Buy Pre-Built Software Or Build Your Own?
Every business needs and uses software, and some of that software is crucial to the success of that business. Software applications help to improve business processes by saving time and resources. However, software performance gaps may appear when small businesses grow into medium-sized businesses. A growing business needs adaptable software.
In addition to helping make new products and services, having new software solutions will help teams solve problems and improve their work. Business leaders, on the other hand, have a challenging time choosing between upgrading software through a vendor and developing it internally.
The Big Decision: Buy Pre-Built Software Or Build Your Own?
When a business realizes it needs software to handle a particular problem, one of the choices it has to make is whether to buy the software off the shelf or start building custom software. But the choice between the two methods depends heavily on what the software does and several other important business considerations.
Thankfully, companies starting to look into these options are neither the first nor the last to do so. Due to the inefficiency of manual workarounds with pre-built software, companies may not be able to take advantage of business opportunities as quickly or efficiently as desired. In these scenarios, it makes better sense for a business to build their software rather than to buy a standard version.
When Does It Make Sense To You Build Your Own Software?
Customizing core business functions like accounting, payroll, sales tax, inventory, and customer relationship management (CRM) is inefficient, particularly given the abundance of SaaS software applications with flexible payment options. But if no software meets your requirements adequately, you could be forced to develop your own, mainly if there is a high-value opportunity or a sizable efficiency.
If Existing Solutions Make Your Operational Processes Cumbersome And Inefficient
A business's operational processes must run like a well-oiled machine. Building a customized application, whether internally or with a custom software development team, makes more sense if the business recognizes that none of the software already on the market has the features or services they require to work optimally as an organization.
One-size-fits-all design is the norm for most commercially accessible applications, which may restrict what an organization may accomplish with the application.
If Your Operations Are Based On Specialized Processes And Separated Systems That Don’t Connect
Finding the appropriate software for optimizing such jobs would, for instance, always be challenging if the organization does certain specialized operations (such as operational processes) that are distinct from those performed by the rest of the industry. This also applies to businesses that need to integrate data sources from multiple systems to run their operations.
In such circumstances, a customized app or software path is an approach worth considering. Software developers have the skill necessary to build custom integrations between your daily work systems to give you the full picture needed to grow your operations.
Here’s What Most Companies Miss
Many business leaders underestimate the skill and resources required to develop software systems that truly move the productivity needle. Most internal software projects fail as it is neither easy nor cheap to code effective systems. The best return on investment is earned by relying on professionals.
If a business does choose to take their own path to building custom software, they should be aware of a few pitfalls that other businesses run into listed below.
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Not Relying On Technical Partners Early
Hiring internal software developers can be costly in today’s economy. In addition to paying sourcing fees, you must evaluate a candidate's technical skills, train and onboard new employees, and provide a digital environment for development and testing. These costs add up, especially if you hire full-time developers to work year-round but don’t require development services on a consistent basis.
Solution: Instead of relying on internally hired developers that come with excess overhead and responsibility from the start, build relationships with experienced technical partners that specialize in development projects for your niche, taking the load off your team’s shoulders.
Having Insufficient Internal Project Management Bandwidth Or Capabilities To Build Effectively Over Time
There is constant oversight and course-correction needed to assure the success of the software development projects. Once your product team has a few designers and software engineers, you'll need additional expertise to lead and supervise it. Undermanaged programmers can lose days and weeks of work with plummeting productivity, costing you time and money.
Solution: Invest in your internal project management capabilities and create self-improving systems for managing teams. Alternatively, 3rd party development teams come with an existing internal team infrastructure to work efficiently toward delivering value immediately, and require minimal oversight by your team as they have already repeatedly delivered the end result you’re looking to achieve.
Overestimating The Effort To Build Software And Underestimating The Reward
One cannot just employ developers and managers and expect miracles to occur, whether they’re full-time employees, freelancers, or agency developers. Engineers produce what the business instructs them to create. They thrive on precision. Therefore, you must invest time understanding your business's potential and articulating the desired features, functions, and alternatives. Before your engineers begin developing, you will want to have a finalized software plan.
Solution: Undergo the process of designing your software requirements and plan for execution methodically and document your system properly to ensure all parties in the development process understand your desires. Failing to do so will result in your team delivering a system that doesn’t help you accomplish your goals, frustrates employees to use, and does not produce a healthy return on investment. On the other hand, hitting the mark often leads to remarkably positive results in favor of operational productivity and efficiency.
Agile software development teams are able to fill this talent gap in your business and make it effortless on your part to build software that helps you hit your business goals in record time.
Choose Wisely
Utilizing in-house developed software to innovate your industry or to streamline a particular internal process may be a powerful growth driver. Make sure you understand the actual expenses of long-term success before you start building, and only start engaging a development team when you're confident your company can handle it.
Compared to utilizing technologies that are accessible commercially, building proprietary software in-house provides various benefits. Some people will find that out-of-the-box solutions are enough for their requirements, but others prefer options that you may completely customize. Every business, however, should take the time to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each choice for their particular situation.
Find Out If Custom Software Is Right For Your Business
Compared to traditional custom software development, our proprietary software development process enables the production of custom software more quickly with lower costs. Park West Digital can help you implement custom internal tools rapidly and offers flexible, extensible, and scalable ways to design, build, and deploy new internal systems, all without requiring additional man hours from your team.