As I’ve mentioned previously, the most obvious reason to develop bespoke software is that you have a requirement that isn’t fulfilled by any package that is available. However, there are a couple of subtle refinements to this argument.
Firstly, there may well be software that is available to you but either it doesn’t work in quite the way you want it to or perhaps it is too complex. Last year we took on a client who was paying £14,000 per annum for a package that handled their e-commerce and stock management. They had decided to put a budget of £28,000 towards a bespoke solution on the basis that they would be saving money after two years. When we saw the feature rich package we made it clear that we could not duplicate all the functionality we were seeing for the budget available but the client quickly put us straight: they only wanted about a third of the functionality but they wanted it to work in a way that made sense to them and the way they worked.
And this brings me on to the second refinement. Typically, in any location, there will be many companies operating in the same sector and some of these will be more successful than others. This may be down to crude distinctions such as cost but over time the biggest differentiator will be down to the way in which each company operates and interfaces with its clients/customers and suppliers. For some elements of that business – payroll, for example – the software that is used will make no difference to a third party’s experience with the company. However, the software that is part of the process is a different matter entirely.
Over the next few days I will put up three posts that detail case studies that I believe illuminate the point that I am making here. However, here are a few indicators that will show if you could benefit from bespoke software.
1. You find you are entering the same data in multiple locations. Many mature companies with quite sophisticated processes find themselves using multiple spreadsheets or a number of software packages. This means the same data needs to be entered in multiple locations and if that data should change, then someone needs to know all the places that it needs updating.
2. Your processes are very ‘paper driven’. It repeatedly surprises me just how far companies can get with almost completely paper-based systems. These can work well until a piece of paper is mislaid or, worse, there is an incident such as a fire, which completely destroys the system. Goods and property can be insured but data is irreplaceable if it is not kept safe and backed up. All our software is web-based and all our clients’ data is backed up every day.
3. Your processes rely on your staff knowing them. That might sound obvious – of course your staff need to know what they’re doing - but there is not only a training overhead involved here, it also means your staff are less flexible and less able to cover for one another. A good IT system should reflect the way your business works and so your processes should be implicit in your software. A package will dictate that process and impose it on your business.
4. You want to share data with your clients. But not all your data, of course. Web-based bespoke software enables your clients to log on to your website and see their data: orders, statements et cetera. This cuts down on calls to your staff.
Ultimately, well-written bespoke software should provide huge benefits and give a great boost to your company. Your day to day business should run like clockwork, with happier clients and customers, less stressed and more flexible staff, who will be free to concentrate on their jobs and not administration. What’s more, having all this operational data in once place provides enormous opportunities for extracting highly valuable management information about the way your company is running.
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