Tag: custom software

Why should businesses invest in custom software development?

The need to transform digitally has created a scenario where enterprises are constantly investing in new digital solutions to either make life easier for operations or help them explore new revenue streams in the digital space. However, there are a lot of misconceptions that prevail in the market with regards to digital solutions. As soon as a business announces that it is ready to invest in digital, they get bombarded with ready-to-deploy and off the shelf digital tools that are provided by several players in the tech industry.

But is investing in readily available solutions the best way to gain a foothold in digital adoption? Not always is what industry experts say. It is important for enterprises to invest in custom software development to empower their business growth with a more personalized digital arsenal. Several executives may argue that custom software development is a costly affair, but buying commercial off the shelf software could do more harm than good in the long run if it is not tailored to your objectives.

Here are 5 reasons why investing in custom software development is important for your enterprise.

1. Complexities in Systems Integration

Different areas of your business operations may find tools from different vendors to be useful. However, these tools may each have their own technology infrastructure requirements, architectural differences, different development methodologies and varying levels of implementation support. As an organization, your technology ecosystem needs to work as a streamlined single unit, capable of delivering value across your business.

For integrating systems from multiple vendors, a considerable effort is needed and this could outweigh the advantages offered by individual systems. Such a scenario calls for creating a suite of operational enterprise applications, custom made to fit the objectives of your business. Every custom software, thus built would follow common standards in development and execution, thereby creating a flexible and interoperable enterprise technology stack.

2. Scalability restrictions

Ready to deploy enterprise solutions are often advertised to be scalable for large workloads. But when unique requirements of your organization require flexibility beyond the scope defined by the software development company, then you are left with expensive software that cannot scale up with your business demand. This is another area where tailored and custom software development can be the game changer in your technology landscape.

Components of such software can be built keeping in mind the objectives specific to your business areas and not just a standard industry requirement. Hence, when scalability requirements arise, a custom built enterprise software will be able to accommodate your unique business and process workflows accordingly without creating new challenges for the teams handling your enterprise applications. This is vital for SMB’s as their growth ambitions would definitely require a scalable technology backend to support a critical business process.

3. Future proof innovations

Innovation is at the heart of every competitive business environment today. The more you innovate, the greater will be your chances of satisfying diverse consumer interests. When enterprises buy expensive and ready to deploy software from reputed vendors, they often limit their own dimensions of innovation. Such businesses are often forced to either wait till the software vendor comes up with the desired innovation or they may have to again purchase a new software if their existing application vendor is not in a position to add the new feature anytime soon.

Having your own custom software built will enable you to experiment and bring on board innovative concepts faster and without depending on other technology vendors to do it for you. This can help in greater market competence as your brand would be recognized as a forerunner rather than a late adopter for innovations that consumer’s desire.

4. Existing technology support

Many times, businesses invest in new digital solutions by blindly following trends in the market. It could be possible that the technology that they already have may just need a few tweaks and upgrades to provide the exact same or even better features that a totally new commercial off the shelf software can provide. Bringing a new digital solution from a vendor into your existing technology ecosystem can cause challenges not just in systems integration as mentioned above, but may also create instances where large effort is needed to maintain existing software that serves other core business processes.

When businesses go for custom software development, they have the liberty to build new capability on top of existing enterprise applications and hence saving considerable effort in development as well as reducing cost escalations. Having a team to customize existing software is a better alternative than engaging one to implement a third-party solution from scratch and then follow it up with expensive customizations to further suit your business requirements and objectives.

5. Compliance with standards and processes

Even the best of digital solutions from world-class vendors may have compliance issues with the standard rules and processes adopted within a business. The makers of such software may have included recommendations from industry recognized standards, but very often a business may have to think out of the box while running their daily operations. This leads to their core processes and standards being subjected to deviations from what the industry follows.

When third-party digital solutions are directly brought into such deviation prone business scenarios, there will be issues with compliance policies and standards. This is yet another scope for custom software development to take center stage and empower businesses with the flexibility to meet their unique compliance requirements. This is also true when government and other geopolitical influences require custom standard or compliance implementation rules to be followed by enterprise applications. Areas such as data privacy and consent management would be under multiple legal and judicial networks.  A region and a third-party digital solution may not be flexible to handle such variances.

Any technology implementation done today should be closely linked to business objectives, and enterprises need to have a clear idea on the business use cases that a particular technology could solve. With custom software development, it is possible to have a clear picture of the quantifiable value every investment in enterprise application development is made.

This will prove to deliver more ROI than a fully-fledged third-party digital solution implementation where your business may often be at the mercy of the vendor’s technology prowess. If technology is not your core forte, then you need to have the right advisory and consulting partner to help drive the most value out of your custom software development initiatives.

