Everything You Need To Know About Custom Software Development

Only two decades ago, the software development market looked quite differently and underdeveloped compared to what it is now. The most notable difference is that today’s companies have the opportunity to develop any type of application needed, also referred to as custom software development. Before companies were forced to adapt to existing systems and technology and had little or no flexibility, but not anymore.

The total spendins on enterprise software worldwide is rising each year. We see companies across all industries developing their custom software solutions to meet their organization’s requirements and respond to current challenges. The digital market is heavily affecting the business’s success, and the factor that determines whether or not a business will be well received by its target audience is customization.

If you’re currently looking for quality custom software development, this comprehensive guide can serve you to learn all software development phases and learn how to communicate your needs to custom software development consultants.

Custom Software Development

Customer needs are becoming more and more complex, motivating businesses to develop custom-made applications that will fit these changing trends by adapting quickly and efficiently. Without a doubt, today’s business environment requires custom software development, however, many are still confused about what this term actually means. It can best be described as a process of designing, creating, deploying, and maintaining apps meeting the organizational requirements of each company. Those software products that are already available in the market are called commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) solutions. Of course, reasons to use a COTS solution or a customized one differ significantly, and it will completely depend on the company.

Using a COTS solution means you will utilize a tool with already built features that meet the general requirements of individuals or organizations similar to yours. With such software pieces, the customization often doesn’t exist or provides the bare minimum. On the other hand, if you opt for customized software, this implies that your organization will need to build it on its own.

These are the things you will need to keep in mind when deciding between a commercial off-the-shelf software and customized software:

COTS

Customization is often impossible, leaving businesses with zero flexibility.
Methods of COTS are thoroughly tested so they will have fewer bugs.
Investment is significantly lower with COTS because it is shared between numerous organizations.
Because it’s already available in the market, COTS requires short training and implementation time instead of the entire process of developing the software piece.
Many COTS solutions provide free trials to test if the tool meets the requirements before purchasing.

Customized Software

Customization allows the designing of software that will completely meet unique business requirements.
To ensure that the solution is valuable, the business will need to thoroughly test it throughout the entire process.
Adopting custom software development in the organization makes changes much easier.
All rights are reserved for the organization that ordered and paid for the customized software.
Although the process of development and implementation is longer than with COTS, businesses will only need to implement such a solution once instead of testing many and training teams on each software solution.

Benefits of Customized Software Development

Customized software development organizations know the value of tailor-made software that can help the entire organization, but numerous organizations are still reluctant about outsourcing because they are not aware of the many benefits it offers.

Higher Efficiency

Customized software applications are specifically built to meet an organization’s needs and they can soothe the haywire business process. Because the apps are already programmed in a specific way of business, these organizations know how to achieve better productivity with them.

Faster Adoption

The developed customized solutions have tailored features, making the organization-wide adoption quicker and training time and costs comparatively less than its alternative solution. The business implementing this type of solution doesn’t need to change the way it works so it fits the software they plan to use, but the software is created to fit the current way of working.

Unlimited Customization

Organizations are free to develop whatever they think will be beneficial for their business using the potential of custom software development. Custom applications offer unlimited customization features and numerous other benefits when compared to COTS products.

Better Integration

An upgrade or modernization of an application with the development of custom apps efficiently customizes the existing IT infrastructure and integrates perfectly and with ease with other apps and programs with lower costs, quality assurance, and less time invested.

Data Access

Data access via the developed apps is not easy, especially if the application is COTS and doesn’t allow any customization. On the other hand, when using customized software solutions, access rights will be seamlessly managed from scratch at all levels by IT consulting team who will modify your access structure as you want.

Scalability

Customized apps are incredibly stable and flexible, which is one of the reasons why most industry leaders have decided to develop their customized solutions. As the organization is growing, custom apps are growing as well, meaning that new features can be built and added to the solution. After all, enhancing the processes involving the custom app is what drives success for all businesses out there.