Custom software development has become a common term across diverse sectors - starting from IT to various industries looking for digital transformation. Businesses and stakeholders are getting inclined to it at an increasing rate in order to avail the best solution for software development and bring in the software/products as per their requirements.
The benefits of custom software development are not only limited to tailor-made software development. It also implies that you can establish a strong brand identity with your own custom-made software products, can deliver the customers exactly what they are looking for, and most importantly it lets you gain competitive advantages over other existing products similar to your software. In this blog, we will walk you through the top benefits of custom software development. But before we delve deeper, let’s start with the basics.
What is Custom Software Development?
As the name suggests, custom software development refers to the process of developing custom-made software. To put it in a more elaborate way, custom software development is the process of designing, developing, testing, launching, and maintaining software meant to function and serve the purposes in a certain way, for a set of certain users/target audiences. It can refer to web development, mobile app development, development of software tools, Saas product development, back-end development, API development, cloud computing, voice development, and more.
One of the major differences between custom software development and commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS), is- the first one pinpoints the exact requirement to function more efficiently. And that’s not all, There are unlimited advantages of custom-built software. And a good custom software development company ensures to deliver it all. Let’s have a look.
Also Read: How Much Does it Cost to Build a Custom CRM Software
Top Benefits of Custom Software Development
It may confuse you whether to go for a custom development or COTS, especially where the COTS turns out to be more inexpensive. But here’s the catch- in the long run, custom software outranks the ones developed by COTS. Some of the top benefits of custom software development are:
Unique Product
Custom software development provides one of the most sought-after solutions- letting you launch your own unique product/software. For instance, if you want to launch a workflow management system for IT employees then the software will be equipped with exactly the required features and solutions including the unique ones you want for your brand. Similarly, if you want to get a unique software for accounting for only the SaaS companies, you can get a unique product equipped with the exact solution. This helps-
- Meet your business goals more efficiently
- Serve your customers better by delivering exactly what they are looking for
- Lets your business stand out from the crowd by the unique features of the product
- Helps you boost brand awareness
More Innovative Software Development
Innovation is the key to excellence and custom software development allows you to get more innovative with the software you are going to launch. There is already plenty of software available in the market, be it billing software or SEO optimization tools. And being innovative is one of the few ways to get noticed amidst the strict competition. For instance, if you need to develop an SEO optimization tool, and it contains exactly the same features as the existing products, then there are fewer chances to draw new customers to it. But if your software includes exclusive features, then it can help in customer acquisition as well. And custom software development offers you exactly what you are looking for.
Better Brand Identity
The identity of a brand lies in the unique qualities of its products. And as discussed above, custom software development allows you to come up with your very own unique products reflecting your brand identity and brand value. Such custom software is not replicas of similar software at all but each one is unique, meant for your brand only. No doubt that it lets you set your own brand trademark through your very own set of software.
Boosts the ROI (Return on Investment)
One of the ultimate goals for any business is increasing the ROI. No other software other than the custom-made ones can give you this advantage. Custom software help in multiple ways such as-
- Improves the customer acquisition rate.
- Raises the customer retention rate as they are getting certain solutions only from your software.
- Drives word-of-mouth promotion to help you in marketing.
- As you don’t need to spend extra on the license, degradation, etc. of COTS that customers are not going to use, you can save the amount significantly for other vital areas
These all together increase the ROI further even in the long run.
Read More: Cost to Develop a Custom Application: A Complete Guide
Better Productivity
Custom development leads to better productivity. As the software is developed to function and deliver results in a certain way, for a certain purpose and audience, the productivity of such custom software is much higher than the off-the-shelf software. Such software is meant to exactly execute the process for a certain task helping the users improve their efficiency further. And definitely, this is one of the rare qualities of custom software that gives it the spotlight.
Helps in Scaling Up Your Business
Off-the-shelf software is apparently easier and less costly to get started with as you don’t need to wait for the development and testing process. But as any business using it grows gradually, it becomes extremely difficult to accommodate the changing business requirements and deliver better quality and quantity of results consistently. This ends up creating issues such as needing to change/upgrade software that often gets incompatible with your platform, other third-party systems, legacy systems, and software, and most importantly- requires more spending than custom development would have needed. On the other hand, custom software is highly scalable, equipped with more efficiency dedicated for the required set of tasks, and supports scaling your business up without many hassles.
Offers Easy Integration
Custom software is quite flexible in terms of integration. Custom software development also comes with simple-to-use APIs (Application Programming Interface) that allow easy integration with any platform/website/tools/apps/systems. This also helps in the future in case you want to integrate it with different platforms.
24/7 Technical Support
No matter how robust software is, at some point in time technical support will be needed. Be it fixing a bug or reversing an unexpected slowdown or upgrading it to the latest version- most of the top-notch custom application development companies provide 24/7 technical support so that no unpredictable issues can stop your organization from functioning.
Wrapping Up
Custom software has replaced the off-the-shelf software for a while now and with more and more businesses opting for it, the future is quite well-predicted. As custom software development is going to prevail for a long time in the upcoming years, it’s high time for you to adopt it for your organization too.
Third Rock Techkno offers industry-grade compact solutions for custom-made software development including voice development, web development, and mobile development, to name a few.
You can get started with your own custom software development here.