One of the most important aspects of any business’s success or failure lies in the software it uses. Using the wrong program for accounting, inventory, sales, or any other aspect of the business can create countless problems and inefficiencies or even lead to lost revenue.
To counter this, many businesses decide to invest in software that has been custom-made and specifically tailored to meet all of their needs. Let’s take a look at three key signs that a business might benefit from investing in customized software solutions.
1- Existing Software Doesn’t Meet the Company’s Needs
Off-the-shelf software can sometimes be a bit too generic, as it aims to be useful for as many types of business as possible. For example, imagine a company that resells discounted shoes. Their point-of-sale software is linked with their inventory program so that each purchase is automatically deducted from the inventory at the time of purchase.
However, the generic inventory software they use doesn’t account for shoe sizes and there’s no easy way to program it in. If the inventory counts are not manually adjusted, it won’t be possible to find out which sizes of shoes are in stock or need to be reordered. This loses the company time and money, whereas a custom software program would be designed to handle it, saving the company money over time.
2- Overreliance on Software as a Service Programs
Software as a Service (SaaS) programs have become quite popular in the past few years, especially with small businesses. However, for many of these smaller businesses, paying for multiple programs every month can eventually add up to a large software bill at the end of the year.
Instead of paying a monthly fee to use programs for multiple purposes, it may be cheaper, faster, and more efficient to simply pay for one piece of custom software that can handle multiple functions. A communications breakdown between inventory and accounting software is much less likely when it’s a single program instead of multiple SaaS software titles.
3- Incompatible Applications
Speaking of, another major issue that companies can face is software incompatibility. Imagine a company that uses unique pieces of software in every department. The accounting department uses Microsoft Excel to generate reports, as it is the format preferred by upper management.
Let’s say another department in the company relies on data in those accounting reports and wants to have them automatically entered. However, the other department’s software only accepts PDF input. Converting will take time and therefore result in wasted money, while an integrated solution wouldn’t.
These are just a few key signs that a business should consider investing in custom software, specific to their business and industry needs. Although it may seem like an expensive proposition at first, having software that does exactly what it needs to do will save the company significant amounts of money over time and eventually pay for itself. If your business is struggling or stagnating due to software inefficiencies, customized programs might be the perfect solution.
