There is a common notion that behind every successful man stands a powerful woman. Unfortunately, we are not qualified to prove this. But from our expertise, we can state that behind every successful business stands a powerful software.
If you are leading an emerging company, over time your management needs likely have become more sophisticated and more difficult to handle. Running a growing business and trying to put in sync all of its various aspects like administration, operations, and technology, can turn into chaos. At best, you have figured out how to keep it to a controlled chaos, but nonetheless, a chaos. Also, you might want to challenge the ‘big guys’ in your industry, and see where you can get a competitive advantage. For this, it would be great to have all components of your business synchronized and all the information you needed for decision-making at your fingertips. And not to mention, all of this needs to happen while saving time and money. So, you might have already considered improving your business system by automating your processes or reassessing the current technologies used.
As an experienced software development company, we get approached often by companies that aren’t entirely sure whether or not they need custom software development. They realize they may need help, but can’t figure out the solutions or just do not even know where to start. Evaluating software solutions and comparing them against trends in the industry can help you fix the issues you need to address from a technology standpoint. This also helps in determining when the right time is to invest in custom software for better management and growth of the firm. If you are a business owner or a technical manager finding yourself in a similar situation, there are some obvious signs to look for that scream your business needs custom software development.
1. Technology is leaving your business behind
Business requirements evolve and change. You might have started your business with a software that was doing a good job, but nowadays has become obsolete. The solutions your old software is providing are not meeting your business needs and expectations anymore. At this moment, your business would benefit from functionalities that your old software is not offering. Or, your software can’t cope with the amount of data you need to process. It is obvious that your business can’t wait for a next update from the vendor. Here’s your sign.
2. You’re not efficient despite lots of hard work
The need for streamlining your current processes is growing more and more each day. Maybe your customer base or your product mix has changed, but this cannot be managed with the current tools. Too often you feel like you won’t know exactly how to resolve your tasks with your existing software, and you feel that a custom application might ease some pain points. You’re wasting time and money trying to manage a slow or inefficient software platform. Instead of making things easier for you, your software is slowing down the whole process. You must take into consideration that a custom software solution has the flexibility to grow and adapt as your company grows and changes. Here’s your sign.
3. It’s getting harder for you to reach your customers
Your business has become successful by offering value and opportunities to your customers. But lately, you’ve gotten the impression that you’re not active in their new favorite digital places such as social media. Your customers are spending more time on their smartphones, and expect a faster response from the organizations they interact with. You’re either worried that you don’t keep up with the times, or you do not realize that the times have changed. Those are indicators that you might need mobile app development. We helped PushModels and Unotifi
4. You’re tangled in spreadsheets
Honestly, how many Excel spreadsheets do you use to keep a record of what you’re doing? And how much time do you keep maintaining them with all the cells, numbers and formulas in the right order? Does it cover all of your needs and offer you all the insights you seek? Imagine that all of these operations could be automated into a web app that does all the work for you without any or very limited manual labor and time – a custom software that could give a clear visual picture of all your essential business metrics in real time. It would also reduce employee time spent on data entry, and focus rather on results so you could spend more time on acting and planning, and less on operations. If this hits home for you, here’s your sign.
5. You use multiple databases and systems for daily operations
If you are using different software products for various tasks within your organization and feel that your data is scattered and hard to manage, you may need a custom solution that helps you get all your business operations under the same roof. This way, the interconnected software systems are working together in your business interest, and make management more efficient and less overwhelming. When developing a custom software, you can pass information from one system to another without spending countless hours entering data. Clarisoft Technologies helped Vestafy by creating a custom software that manages workflow for veterinarians. If you wish you were more like Vestafy, who was recently acquired, here’s your sign.
6. Your off-the-shelf piece of software is not working as promised
So, you’ve bought an off-the-shelf software, but it’s not exactly what you expected it to be. Your employees hate using it because it’s not intuitive, they get confused or stuck in operations, or it frequently sends back errors. It may be a sign your business needs custom software development that it is reliable and user-friendly. Here’s your sign.
7. You spend too much time solving again, and again a recurring problem
If you are a small business, maybe you’ve got sick and tired of working for clients to solve the same repetitive issue. Then, perhaps it’s time to scale your software resources and save precious time by ‘hiring’ a virtual software consultant. Here’s your sign.
8. You still operate manually processes that could be automated
Still manually doing tasks such as maintaining payroll, checking inventory, entering data on spreadsheets, comparing and checking files to generate reports? If you are wasting resources with such activities that can be easily automated, it’s time to consider software solutions. Automating manual procedures will not only save you a lot of time, but will also eliminate human errors (which can be frequent), and will take a burden off of your staff. In the long run, it may improve productivity and provide a better ROI for your company. You guessed it, here’s your sign!
9. You want to be in control and own your investment
If you want the software to perfectly match your vision and business interests, not only now, but in the years to come, it’s better to create a custom solution. This means you own the product, and can make use of it as long as your business is alive. The new system will not only fit better with your current processes, but will be easier to maintain, more flexible and easier to scale. Here’s your sign.
10. Your business has a critical unique need
Of course your enterprise is unique, from the way you conduct business, to the service you provide, and the culture you promote. But, the foundations of your business might not be remarkably different from most other organizations in your industry, and the software you currently use is designed for your industry, so it may cover 90% of your needs. But it might be that in that 10%, there stands a competitive advantage that you could use to challenge your competitors and dig further into your industry market share. Either you could use an additional add-on to your current software, or you could think about building a custom software around that particular need of yours. Here is your sign.
If one or more of these situations sound familiar to you, don’t just acknowledge the sign(s). Contact us and let’s talk about the custom software solutions that could help you improve your business.