With years of empowering some of the world’s best businesses with custom software development, Fingent can be the right partner to help you build the technology backbone of your business. Get in touch with us to know more.

The digital transformation wave that is transforming businesses across the world has had major influences on the way custom software development is treated by technology teams. Today software development is all about improving the experiences at multiple levels for businesses. Experiences include customer experiences from their end customers during a transaction journey and operational experience of staff who utilize technology solutions to drive more customer love. Technology is bound to change and business owners must be willing to meaningfully bring about changes in their custom software development concepts to incorporate the best solutions to run their business smoothly.

Reap your success in the digital age following these 5 custom software development trends

Let’s have a look at the changing trends in custom software development that warrants big attention from businesses across sectors. Following are our picks of the top 5 contenders in technology trends that every team engaged in custom software development must be aware of:

1. The growth of open source technology

A decade ago, you might not have found too many takers for open source technology. But, today only less than 3% of worldwide businesses do not use any form of open source software in their enterprise technology stack. In the initial days, it was largely seen as a playground for beginners in software development to try out building applications for free. Today the world’s biggest technology companies like Google and Facebook utilize open source software to run their most mission-critical systems. They also contribute significantly to the maintenance and growth of developer communities around these open source technologies. Take a look at all the leading application development technology available today like Java, PHP, Angular, React, Hadoop, etc. They are all open source and powers some of the world’s biggest enterprise and consumer-facing digital applications. If your business has frequent technology requirements, then this is a trend in custom software development that definitely needs to be on your top priority.

2. AI-ready software

AI is already a mainstream component of almost every digital platform that people use today. From e-commerce to movie streaming, companies are rolling out machine learning capability to help software learn more about its users and automatically provide them with great experiences. AI-powered chatbots are today serving queries of billions of people online and businesses are investing heavily in making these bots more intelligent by the minute. For software developers, it is essential to know the in and out of writing code that blends well with self-learning algorithms to provide optimal value for businesses utilizing applications that run this code. AI has a key role to play in the future when it comes to interacting with end customers directly. Hence custom software developers need to focus their skills on creating meaningful front-ends that can resonate AI actions, scalable back end engineering that can supplement complex AI algorithms and powerful databases that can deal with the huge volume of data that needs to be handled by AI systems to create meaningful experiences.

Related Reading: Find the top AI trends of 2019.

3. Cloud takes new dimensions

The world’s best run businesses today run their technology core on the cloud. From platforms to infrastructure, cloud computing has transformed the way enterprises use software applications. 73 % of the world’s businesses have at least one application or an infrastructure element on the cloud. From becoming more agile in terms of application engineering to saving fortunes by removing on-premise infrastructure costs, businesses are re-inventing themselves in the digital age. The benefits are endless – scalability on demand, global availability, top gun service providers in every niche, etc. With cloud computing, your technology workforce can be empowered with mobility i.e. the freedom to work wherever they want and with whatever resources they need. This is yet another trend that every business needs to take seriously to improve their ROI on technology investments.

Related Reading: Find how a cloud platform like INFINCE can untangle technology for business.

4. Security to be given a top priority

While the rise of cloud computing and the transition of on-premise software engineering to rich internet applications have created better digital experiences, they have opened new cans of worms for developers to deal with. In the US alone it was reported that there are over 130 large scale targeted breaches of confidential user data residing on enterprise applications of businesses. This figure is growing at an exponential rate of 27% every year as well. Security aspects cannot be overlooked now not even for the smallest of applications. Any vulnerability in your code will turn into a feasting ground for cyber threats in an increasingly internet dominated world. It’s not enough to write a great code but also to practice secure coding standards to enhance safety and ensure customer data is never compromised.

Related Reading: Find which option is a better choice for your business, Custom Software or Off-the-shelf.

5. Customers are the heart of everything

Today it is not just your sales process or your customer relations team that needs to have end-consumer centric thinking on their operations. Even your custom software development team needs to have a work objective centered on a customer-first philosophy. Human behavior of your target digital audience needs to be modeled and referred to while creating applications. This is crucial for recommendation systems, lasting user experiences and above all improve brand loyalty by creating wonderful digital experiences. Feedback systems need to convey responses directly to core technology teams and they need to drill this feedback into the very depths of every implementation and every programming logic they use to achieve business goals.

These are our picks for the top 5 trends in custom software development that businesses of all sizes need to consider today. In an increasingly digital age where customers dictate the fate of every single of your investment, it is imperative for organizations to have a comprehensive look at how these trends can be incorporated into their technology roadmaps. Those failing to do so are in for massive repercussions as it doesn’t take decades for big corporations to fall to their heels for lack of innovation. The examples are right in front of you. Investing in the right technology with the right advisory is crucial for businesses to continuously innovate and stay relevant in changing times.

