Every day, businesses of all types depend on custom software solutions to get things done. They use dedicated apps to communicate and collaborate among employees and firmly establish relationships with clients.
These aren’t necessarily results that you can achieve with off-the-shelf software options. Not only will the user experience (UX/UI) suffer, but you’ll also be forcing your entire team into a “one size fits all” box that doesn’t really exist.
That, in essence, is why custom software development services are critically important. Not only will a dedicated web application development company work hard to understand your unique business needs and goals, but they’ll be able to write your software requirements document and handle everything -from prototyping to frameworks to mobile app development and more - all to make sure that you end up with exactly what you need, nothing more, nothing less.
But what is a custom software application development company, and how can it benefit your organization? To answer these questions, you should keep a few key concepts in mind.
What is a Custom Software Development Company?
At its core, a custom business software development company can customize and optimize software to meet an organization's unique needs. This includes not only desktop applications but also web and mobile applications.
Every business has unique processes that it uses to succeed. Any software product that you give to your team needs to support, empower, and automate business processes. This is especially true for startups, who need to leverage any opportunity they have to stand out in a crowd.
This is why off-the-shelf software simply won’t cut it in the modern era. Oftentimes, these programs are a “Jack of All Trades, Master of None.” They force all companies using their software to do things in the same way, which may get the job done in a technical sense, but it doesn’t do so particularly well. It certainly doesn’t allow a business to stand out in a crowd.
This is why outsourcing custom software development services is always the right move to make. They’ll try to understand your business, employees, and processes fully. During the software development process, they’ll learn what you have and what you need to do better.
The result will be a high-quality application that meets all these needs and more. One that leverages the full power of the DevOps process to your advantage.
The Benefits of a Custom Software Development Company
There are a number of core benefits to custom ASP.NET Software Development Outsourcing that are definitely worth examining.
Chief among them is that they can help your organization rid itself of that older legacy software that ultimately holds you back. Older applications (those developed 20 or even 30 years ago) aren’t up to modern demands regarding functionality.
For starters, they weren’t built to work together, making it almost impossible to share data. That hinders workflow operations management systems because data gets trapped in silos and is unable to move across an organization freely.
Likewise, they lack the responsiveness of modern software systems. Everything takes longer than it should, and people are forced to “do more with less,” so to speak.
All of this changes when you work with an outsourced product development team. Not only do you wind up with dedicated web applications that support and empower your processes, but you also have a technology stack designed to work together.
That means that information that was formerly trapped in silos can flow freely across your organization, likely for the first time. At that point, communication and collaboration are easier than ever. Not only that, but your business processes are stronger and more efficient.
5 Signs That Your Organization Needs Custom Software
- Lots of manual tasks in the current process. The first major sign that you need custom software is whether your team relies on a great deal of manual work to get tasks done. Manual processes had their time - but that time is officially over. Instead, what you need to do is embrace business process automation. You need to automate many manual tasks that consume so much time that your team members can focus on other, more important matters. Only a team of software engineers and custom software designers can help you do that.
- Repetitive process problems. Another major sign that your organization needs custom software is seeing the same problem happen over and over again. If your older software is constantly breaking, it doesn’t matter if you can fix it; it shouldn’t be breaking in the first place.
That’s why a dedicated software team is always recommended. They can make sure that your backend and your front-end are where they need to be to stop these issues from happening at all. The back end refers to technologies that run on the web server, like ASP.NET Core, PHP, SQL Server, MySQL, FileMaker Pro, and cloud application development with Microsoft Azure. On the other hand, front-end technologies like HTML, JavaScript, React & ReactJS, and Angular run in your web browser. - Reporting. One issue that a lot of businesses face has to do with the fact that they’re spending so much time collecting data that they’re not extracting value from it. They need to be able to act on it and their current life cycle simply does not allow that. Custom web development, on the other hand, can. That’s why outsourcing your IT needs is important. It can help you take full advantage of everything big data offers. Web-based reporting will allow key individuals in your organization to get the information they need to do their jobs better.
- Digital experience for your clients. If you find reaching your client base difficult (or even impossible), you’re also likely to need custom software development. The digital experience you must offer to connect with these people isn’t there. If your competitors offer a better digital experience, your potential customers will go to them instead - make no mistake about it.
- Scaling your business. Finally, if you plan on continuing to grow as a business (and you should), you need custom ASP.NET development services. You need a project management process that scales up with your business - not one that holds you back. You must implement things like SaaS (software as a service) and the IoT (Internet of Things). You can’t do that with older legacy applications. You need custom software written for how you do business.
9 Advantages of Working with a Custom Software Development Company
Once you’ve acknowledged the benefits of custom software development services, it’s important to understand why working with a custom web applications software company is critical.
