What Services Do Custom Software Development Companies Provide?
A custom software development service is a custom software solution offered by a software development company.
A custom software development company may provide the following services:
- Custom Software Development
- Web Application Development
- Mobile Application Development
- Cloud Computing
- Network Client / Server
- Software Prototyping
- Software System Components
- Quality Assurance
- Systems Integration
Custom software development services include custom programming and custom software application development by a qualified a custom software development company.
A custom software developer is dedicated to providing efficient and effective custom application development (app development) by following a particular development process. The development process will vary depending on your specific business needs. A modern development process typically uses some form of an agile methodology.
Custom application development services may include a custom app, cloud computing, mobile app development or a software product using the latest technology.
A custom solution, also known as bespoke software will address your specific business needs in a way that commercial software doesn’t.
Custom software development solutions are designed based on a specific need of your business.
Custom development is software that is uniquely designed and developed (personalized), for your specific business or organization. Software that provides improved functionality over what is available with off-the-shelf software.
The improved functionality is produced with a custom application which is created to address the particular way a business operates and is one of the ways custom software is different from software packages developed for the mass market, such as commercial off-the-shelf software, or open-source software.
Because custom software is developed for a single customer it can be designed with that customer’s particular preferences or requirements in terms of features and functionality, optimized for performance and have improved security, which is not the case with commercial off-the-shelf software.
When you have software that is designed to work exactly the way you would like, it helps to ensure your business is working as efficiently as possible.
Custom software development ensures that your software will be able to handle your business processes effectively and efficiently.
Customized software can have all of the features and functionality that you would like. This makes personalized software the ideal choice for businesses of all sizes.
Companies often have custom software developed for critical business functions, including eCommerce, shipping and order tracking, inventory management, customer management, payment processing, human resource management, and other functions, to improve or fill the gaps in existing software packages.
What are examples of custom software development services?
- Content management systems (CMS)
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- A business process automation system
- Automated invoicing
- Company-facing / Customer-facing web portals
- E-commerce software applications
- Bug tracking software
Examples of custom software development services include customized solutions, using a variety of programming languages or a specific tech stack.
Custom programming services enable you to achieve your business goals and satisfy your specific requirements.
Custom software can be built for a wide variety of purposes, its main purpose is to solve problems for a company that existing software cannot fix.
Custom software development includes application customization and application modernization.
Application customization refers to modifying software applications to support particular requirements.
Application modernization plays a critical role in maintaining the viability of a business’s software to meet evolving user and market demands.
Why is custom software development important?
Custom software development is important because it helps businesses meet unique requirements at a cost competitive with purchasing, maintaining and modifying commercial software. While eliminating vendor lock-in.
Custom software can improve customer experiences, bring innovative, feature-rich products to market faster, and make operations more efficient, safe and productive.
Custom software development helps businesses differentiate themselves and be more competitive. Custom software development is often the unique value proposition of many products and services.
How much does custom software development cost?
The cost of custom software development is directly based on how much effort is required. The amount of effort required is determined by the type and size of the software development project.
Types of custom software development projects include:
- New Software Development - Completely new software designed around a business requirement or concept.
- Software Modification - Enhancement of existing software. This includes software Integration - Custom code to add capabilities or integrate existing software into other processes.
- Web Development - Which includes user interface design and integration.
The development of custom software may seem more expensive at the start, compared to off-the-shelf software, but it proves to be a smart investment in the long run.
The higher initial cost of custom software development can be insignificant for businesses because custom software provides a boost in efficiency and even small efficiency increases can result in large savings in labor cost and resources usage.
Because of the increased efficiency and functionality of custom software, it often turns out to be the less expensive option.
With custom software there’s no need to purchase licenses and pay for subscriptions or features you will never use.
In most cases, custom software will have greater long-term cost savings than paying a subscription for third-party software. It’s important to evaluate your own software requirements and determine what you would be sacrificing in terms of functionality, efficiency or ease-of-use by using an off-the-shelf software solution.
Although off-the-shelf software can be used out of the box, in practice the off-the-shelf software must be modified and integrated with existing business software systems to achieve the needs of the business, even then, many gaps in functionality remain.
In many cases, off-the-shelf software requires customization to correctly support business operations. The cost and delay of off-the-shelf customization can add up to more than the expense of developing custom software from the start.
Cost is not the only consideration in the decision to have custom software developed, as the requirements for a custom software project often includes the business owning the source code, to secure the possibility of future improvement or modifications to the installed system to handle changing requirements.
Custom Software Support and Maintenance
When dealing with off-the-shelf software solutions, your business is at the mercy of the software companies selling generic software. So, when they stop supporting the software (which happens often), your business will be in the tough position of suddenly needing to pay for and install the latest version and hoping that they haven’t dropped any of the features or functionality that you rely on to run your business. This sudden expense can be damaging for your business.
When you have custom software developed, your software always works the way you would like and is maintained for as long as you require.
Improved Software Support
Most of the time custom software development will include some form of a continuous support package, provided by the software development company that created the software. This type of software support provides better problem solving than any support provided by off-the-shelf software.
Response and turnaround time for custom software support is streamlined and it’s typically an easy process to get your issue resolved.
How is Custom Software Developed?
Custom software can be developed in an iterative processes, with each step building and improving upon the previous step, which helps to discover and mitigate integration and architectural risks earlier in the project, including those which were not mentioned in the original requirement specifications.
Complex custom software can be developed on an increasingly small scale, because of the use of rapid application development frameworks. This means that smaller companies are able to benefit from fast development and delivery of high-quality software with a relatively low investment.
Conclusion
Custom software plays a key part in your organization’s growth and efficiency. Business operations can be complex and every organization has unique needs and problems to be solved. The numerous advantages of custom development include increased productivity, long term cost savings, freedom and independence.
Contact us to learn more about getting custom software development by an experienced software development company and how it can help satisfy your business needs.