A 2017 study on the big data market worldwide showed that by the end of the year, nearly 53% of all companies had adopted big data analytics in some form to optimize business performance. The talent market too witnessed an increased demand for professionals with expertise in big data. We are the crossroads of a huge transformation exercise wherein data is the new oil. From wristbands to connected cars and automated factories, today’s enterprises deal with an enormous amount of data that they need to utilize for growth and innovation. This is true for any industry, be it financial, manufacturing, life sciences, or any other field. As the volume of data flow grows, the technology needed to manage and utilize it is in need of an innovative makeover.

The businesses of today need the next generation of custom software tools to harness the power of big data. They need to set up a technology backend that can support and supply data to multiple enterprise applications at different units in their businesses. Custom application development practices need to incorporate the changing philosophy of big data streams into their core operational procedures. Many organizations find it difficult to empower their software or technology team with knowledge on incorporating big data methodologies into their development practices. This is one of the key reasons why only 37% of companies have been successful in transforming into data-driven organizations, even though over 85% are trying to achieve this feat. So how can enterprises of today explore the power of big data using custom software development capabilities?

How to use Big Data to re-define your custom software development landscape

To answer the question, we decided to provide some tips for organizations to create valuable business results by incorporating big data into their custom software development cycle. Here are 5 ways to derive tangible business value from your investments in big data within software development.

1. Prepare for a mobile-first strategy

Over 50% of the US population owns a smartphone, and by 2020 it is expected that over 10 billion smartphones will co-exist with humans worldwide. No matter which industry you operate out of, if your customer-facing points do not have a mobile focus, then you are losing out to competition. By incorporating a big data philosophy, every custom software application that your organization builds will be able to handle data inputs from billions of mobile devices. This data can be analyzed, and insights can be used to direct content to mobile devices. And there is another scenario: if your business wants to be at the forefront of mobility, then tuning your custom software development practice to include big data concepts is a perfect way to get the heads-up on the competition.

2. Respond faster to customers

Your core business systems might already be engineered to provide support to your associates at customer facing avenues. With the velocity of requests coming in from diverse customer channels today– the internet, social media, physical POC’s, etc.– it becomes difficult for your employees to provide personalized attention to each customer. However, if your custom software development team is equipped with the skills to incorporate big data management trends within their development model, the resulting customer experience would be seamless. Ready-availability of information would help associates run the gamut of customer queries across channels simultaneously and with personalized attention. A faster response will pave the way for increased customer loyalty and will ultimately reflect positively on your business revenue.

3. Bolster automation efforts

From autonomous production facilities to automated email campaigns, enterprises worldwide are investing heavily in automating business processes. Productivity improvements, elimination of errors and biased decisions, efficiency, etc., are some of the key reasons cited. However, for each process within a business, the saga of automation can do wonders only if they are equipped to explore and manage all possible data points within them. This is where your software engineering teams need to see the bigger picture while building apps for every department. The applications need to be extensible for data flows from various sub-functions and units within teams. Only when processes and teams become data-driven will there be an opportunity to automate the process. Thus, having a big data approach in your custom software development practice will ensure that the future of automation in your business is moving in the right direction.

4. Set the tone for artificial intelligence

Just as in the case of automation, enterprises need to be data-driven if they are to incorporate transformative technology transitions like artificial intelligence. For algorithms to decide the future of customer experience, the first step is for these systems to learn about your customers and your business. This learning is facilitated by data insights that are generated by your custom software applications powering each unit of your business. Hence, by driving a culture of big data thinking within your custom software development team, the foundation for AI-enabled systems is well cemented into your base. Growing this in into future recommendation engines, conversational bots, autonomous business units, etc., will be a seamless activity.

5. Remain competitive in the digital era

This is a culmination of all that we have mentioned in the previous points. In an increasingly digital age, businesses can go down the drain in a very short time if they fail to innovate on the digital front. Data is the basic unit of every digital transformation initiative, and if your business isn’t equipped to generate and harness the power of data, then your chances of survival will be slim in the long run. This concept needs to be instilled at the grassroots level of your custom software development practice. Only if your business applications can handle the volume, veracity, and velocity of big data, will your business be able to serve the next generation of digitally savvy consumers.

Now that you know the importance of having a big data methodology in your custom software development practice, what you need to do is to start building awareness about it. Let your teams know the growing needs of the digital age and how data becomes the fundamental DNA of every business process. If your core business operations are not serving the tech industry, then it is best to have a solid technology consulting partner for your custom software development needs. At Fingent, we work with some of the world’s best businesses to deliver meaningful customer experiences with big data incorporated custom software development services. Talk to our experts today to learn how we can tap the hidden potential of your enterprise data.