7 benefits of bespoke software
A bespoke software system is designed to match a client’s business needs exactly.
A bespoke software solution is ideal at handling all your current working practices, easily integrating with other systems and offering no restriction on how you can work. Particularly when compared with off-the-shelf software solutions which usually need users to change the way they work.
A bespoke system also offers other benefits over off-the-shelf software, especially in terms of, scalability, security, longevity, and flexibility.
- Complete ownership. Having your own software differentiates your business and gives you full control over your important business systems. You can decide how and where it is implemented, changed, or adapted. You can use it for as many employees as you need, and you don’t need to worry about additional costs or upgrades. It is you who decides if it needs additional features or customisations.
- Capitalisation of your Software development costs, moving the costs of the development of your bespoke software to a capital asset. All costs of materials or services, payroll incurred to create/implement, and interest costs associated with implied debt servicing could be capitalised as software in progress. Once the software is ready to be implemented throughout the organisation and placed in service, the software asset will begin to be amortised over the expected life of the software.
- Unique. By developing a bespoke software that accurately matches your business needs and requirements, you can easily differentiate yourself from your competition by having a unique and more advanced product dedicated entirely to your business. This can reduce the time it takes a customer to place an order, improve delivery times, reduce sales response times, and minimise the time and resources to address internal management tasks to reduce costs and increases profitability.
- Scalability and flexibility. Bespoke software solutions can grow with your business. They easily accommodate process changes, increased workloads, and new integrations. The software’s flexibility allows your business to adapt as required to meet your changing business needs and objectives. This means that a company can maintain their competitive advantage across a fast-changing business landscape. You are in complete control of your bespoke solution, you can easily make changes and add new features according to your business growth in response to you client’s needs, rather than relying on convincing an off-the-shelf development company to change their system to meet your unique requirements. In much the same way by having complete control over your bespoke software solution, means you can address and solve any business issues that may arise, change, and adapt without having to depend on external help.
- Cost efficiency. Although the initial cost of a bespoke solution can seem higher when compared to an off-the-shelf software, over time, it will prove to be less expensive as licensing, upgrades, subscription costs typical with off-the-shelf systems. Also, when comparing costs between off-the-shelf and bespoke, it is important to ensure that set-up and customisation costs are included for the off-the-shelf system as these are often ‘hidden’ and can equate to the cost of a bespoke system.
- System Integrations. Using a bespoke solution allows you make all the necessary integrations from the beginning, according to the existing hardware and other software systems that your business currently use. You are not reliant on convincing a third-party app developer to do the integrations for you. This means that you can fully integrate all your systems to ensure you have a single, central source of truth for all your data to better align your businesses.
- Security. A major benefit of bespoke software development is security. As hacker attack is less likely to take place on a bespoke system as a hacker would need to both gain access to the system and ‘learn’ it before they can attack it. Compared to off-the-shelf software where hackers can exploit well-known issues and vulnerabilities it makes it far more difficult and therefore less likely.
Conclusion
Implementing a bespoke software business system is a great investment both short and long-term. Such a system offers scalability, flexibility, increased control, enhanced security, and cost efficiency to name just a few of the benefits inherent in doing so.