IT budgets are on the rise; technology leaders and IT decision makers are looking to find the best solution that can improve efficiency and ultimately grow the business. While it may not be as flashy as hosted or cloud-based services, software makes up on average about a quarter of IT budgets. According to a Spiceworks report, half of IT decision makers plan on increasing the software budget.

When adopting modern software for your organization, it can be tempting to turn to off the shelf, Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions that offer a simple solution tested by a large number of organizations who have adopted the same offering.

But as popular as various SaaS offerings are, that is their inherent weakness as well. The service you provide as a business is unique to the marketplace, and software designed for all does not best suit your business needs.

What is Custom Software?

Custom Software is essentially an application developed specifically to meet an organization’s needs. Also known as ‘bespoke’ software, it is designed to meet the particular productivity needs that are unique to your business. This can include anything from custom software designed to boost inter-department collaboration to mobile apps that can better suit your customers’ needs.

While some organizations with strapped IT budgets may balk at the increased cost in the short-term, custom software proves to be more affordable in the long run. In fact, at times it can even prove to be less expensive than off the shelf. By adopting custom software, you are removing any annual or monthly license fees for SaaS services, as well as improving your own business functions which leads to increased revenues.

And adopting custom software has never been more affordable. The availability of open source platforms allows developers to build custom software based on the best practices and tools available that have been tested by the wider market. This gives you a competitive advantage by utilizing best-in-class tools to create software that emphasizes optimizing your operations.

How Does Custom Software Eliminate Your Business Redundancies?

Look at your current legacy software or SaaS solution and ask yourself these questions:

• Does your software meet your business needs?
• Are there many unused features in the SaaS system making it harder to use and more costly than it should be?
• Are you bleeding time and resources because of software inefficiencies?
• Do you need software that supports greater collaboration between departments?
• Do you struggle securing your current software?

Below, we outline how custom software can answer those vital questions.

Personalized for Your Business

Your business is unique. There is no one better to offer your particular services to clients and customers. However, adopting widespread SaaS services does not best represent that uniqueness. SaaS offerings are designed to apply to as many organizations as possible. Therefore, the chances of finding a SaaS solution that perfectly intersects with your business needs is unlikely.

SaaS leaves the door open for business redundancies. If it doesn’t perfectly fit your operations, your employees will have to find ways to find time consuming ways to get around this unnecessary roadblock.

Custom software is specifically designed so that it can handle your daily processes efficiently. It can be as complex and intuitive as you like, after all, you’re the one designing it with your processes in mind.

This is particularly helpful in the long term. As your business grows, you may be limited to what innovation can be achieved because of the limitations of various SaaS solutions. Meanwhile, custom software can be tailor-made with the ability to grow the software alongside any growth.

Improve Employee Process

Ask your employees what processes can be improved upon. Inefficient software practices can lead to simple tasks taking double to triple the amount of time. This can frustrate employees who have to waste time finding ways around poor software, rather than being empowered to do a better job with it.

Custom software is designed to alleviate those redundancies and pain points. Rather than having multiple applications for one task, those business systems can be integrated into one simple application. You are removing poor practices and replacing them with adaptive and flexible ones.

Practices that may have taken three people across different departments in the past can now be done by a single person. This gives you the flexibility to focus on innovation in the business. If that task can be completed by one person, that frees up two employees to focus on tasks that grow the business.

Alleviate Security Concerns

A top concern among CIOs remains security. All aspects of the business are under attack from cyber threats and using a host of common SaaS services means you are using services that hackers are familiar with. On the flip side, hackers are not familiar with any custom software that is created. This makes your organization less of a target.

With a focus on SaaS solutions, you may find yourself spending additional resources on expensive security protocols that are designed to make up for the vulnerabilities that come with a widespread SaaS service. That means resources that could be spent on innovating are being spent elsewhere.

What Should You Consider When Choose Custom Software

Ultimately, technology leaders want the software that runs their business to cultivate productivity rather than hinder it. For some that means one-size-fits-all SaaS solutions do the trick. But for many, the reality is that one-size-fits-all doesn’t fit their unique needs. Each organization has its own unique pain points that cannot be addressed by software designed to address a wider audience.

Custom software gives your company a competitive edge. The investment into custom software increases the value of your business as a whole. If your competition is using outdated or SaaS software that does not fit the needs of their business, then you immediately have a leg up in any conversation with clients.

In order to develop the best custom software strategy for your business, you need to work with an experienced team of developers who understand the particular needs of your business. Contact us today to speak with the expert team at JIG Technologies about how we can design an IT strategy that best suits you.