Custom Software Definition and Example

In this article, you'll find the comprehensive custom software definition with the direct demonstration of the bespoke software example.

In this article, we will give you the custom software definition with the direct demonstration of the custom .NET software example. Here’s the short list of items you’ll find in this article.

ARTICLE CONTENT

1. Custom Software Definition
2. Example of The Custom Build Software
3. Custom Software: When Do You Need It?
4. Advantages and Disadvantages of The Custom Software Solutions

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CUSTOM SOFTWARE DEFINITION

First, let’s give the actual custom software definition. The custom software – is the solution that is specially developed for some specific user or organization, which is the contrast to the widely used mass market software.

Despite the spectrum and diversity, the software market often is not able to meet the demands of all the variety of modern management approaches and business processes. It is no surprise that many companies would like their information system to have some unique features. In these conditions, the company has to call on the IT-specialists to adapt to the concerns of the existing business processes, or creating the new ones.

Custom software definition also includes solutions that have been designed to run on some specific hardware. For example, car manufacturers simply have nowhere to buy software for the vehicle on-board computer. Obviously, they have to develop this kind of solutions by internal or external IT structures while heavily relies on the hardware specifications.

It goes without saying that the software development – isn’t an easy task. While you get the bespoke software, you get any functions you need. You don’t have to look for the compromises, choosing the software for the work-related purposes. In general, that what gives you the best custom software definition – you get the software at the reasonable price. On the other hand, the software development requires time and finance expenses, so even the reasonable price can be prohibitively expensive. However, the custom software is developed on a tight schedule, so it saves the significant part of the time and finance expenses.

There are many companies that provide the custom development, that will find you and offer the business proposition. They pay attention to your needs, after that, matching your needs to your requirements, they design custom software. These organizations have enough of talented and professional specialists, that work hard to meet your requirements.

CUSTOM SOFTWARE EXAMPLE

To give you the clear picture for the custom software definition, we’ll demonstrate you the example, developed by Existek for a cafe franchise. You may find more detailed information about this project in our case study, and here you may briefly look through the architecture, development process and implementation of the solution.

Here we will try to say everything mentioned above enforced with our own example. The task was to create the software for the cafe franchise, which includes a simple solution for the non-technical users, which allow creating the loyalty card as well as these cards quick scan and tracing.
This is the example of the exclusive requirements, given by the client-company. You may find off-the-shelf software that does the same things as scanning QR codes program or processing loyalty cards.But the client was expecting to see the program, which unites the features and also will have its company face.

The customer was expecting from Existek to devise and implement an easy-to-use solution for nontechnical users that would enable the production of loyalty cards as well as quick, reliable scanning and tracing of loyalty card usage. Customer Loyalty Software also had to be integrated with existing POS software to allow staff to apply the discounts using loyalty bonuses. First, we needed to implement the real time processing of the QR codes and Images. Also, there should have been the database of the customers with data about bonuses amount, which included the automatic calculation of the discount and the percentage of bonus accruals.

This is how we overcome these challenges and implemented required functionality:

The solution for the implementation was found in the combination of the image processing libraries for the image processing and .NET

Considering this particular example, here’s the short list of advantages and features delivered to the cafe franchise by this custom software development project.

• Customer Loyalty Software has very little downtime and processed thousands of loyalty cards.
• Loyalty Card Software did not involve costly hardware solutions or contract lock-ins.
• Real time processing of the QR codes and Images
• Database of the customers with data about bonuses amount
• Loyalty Card Software that allowed managers to accrue bonuses to the customer’s card for each order
• Automatic calculation of the discount and the percentage of bonus accruals
• Possibility to pay a check partially or completely  by previously accrued bonuses

This is a quite good example when we speak about the custom software definition. In this case, the customer had to use custom developed software due to specific requirements instead of simply buying an off-the-shelf solution.  As you can see, the wide range of the features is narrowly aimed. You can barely find the solution for your similar requirements. In the end, the client has obtained all-in-one hospitality and loyalty software tool that completely fill in the gaps in the workflow. Moreover, the cafe franchise had exclusive ownership of the software which meant zero licensing costs regardless of the number of users, accounts, and terminals.

