Custom Software
Custom software is uniquely crafted to align with your business processes, providing precisely what you need without unnecessary features.
Unlike off-the-shelf packages, custom software adapts to your operations, eliminating the need to adjust your workflow. Its personalized nature might be challenging to grasp initially, as it varies for each user, ensuring a tailored fit for individual business needs.
What Custom Business Software is NOT
To understand custom software, it helps to compare it to its opposite, which is off-the-shelf software.
What is off-the-shelf software?
- You can buy it in a store or online, or you (and many other people) can access the application on the internet.
- It accommodates the needs of many types of people or businesses.
- The company that owns the software decides what goes into each release.
- Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, and Salesforce are just a few examples of off-the shelf software solutions.
Is Off-the-shelf Software Cheaper than Custom Software?
At the low end, single-purpose off-the-shelf software may cost just a few dollars each month for an online subscription. At the high end, you may spend millions for enterprise software packages.
Why are high-end software packages so expensive?
Implementing a high-end, cross-departmental software package requires time and expertise. That means you pay for:
- The software itself.
- Annual licensing and/or maintenance fees.
- Implementation by consultants who specialize in getting the software working for you. (This can be 2 – 3 times the annual cost of the software.)
- Training.
Custom Software is NOT off-the-shelf Software – so what is it?
- Custom software solutions are designed and developed specifically for you and your unique business needs.
- Because it’s designed for you, custom software can’t be ordered online or purchased from a retail store.
- You own your custom software package, including the source code, which allows you to enhance and upsize the application as your business grows and changes.
- Because you’re involved in the design, your software will be very familiar to you, and you can train your employees.
- There are no annual maintenance fees (although some clients choose to buy blocks of support in advance).
- You identify and prioritize enhancements and upgrades.
How do you get software designed specifically for you?
Building a custom software application is a lot like building a home.
What do you need?
Before you invest in a home, you think about how you’ll use it. Do you need more space for entertaining, cooking, or sleeping? Less space to maintain?
For your software package, you identify your business goals and design the software to meet them. Do you need immediate access to sales results? Tighter control of quality?
What are you trying to improve or fix?
When you buy a new house, you look at shortcomings of your current residence and plan for the new home to address these.
How do you know what to build?
Once you have identified your requirements, you work with architects and designers to produce a set of blueprints so that your new home meets your expectations and building regulations.
For your custom software, you identify the business problems that you want the application to address. Are you running your business with uncontrolled and complex spreadsheets or a difficult–to-use legacy system? Is your team wasting hours on tedious, error-prone non-value-added tasks like redundant data entry?
For your software system, business analysts and system architects prepare your system design document, which is the blueprint for your new custom-designed software.
Build it.
Once you get your plans, you don’t go to your local building supply store, order what you need, and start building the house yourself. You work with an expert who has built homes in the past, someone who has learned the trade through training and experience.
To build your software system, you want experienced system architects, designers, project managers, software developers, and testers with a proven track record of delivering custom software solutions on time and on budget.
Do you need custom business software?
DragonPoint can work with you to identify your business needs, clarify your improvement opportunities, and review your alternatives. Using our 30+ years of experience providing custom software solutions, we can help you compare custom vs. off-the-shelf options so you can make the right software decision for your business.
Some possible solutions include:
- Enhancing your current system.
- Selecting off-the-shelf, packaged software.
- Building a custom application.
If you choose a custom application, what happens?
The proven 12-step process in the DragonPoint Software development methodology includes:
- Understanding the business objectives
- Defining the high-level system requirements
- Designing and architecting the system
- Breaking the project into detailed phases (also called sprints), each of which has its own detailed requirements document
- Coding the sprint
- Testing the sprint (internal testing and customer acceptance testing)
- Completing regression (end-to-end) testing (with fixes as necessary)
- Integrating client feedback into the project for future phases
- Deploying approved sprint code
- Writing documentation and/or help files
- Training
- Providing ongoing support
DragonPoint Software is a Florida-based custom business software solutions company that helps businesses all over the world to improve their efficiency. Call 321-631-0657 today to schedule your free one-hour consultation. Let’s figure out together whether there’s an opportunity for you to meet your business goals with a better software solution.
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