Off-the-shelf software meets the general needs of businesses. In contrast, custom software development is designing, developing, deploying, and maintaining software per the demands of specific companies, business functions or users. While on-the-shelf software is generic, custom software development focuses on a narrowly defined set of requirements. If you study the benefits of custom software, it might be easy to understand why so many companies across all industries prefer custom software.

Benefit #1: Meets all of your specific requirements up to 100% 

One of the prime benefits of custom software development is the customisation aspect. The software itself will be wholly suited to your needs and specifications. Thus, it allows you to shape it according to what you and your business require. You will have a crucial role in the development process and enjoy the freedom to direct the coding and requirements for the software.

The teams that develop the software will get your detailed input about requirements to have a clear idea of business functionality and then craft the highly optimised software custom solution for your business.

This approach is very distinct from general software products in the store because their makers do not design them, keeping your organisational-specific needs and challenges in mind.

Benefit #2: Easy to use 

Custom software frees up your time, efforts and human resources to focus on growth and scaling to the next level. With facilitated and optimised processes, your organisation will likely need fewer human resources to manage your business tasks. You will no longer spend excessive time on your data management utilising legacy software or need specialists trained to use the peculiarities of the latest software tools on the market. Unlike off-the-shelf products, the custom software interface is intuitive, easy, and requires minimal user training.

Benefit #3: Quickest return on investment 

While custom software costs more than standard software meant for generic purposes, it also ensures the company a great return on investment.

Many organisations can use their custom software for years without needing any other external software. According to a recent study, once an organisation buys the software, they do not need to discard it for at least ten years. This one-time investment will pay you a good ROI in the long run.

The value for money becomes especially obvious when your business starts growing. With the custom software scaling your company to the next level will require significantly fewer changes in your workflow or tools that your business has been using and much less staff expansion.

Benefit #4: Scalability and the control to add features

As organisations grow, their goals and objectives change, so consider scalability as a feature flagged as necessary in your initial project scope. One of the benefits of custom software development is that organisations have complete control over changing the software code. They can add and remove features when they like to adhere to their updated requirements. On the other hand, on-the-shelf applications cannot be manipulated at will.

Benefit #5: Friendliness with third-party software

Ease of integration with a third-party application is one of the substantial benefits of custom software development.

Most on-the-shelf software is generic, and integrating them with third-party software may be challenging. Having custom software onboard will help organisations integrate their software with other apps without worrying about backfire issues. The API included in this solution allows it to connect with other applications and leverage their features. This flexibility helps an organisation expand its work functionality in a shorter time.

Benefit #6: Security and reliability 

Because of the unprecedented rise in global cybersecurity threats, data security is now indispensable for any company.

On-the-shelf software is generally easier to hack because most use open-source code. Hackers and attackers are already aware of the vulnerabilities of such software, whereas custom-developed software is a closed-source project and is only used by your team. Hence, the chances of intrusions are minimised.

So, custom software development helps organisations secure their data, eliminating the need to spend extra money on security measures. Thus, in the end, it helps companies maintain their trust levels and competitiveness in the market.

Conclusion 

All of the above makes it clear why customised software is an obvious choice for companies that identify their business requirements and have clarity on the features they need to run their business efficiently. Custom applications help them stay ahead of the game, provide better customer service, and stay agile with the changing technology and market trends.

Genolis (Unicon Software) is an Australian company that has been creating high-quality customised solutions at competitive pricing for small businesses and corporate and government organisations for over 20 years. We will be happy to offer our expertise to help you make the most of IT to cope easily with the complexity of your processes and take your organisation to another level of optimisation, productivity and growth.

We will be pleased to answer any of your questions, so don’t hesitate to contact us.