As a result, the final product was highly appreciated by the cafe management, staff, and visitors. The end product required almost no maintenance and was highly reliable. Risky move from the customer side, as the relatively high finance input, resulted in great financial and reputational earnings in long-time perspective. Download our eBook “2017 Global Custom Software Development Rates” to learn more about pricing.

CUSTOM SOFTWARE: WHEN DO YOU NEED IT?

While you purchase the mass market software, you give the node to that software, and as for you, you take the middle path concerning the time, effectiveness, working capacity. That means, that you will have to use it even if it doesn’t meet your requirements. So, it is better to tilt forward to the custom software development, as you’ll be sure of it will meet all your requirements and the needs of your company.

Here are some advantages of the custom software

• The custom software has no excessive functions
• It saves your time
• Cost-Effectiveness
• Flexibility
• Easy to learn and use

The most obvious purpose to start custom software development project is bringing the profit to the company via the better organization of everyday process and tasks. First of all, it makes an influence on company’s personal ease on the overall workflow, having only that features that are useful for this area while having no excessive features, that will have no use in the future. For example, the software developed for the hospital will include the personnel records, past medical history, visit data etc. Every point mentioned above will help the staff that works with the solution and the patients be aware of the curing methods peculiar to that or another subject. Of course, you may find the software solution in the public access, but most of such tools are unified, which means, the software is losing its appearance.

The custom software is mostly developed to improve the internal workflow, but if it has the appearance for the customers’ usage – it is a great business opportunity. For example, the cafes or restaurants may have not only the software developed for the internal needs, like the hospital ones mentioned above but the application for the visitors use as well. This application may contain the full list of the dishes available for this restaurant with the prices, so the visitor can be aware of the meals available. Besides, it may work as the “discount voucher” so the visitors are uncharged of the excessive items, but with the friendly tool, which wins users favor. Simply put, the custom software is needed for those companies, who do take care of the comfort work of their staff. As for the savvy entrepreneurs, the correct, both-side (internal and external) use of the custom software will show great marketing graphs.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE CUSTOM SOFTWARE

We have already mentioned the bespoke software advantages briefly, but here we will take a closer look at the advantages and also disadvantages, to have a clear custom software definition.

Nothing has the bright sides only. The custom software has its disadvantages as well. The first and main is the cost of its development. There is no doubt that the software that is tailored by your instructions and fits all the nuances of your business shouldn’t be as simple as that. So be ready that the upfront cost for its development will be high as well. In fact, the disadvantages like the upfront cost shouldn’t affect your decision on the business improvement. The high upfront cost justifies itself after the implementation. There is no more need in the extending the license of the commercial applications that could be the basis of your work management. The perfectly adjusted software will extremely boost your business development due to its system fit to your business, but not business fit to the software used.

The first and main advantage of the custom software is that you get exactly that functionality that you want there to be present. You may object, that off-the shelves software can contain a huge diversity of the functions even the extra features. But let’s be clear, most of the functions of the unified software are never used and just lie idle. Why would you pay for the software expensive license, if you only use a half of its features? Why would you buy a flagship smartphone if you use it for the phone calls only? These are basically the same things.

When we talk about custom software definition and the benefits of using such software is that you don’t rely on someone else’s success and stability. If the company-provider of your licensed software is collapsed, at best conditions this means and of support and updates, including security. At worst conditions – you’ll end up without working cloud platform which may ruin your working process as well. So, another custom software definition is a warranty a safety for your business and its processes.

Exclusive ownership gives another significant advantage – high-security level. It is hard to imagine something more important in 2017 than information security. Small and large enterprises including Financial and Healthcare sectors prefer to use software solutions developed specially for them. It is harder to find exploits and security breaches in closed ecosystems. Simply because it is much complicated for hackers to get their hands on such software to plan cyber attacks.

IN CONCLUSION

The bespoke software brings the results only if you find the proven vendor with the experienced team, which concerns all of your requirements, starting from the very initial development phases. The quality of the custom software should be above the grade. To reach that, the development team should include the well-organized customer service and provide you with technical assistance. Existek is a custom software development company with reach expertise in various industries capable of building software solutions of any complexity from scratch. Contact Us or visit our Custom Software Development Services Page to start a conversation about your requirements and get a professional consultation.

You’re welcome to share your experience and thoughts about custom software and its pros and cons in comments below. Our team will highly appreciate your contributions.

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