Deciding Between Customizing Your Current Tech or Building Your Own Solutions

As a business, you need to make a lot of important decisions to keep things running smoothly. One of those decisions is knowing whether or not it’s time to build your own technology solutions or continue trying to customize your third-party tools and services.

Most of the time, these decisions come at important crossroads during business growth, especially if you’re looking for ways to create more custom solutions for employees or customers. However, there are some important considerations you should be making before you decide on either direction.

How to Know Customization is Becoming Limited

It can be challenging to know if and when your software customization is no longer meeting the needs of your business. However, there are a few telltale signs you can look for. Some of these include:

Clunky or Inefficient Workflows

One thing to keep an eye out for is if your workflows start to gradually get longer or less efficient. You might notice that any automations you have in place either aren’t working properly anymore or provide spotty results. 

Another thing to look for is when your teams increasingly need to manually access multiple data sources to find the information they need. For example, you might be marketing certain home remodeling services. However, if your employees or customers need to have one tool for managing contractors and another for accessing client data or communications, it can create clunky workflows that can lead to inaccurate quotes or scheduling conflicts.

Problems With Integrations

Integrations are a common way to help you get more value from your subscribed software. Many times, they allow you to connect more than one data source or create helpful automations that create additional efficiencies in your operations.

However, over time, these integrations may not be as seamless as you had hoped. There might be technology glitches that you can control with the vendor, or API connections may require additional formatting to work properly. Either way, if you’re continuously seeing problems with data moving properly from one platform to the next, this may mean you want to start looking at a new solution.

Less Features

As your business grows, you’ll likely require different features in your software that can support larger teams, more complex business processes, or support additional languages. Even if you can customize your solutions up to a certain point, you may eventually hit a wall that’s hard to get past.

For example, you might offer a solution that helps homeowners locate remodeling contractors in Orange County or connect them with renovation resources based on their location. However, if your business starts to expand, the tools and features of your solution may be gated to only certain geographic locations. This can limit your growth and lead you to need to invest in more than one tool to achieve your goals.

How Custom Solutions Can Benefit Your Business

Even though it might seem a bit intimidating to start your own custom software project, there are various benefits it can provide. Some of these include:

Streamlined Operational Workflows

Your business is unique, and even industry-specific off-the-shelf solutions won’t necessarily be capable of having every feature or benefit you’re looking for. A custom solution, however, is designed only for you, removing the “noise” most third-party solutions contain while only containing the essential features you need to grow your business.

Full Control Over Data Security

A key consideration for businesses as they begin relying more on cloud-based tools and other digital solutions is the security of their data. The more tools that access your business data, the more risks that unauthorized individuals can access the information. This can cause significant issues, especially when strict regulatory requirements govern your business.

When you create your own custom software solution, you have full control over how data is used and moved around. This gives you more flexibility when adding new security protections and keeping sensitive client data secure day-to-day.

More Competitive Brand Positioning

Most widely accessible software solutions are used by competing businesses across different industries. This means that any features or limitations are shared by users and your direct competitors.

However, if you have your own custom solution, you can develop features that give you an edge when developing your business. This can be a great way to help your business provide new customer solutions that are unique to you.

When You May Want to Consider a Custom Project

Before you start rushing into your own software development project, there are some additional considerations you should make that point to a third-party solution as your best bet:

Not Enough Internal Expertise

Regardless of whether or not you decide to keep your development project in-house or outsourced to professional services, you’ll still need a fair amount of internal expertise to see a project through successfully. You might need a small team of developers to make sure you’re able to fine-tune your software or add continuous improvements to it over time.

If you’re a newer business or lacking in this type of team, it may be better to stick with an available solution until you’re able to scale to a level where driving a custom project makes sense.

Business Problems Can Be Solved With a Third-Party Solution

When thinking about the features a custom solution can bring to your business, it can be easy to get caught up in the value developing your own software might bring. However, before you start a project, it’s important to first research all options that may already be available. You may be able to find a solution already developed that still helps your business achieve its primary goals without having to worry about executing a long-term development project.

Time or Budgeting Limitations

Your budget should be a primary consideration when designing or purchasing a new solution. Software development projects can cost anywhere between a few thousand dollars and tens or even hundreds of thousands. Before launching a project, consider both your short- and long-term budget needs before moving forward.

Get the Right Solution You Need

Custom software development projects can be a great way to ensure your technology investments give you the full value you need to help your business grow. By following the guidelines discussed when evaluating your own business needs, you’ll be able to choose or design a solution that’s right for you.

Author Name: Dalip Jaggi

Author Bio: Entrepreneur, technologist, and passionate business leader sum up the core of Dalip Jaggi, co-founder of Revive Real Estate, a PropTech company with a goal to democratize house flipping. Since its 2020 inception, Revive has since become the smartest solution for homeowners to maximize their home’s sales value across the nation.

Summary

Article Name

Deciding Between Customizing Your Current Tech or Building Your Own Solutions

Description

Custom software development projects can be a great way to ensure your technology investments give you the full value you need to help your business grow. By following the guidelines discussed when evaluating your own business needs, you’ll be able to choose or design a solution that’s right for you.

Author

Karthik

Publisher Name

Upnxtblog

Publisher Logo