespoke software development is the answer. Not only can software developers plug the gaps that standard services leave, but they can also create new functionality that is unique to your business.
Personalise the content
With off the shelf software, you’re often stuck with the content that comes as standard. There are ways to work around this, but ideally, you want to be able to personalise the information you’re working with. With bespoke software development, you can request the information in the format and naming convention of your choosing. This can help your staff to transition from a legacy system.
One of the main examples of this is relationships. Do you have customers or clients? Suppliers or partners? Staff or employees? Getting your software to speak the same language as you do will help users to adjust to the new software and reduce confusion.
Only pay for what you use
One of the biggest advantages of bespoke software development is that you aren’t paying for elements that you won’t use. Likewise, you’re not having to buy a core product and then try and add plug-ins and bolt-ons to make it useable for your business.
A software developer will work with you to create a full brief of your software requirements and will price it accordingly.
You might need a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to keep a record of all of your clients and suppliers for accounting purposes, but the marketing department also needs that information to send out email newsletters. Often companies will invest in two separate software products, which is expensive and inefficient. Bespoke CRM software will allow you to use the same system for accounts and marketing, plugging into other services such as email sending platforms and online payment gateways.
Add new functionality
When you need to add functionality to your software, there are two main obstacles to overcome. You either can’t access the functionality because it isn’t supported, or you end up having to buy a new version of the software or a different package altogether. The beauty of bespoke software is that you can request additional functionality at any time, and your developer will work to integrate it into your current package. This helps to ensure consistency for your employees and reduces overall costs.
Let’s again take an example of a CRM system that is used by accounts and marketing. The marketing department needs to start recording when and how a customer has consented to receiving marketing messaging, because of the introduction of the GDPR. Your bespoke software developer will be able to add a relationship element that can record the message the customer consented to, the date and the time. So far we haven’t seen any such functionality off-the-shelf.
PCM have worked on several bespoke software projects including CRM, event logging software, stock control software, database linked websites and bespoke company intranets. If you'd like to discuss your software requirements, please contact us!
Date published: 30/05/2017