Why Bespoke Software Development can Give Businesses a Competitive Edge

When companies and organisations need software programmes or applications they can make the choice between off the shelf software and custom made software that has been designed and built for them by developers. Although more expensive to purchase, bespoke development can actually give businesses a competitive edge because it makes running a company easier. Bespoke applications and programmes are customised to specific business requirements, so it boosts efficiency throughout the organisation and can help to remedy those problem and restrictions that off the shelf software often provides.

When you hire developers to build your company’s application or programme you are basically asking them to create software for you that works the way that your company works. Instead of having to adapt your company to a restrictive application you can instead enjoy the efficiency and adaptability of a completely tailor made application or programme. This has all sorts of benefits for your company such as saving financial costs that would otherwise be needed to bring all your employees up to speed with standard programmes and applications. Essentially any programme or application created as a result of bespoke development will completely adapt to your company’s working practices, resulting in productivity and profitability through reduced errors and less supervision/software training.

Speaking of profitability, with bespoke your business will benefit from a significant reduction in software overheads, despite the initial higher cost of bespoke software. Although you will be investing a larger sum at the outset in your custom made programmes or applications, in the long run you will save a significant amount of money particularly if your software will be utilised enterprise-wide by a number of employees or associates. With software that has been created for you, you are free to distribute the programme or application to as many users or devices in your organisation without needing to pay any extra charges or costs. The licence to distribute and authorise the software is basically yours, the cost of that is integrated into the bespoke development process. If, on the other hand, you were to choose off the shelf software you would have to pay additional licensing costs for every new user that you wanted to add to the software or every device that you wanted to run the software on. If you run a larger company or business these costs can significantly mount up year after year, and will most likely overtake the cost of bespoke development in the process.

Because customised and bespoke software is flexible and adaptable, it can actually perform a number of business tasks and functions without the need for separate individual programmes. If, for example, you wanted to streamline certain corporate functions of your company such as HR and Accounts management, you could ask a developer to create a single programme for you that would manage each aspect of these vital functions. It can also be customised to fit in with any other programmes that your company depends upon, potentially giving your organisation a fully integrated and efficient IT infrastructure that you can deploy across your company. Bespoke software is also a lot more intuitive and easier to use than off the shelf software, making it easier for your IT staff to manage it and keep it in good working order.

All in all, having a bespoke programme or application created for your company will potentially providing numerous commercial and business benefits, enabling you to gain a much more significant competitive advantage and can even help you become industry leaders.