Custom Software
Pacific Custom Engineering performs Custom Software development for any requirements you might have. Contact us to schedule a free consultation.
What is custom software development?
Custom software development is the process of designing, creating, deploying and maintaining software for a specific set of users, functions or organizations. In contrast to commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS), custom software development aims at a narrowly defined set of requirements. COTS targets a broad set of requirements, allowing it to be packaged and commercially marketed and distributed.
Microsoft Office and Sitebuilder.com, for example, are packaged commercial software products and services. They meet the generalized needs of office productivity and website creation.
Custom software, on the other hand, is designed for a specific set of needs, such as:
- A field service equipment maintenance program for a manufacturer
- An online banking app designed for the unique requirements of the bank and its customers
Custom software, and its development, is also referred to as bespoke software — a term with origins in English tailoring, meaning tailor-made.
Custom software development is usually performed by in-house development teams or outsourced to a third-party. The same processes and methodologies apply as in any other software project — requirements gathering, construction, testing, and deployment — using methodologies like Agile, DevOps, or Rapid Application Development.
Why is custom software development important?
Custom software development is important because it helps meet unique requirements at a cost competitive with purchasing, maintaining and modifying commercial software. Some of the key benefits include:
- Efficiency: Custom software is purpose-built to support processes swiftly and productively, without the need to tinker with or adjust commercial applications.
- Scalability: Custom software can grow as an organization or business grows and changes. Future needs can be incorporated into the initial design rather than purchasing additional licenses.
- Lower integration costs: Custom software can be built to integrate with its intended environment, avoiding the costly challenge of making commercial software communicate with existing infrastructure.
- Profitability: Businesses that develop their own software may own it outright and can license or sell it to other organizations.
- Independence: Organizations can avoid price hikes for licensing and support, and avoid being stranded if a commercial vendor discontinues a product.
Keys to effective custom software development
Be sure about build vs. buy
The first key to an effective custom software development project is making sure that custom software is truly needed, as opposed to buying a packaged solution. One approach to a build-vs-buy analysis is to ask if there is already a packaged software solution that delivers greater than 80% of the functions needed to:
- Support or automate unique business processes and transactions
- Handle information and data specific to an industry or line of business
- Meet unique privacy or security requirements
- Facilitate integration with legacy applications and data
- Replace or help consolidate existing solutions at lower cost
- Achieve greater productivity or enable new competitive opportunities
- Grow and adapt to changing requirements
Collaboration is key
If the decision is to build, an important initial consideration is to get buy-in from key participants and ensure that they communicate and collaborate on the project. Collaborators include sponsors, users, developers, even customers and business partners outside of the organization. This means business users working together on requirements, sharing knowledge across global development teams, and working hand-in-hand across development and operations to improve quality and speed.
Technologies and practices to consider
- Open Source: Open source software can enhance development productivity through component reuse and improve interoperability by avoiding proprietary architectures.
- Cloud-based development: Hosting development environments in the cloud brings cost control, speed, and on-demand convenience to building both on-premises and cloud-native applications.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI enables software to emulate human decision-making and learning. Natural language processing can analyze requirements and suggest improvements; machine learning can be incorporated via cloud APIs.
- Blockchain: A secure, digitally linked ledger that eliminates cost and vulnerability introduced by intermediaries, enabling new types of secure transactional and financial applications.
- Low Code: A development practice that reduces the need for coding and enables non-coders (citizen developers) to build or help build applications quickly and at lower cost.
- Analytics: Analytics technologies help software applications and users make sense of data through dashboards, visualizations, and predictive capabilities via cloud-based services and APIs.
- Mobile application technology: With the majority of global interactions occurring on mobile, connecting mobile apps with data to improve and enrich user experiences is a key demand for modern developers.
Outsourcing for maintenance and management
After applications are deployed, they need to be maintained and managed to be effective. One option is outsourcing these tasks through an application services provider — covering support for enterprise applications, quality and testing services, and application lifecycle management.
While some organizations opt to test, manage and maintain applications themselves, Pacific Custom Engineering has found that application services can reduce costs and optimize efficiency; improve flexibility, feedback and user experience; and increase speed and innovation.
An additional argument for outsourced application management is automation. Automation can support everything from software installation to critical updates, enabling IT organizations to improve software performance while focusing on core business tasks.