Software Development |
What is custom software development and why do you need it?
26/12/2024
What is custom software development?
The process of creating, designing, deploying and maintaining the software for a certain set of users, organisations, or functions is called custom software development. As an alternative to COTS — commercial off-the-shelf software — custom software development’s objective is based on a leaner and tighter set of requirements. On the other hand, COTS targets a broader set of conditions, entitling it to be commercially distributed. As an example of COTS, consider Microsoft Office which is a packaged commercial software with a range of products and services.
On the flip side, you have custom software, which is designed keeping specific needs in mind. These include:
- the design, deployment, creation, and maintenance of an online banking app with unique requirements with respect to the bank and its customers a field service equipment maintenance program for a manufacturer or
- maintenance software for field service equipment for a manufacturer.
This is why custom software development is also known as bespoke software. Similar to tailor-made suits, the software is customised to your needs and, thereby, ‘bespoken’ for.
How is custom software development performed?
There are two scenarios you can opt for if you are looking for Custom software development. Option 1 is that you can go for an in-house development team, and option 2 is outsourcing this work to a third party. Keep in mind that the same processes and methods apply to developing custom software as they do in the development of other types of software.
In other words, a custom software development project would love through the same stages of gathering, code construction, deployment and beta testing. Additionally, the same methodologies would be applied like DevOps, Agile, or Rapid Application Development.
What skills are needed for custom software development?
The following skills are required when performing custom software development:
- Application customization: Application customization is the skill of modifying COTS applications to sustain individual conditions.
- Application modernization: Application modernization is key in maintaining how viable a business’s custom software is to meet the evolving demands of users and the market.
- Application management: Application management aims to create software that is effective by supporting tasks like optimising performance, updating the software, and integrating service desk functions.
Why do you need custom software development?
The significance of custom software development has to do with the fact that it helps meet individuals’ unique requirements at a cost that is competitive with buying, managing, and modifying commercial software.
Here is what it can help you accomplish:
- Efficiency: The objective of custom software is that it is purpose-built to sustain processes productively, swiftly and/or as efficiently as possible. With good custom software, you will not need to tinker with COTS applications to adjust them constantly.
- Scalability: Another key aspect of custom software is how it can grow as the company, person, enterprise, or function it is customising for grows. In other words, it will evolve with you. In fact, designers and developers often assess future needs as part of their gathering requirements in stage 1 itself. When these aspects are incorporated into the application, you do not incur future costs to update, improve, or adapt your app to new conditions.
- Lesser Integration Expenses: One chief consideration of any form of commercial software is if it will work with legacy applications or existing software. If the answer is not likely, organisations will have to invest further in purchasing commercial software that can work with their existing infrastructure. On the flip side, good custom software is intentionally built to integrate well with its intended environment.
- Profitability: You can scale up a custom software development project, depending on its terms and conditions. Businesses have the opportunity to develop their own software, own it, licence it, and sell it to other companies.
- Independence: The advantages of being rid of a commercial software vendor go both ways. On one hand, organisations can avoid price hikes for support and license. In this case, they also avoid getting stock while maintaining packaged software in case the vendor were to terminate their product or go out of business. On the opposite end, the cost of not only supporting but also maintaining a custom software will fall on the organisation that built it or had it developed. In any case, an organisation should compare whether it is better to buy or to build and take a call accordingly.
- Protection: There is no better way to enhance the security of software than to develop custom security measures that protect it from being threatened internally and externally. With custom software development, testing is part of every phase of development, which also includes security measures. You can ensure that a slew of threats is checked for right off the bat. However, even in case of emergency situations, the software can be updated and adapted to evolving threats.
What to do after custom software development has deployed your app?
Let’s say your applications are newly deployed. They still need to be managed and maintained to remain effective. One option is to consider outsourcing our maintenance through an application services company like Focaloid. The range of services offered can include development, but you also get support for your application in the form of quality and testing services, SAP, and lifecycle management.
While it is commonplace for organisations to maintain, manage, and test their applications themselves, and this is certainly a viable option, application services can do a lot more than just take work off your hands. They help you reduce costs while improving flexibility, optimising efficiency, improving user experience and feedback, and increasing innovation and speed. Finally, an additional argument for outsourcing your management for custom software development, or choosing an application services company like Focaloid is that you get automation. Automation can support your software from stage one of installations to later stages like downloading critical updates.
Conclusion
Custom software development is one of many ways to make an application cater to your needs and the needs of your consumer better. With the custom software development from Focaloid Technologies, you get this and more: personalization, targeted security, efficiency, and scalability.
Published:26/12/2024
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