‘Off the shelf’ software vs. bespoke software or is there a third alternative?

  • 2015/05/18 11:24
  • Mike

Many businesses are still purchasing off the shelf software that simply does not fully align with their needs and forces them to dramatically alter the ways in which they operate. These alterations are frequently inconvenient, expensive and often extremely frustrating for staff. 

So what are the alternatives? 

Bespoke software refers to software that has been specifically designed for you and your business needs by a developer. The developer will carefully assess your ways of doing business and the procedures you regularly employ to create a completely customised solution that works with you intuitively and contributes to improving your business efficiency and effectiveness. 

There are frequently perceived barriers to even considering a bespoke software solution and these can include the following:-

• Concerns over the cost of developing custom software;

• Worries about the time scales;

• Familiarity with old ways of doing things and inefficient work arounds;

• Failure to realise that bespoke products are available at increasingly competitive prices;

• Not knowing where to start or who to reach out to in order to get started.

Whilst these barriers are easily overcome in most instances we do find that sometimes a third alternative approach is best. This is a flexible hybrid approach whereby we customise existing software to make it suit your needs. Think of existing software packages as a base that we can develop to ensure that your every need is met and your business model is not compromised by inefficient programs. Instead of you bending your way of working to fit within the rigid outline of a case management system designed for a completely different business, you can start with baseline software but then have us add/refine functionality to suit your individual needs. This can be an ideal solution and works well for case management systems, web portals, stock control systems, estimating systems etc. This approach also allows for the software to continuously grow and evolve with your business responding to the ever changing environment. It is not static for the next 3/5 years or subject to changes which don’t work for you from a functionality or timing perspective as is frequently experienced by users of generic software.   

Remember – software is there to support you, not to give you a headache! Give us a call to chat through your requirements.


Social Icons

Recent Posts

Addiction Treatment Centers and Lost Productivity from Manual Records Part 3

Addiction Treatment Centers and the Lack of Accessibility of Manual Records Addiction... Read More

Addiction Treatment Centers and Lost Productivity from Manual Records Part 2

Addiction Treatment Centers are susceptible to lost productivity simply because of the fact that... Read More

Addiction Treatment Centers and the True Cost of Manual Records

Addiction Treatment Centers incur several different costs when using manual records. First and... Read More