The pandemic, among many other factors, has been a major catalyst in the latest wave of digital evolution. As times change and technology achieves unimaginable growth following the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rapid increase in all kinds of business entities striving to stay one step ahead of their competitors. Businesses have been working to not only boost their operational efficiency but also capture maximal market shares.
In the digital age, the best way to achieve both of the aforementioned business goals is by exploiting the fact that the entire world has shifted to digital platforms and launching much-needed business applications that would help to fill in the gaps.
Before we discuss the numerous ways in which custom apps can benefit your organization, let us quickly go over the many different types of business apps.
What are the different types of bespoke business apps?
Business applications can be divided into two broad categories with respect to their intended use – apps built for internal use, and apps released to the business’s client base.
1. Internal applications
Every business has a number of internal operations and departments which all need some sort of infrastructure in order to perform their respective functions. For example, for handing employee records, from personal information to work performance review data, you might need a system for your HR department. Similarly, if you want the Finance department to carefully handle all the money matters that your business is involved in, you would want them to log all their work using an efficient system. These are only two of the many business processes that are involved in the everyday running of a typical business.
As simple as it may sound, most internal operations differ from organization to organization. Most businesses have unique requirements when it comes to systems that can take care of their internal operations. Therefore, they often choose to work with bespoke business software developers who can make an app for them that would cater to theirspecificneeds.
2. Customer-facing applications
The other aspect of running a business deals with the interactions that the business has with its customers. This is what customer-facing apps are for. For example, a certain business owner might want to provide their customers with a new platform where they could easily place orders for their products or services. Another business owner might want to improve their relationship with their customer base with a new platform where some specific self-help and support features can be implemented for better provision of after-sales services.These two types of apps would be very different from each other. Both of the product owners might have contrasting features and designs in mind. This is where business application software development would come into play.
The primary benefits of bespoke business software
While there is a long list of advantages that bespoke software is capable of providing to your business, discussing them all is beyond the scope of this one post. So we will go over the top three advantages of custom business applications.
1. Fully bespoke
One of the most striking points of contrast between off-the-shelf business software and bespoke business appsis the level of customisation that you can achieve with each of them.
In the case of boxed software products, the developers design the app with generic features and audiences in mind. While these apps are targeted towards a particular segment of the market, they are not open to modifying the product according to the needs of a single buyer. They prepare one fixed package, which might include features you might not need or might find missing, and sell the same to everyone. The source code for enterprise off-the-shelf software is also often closed-source, which further reduces the opportunity for customisation.
With bespoke business application software development,every single aspect of your app – from design to functionality – is created from scratch solely according to your personal or business requirements. Your app can either be based on an existing system or built according to a completely fresh and unique idea.When creating custom business applications, the development team holds multiple meetings with you throughout the whole process and nothing goes forward until you are completely satisfied with the end product meeting all your requirements.
2. Cost-efficient
In the case of off-the-shelf or other types of software products, the costs can be quite low. However, you would not want to purchase a single-user product or license for an enterprise software product, would you? Think about boxed software vendorswho charge per license and/or per user. There are also products that require time-based subscription fees or licensing fees, which means you would have a significant recurring cost, most likely per month or annum. These amounts being paid long-term for all users, whether in small or large organizations, can add up to be quite significant.
Hiring bespoke business software developers might incur high costs for you but these costs translate into a much better ROI in the long run. For a fixed initial investment, you can get business software made that could go on to last you a lifetime. Even with minor periodic updates and maintenance, you would have to pay minimal additional costs and have a reliable development team at your disposal as and when required. Therefore, bespoke business applications can be quite easy on the pocket in the long run.
3. Scalable
A unique benefit of custom-built business apps is that they are highly scalable. The development and usage of the software product are entirely in your hands. Let us say you run a small start-up at the moment. Buying expensive licensed software for multiple members of your organization might not be a recurring cost that you can afford. In fact, as your company grows, these costs will only move in one direction: up! It is also quite likely that the boxed software you purchase for your existing company might not be suitable once you expand, which means you might have to do a major overhaul and switch to a different software application. In comparison, let’s say you decide to get a bespoke app developed by professional business software companies. They can help you decide on software architecture that can easily be expanded as your business grows in terms of a number of employees. They can also accommodate your evolving needs according to your growth level. These small incremental costs will seem insignificant compared to the rate at which you achieve growth over time.
Wrapping Up
Whether internal or customer-facing, a professional, creative, and well-built business app can bring numerous benefits. Checking all these boxes might be hard to achieve with an off-the-shelf solution, bringing us to custom development.
A bespoke app will be built precisely according to your needs and would thus allow your business to establish its unique identity through the app. Additionally, you can work with your software provider to figure out the best engagement model to gain high levels of cost-efficiency and scalability with barely any recurring expenses. Thus, a bespoke business application can pave the way for immeasurable success and growth for you and your organization.
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