Building something on the scale of what is being discussed isn’t something you should attempt to do alone. This is true for a wide range of different reasons.
- Cost. For starters, it’s simply cost-prohibitive to do so. It’s very unlikely that you’ll find anyone you can bring in-house with all the skills necessary to build your custom web app.
- Expertise. Technology solutions require extensive expertise in areas such as custom software design, agile methodology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain development, and more. You need a dedicated web application development team with software development expertise who can fill in the skill gaps and bring your custom software application to life.
- Competitive Advantage. Another major benefit of working with a custom software development company is the personalization they offer. Again - you’re talking about something that will be built with your organization alone in mind instead of being built for the masses. You’re not being forced to use something available to every company, which is how you carve out a true competitive advantage for yourself.
- Expert Software Design. A custom business software development company will help you with your larger digital transformation efforts. They can develop a software roadmap that will bring your enterprise software to life in a way that supports everything you’re doing, ensuring that it all gels together into something that will propel your business forward. Great software starts with great software design and great database design.
- Cross-platform support. Working with a custom business software development company can also help bring cross-platform solutions, particularly web apps. You can count on them to develop both Android apps and iOS apps that will work equally well and get the UX design right the first time.
- Security. Outsourcing software development to a web app development service provider can also help your custom software development project in other ways, too. This is especially true in terms of higher security and reliability. Remember that a dedicated team of people will bring years of experience - experience that your own people may not have. This know-how will help them create software equipped to fend off the dangers of the modern digital world we’re now living in. Consider how devastating a data breach can be in the healthcare industry, for example. Confidential patient information could easily be exposed, putting many people in harm’s way. If an eCommerce business were to be breached, everything from credit card data to other personally identifying information could be exposed to the world. If a manufacturer’s ERP system were breached, proprietary manufacturing information could be gleaned from the data. This would cause an untold amount of damage to your reputation, which is exactly what a custom software development company can help you avoid.
- One major benefit of working with such a company is seamless integration via APIs. Again, all your older legacy applications were never designed to work together - making data sharing almost impossible. If the marketing team has important insight into a client, the sales team may lack that information - making it impossible for them to act on it. Everyone would have to go out of their way to ensure all parties have all the information, which is very unlikely to happen. With a custom software development team, you’ll have something akin to a CRM platform designed specifically for your company’s unique needs. Every piece of insight will be stored in one centralized location so that people in your organization spend less time searching for information and more time putting it to good use.
- Speed of development. Working with an outsourced custom web application development company will significantly decrease the delivery time. For the sake of argument, let’s say that you find a person or even a small team of people who will work in-house on your custom or web application. They’re probably a part of your traditional IT team. Unfortunately, their attention is always going to be divided. They’ll be working part of the time (and a small part) on your custom application and spending most of their time on routine software maintenance and problem-solving in other areas. The latter is important, yes - but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the former.
With a custom software team, on the other hand, you don’t have to worry about it. They can devote all of their attention to ensuring that your application is created exactly the right way and as quickly as humanly possible. At that point, your in-house IT people are free to focus on other strategic business goals of the company. - Quality Assurance. Finally quality assurance isn’t always the first thing an internal software developer is concerned with. IT consulting firms often have staff members dedicated to QA and testing.
Any of these advantages on their own would be enough to make custom development and working with a web developer agency worth the investment. When taken together, they form the type of business opportunity that you (and your CTO) cannot afford to ignore.
Get Started with a Custom Software Development Company
Ultimately, it’s clear that custom software development services are the way of the future. This is true regardless of the type of business you’re running or even the industry you’re operating in. It allows your employees to work “smarter, not harder” as it were, and it also allows you to forge deeper and more effective relationships with your clients.
However, this is certainly a road you do not want to travel alone, especially regarding ASP.NET software development outsourcing. Only an ASP.NET developer can provide the experience necessary to effectively use open-source Microsoft ASP.NET Core, ASP.NET with MVP, Microsoft SQL Server, and similar technologies.
So, if you’d like to find out more information about why working with a custom software development company is so important, or if you have any additional questions you’d like to go over with someone in a bit more detail for your next project or to get answers to any other important questions you might have, please fill out our contact form today. We'll set up a meeting with you to discuss all of your custom software development needs.
Keene Systems has developed software for years. Our team of 35+ developers has worked with ASP.NET since its launch in 2002. This experience makes us the right partner to build solutions that match your needs.
We create custom web applications that fit your business processes perfectly instead of using generic packaged software. These personalized solutions help you manage company data and work more efficiently, which boosts your team's output.
Do you want to update your business applications? Contact us today!
You can also download our new eBook - Why ASP.NET Development Services Fuels Business Growth - to learn more about this essential topic.
