All you need to know about custom software development

Custom software development is the process of conceptualizing, designing, developing, deploying and maintaining software that is meant to address the needs of a specific group within an organization. If the organization has certain needs it can either opt for commercial Over the counter software package or go for a solution that has been specially designed to address clear-cut needs. The commercial off-the-shelf software has a wider audience because it works on a broader perspective. For the routine business applications, we definitely believe that you should invest in a commercial offering, but that will not give you the edge. 

So, what will give you an edge? 

Yes, you are right! 

It is custom software development also referred to as the bespoke software. Bespoke software implies tailor-made solutions because “ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL.” Larger companies usually have in-house development teams that cater to all needs of custom software development. But for businesses where such complexities cannot be converted into solutions, third-party providers are looped so that the solutions so designed are a perfect fit for their needs. 

Why is custom software development an important step?

To satiate the general needs of your project, we will not stop you from pursuing your generic goals, but this comparative study will help you understand when it is the right time to infuse custom software development in your organizations. 

The packaged commercial software helps meet the general needs of the audience but custom software development comes at a later stage when enterprises need to streamline their needs and move higher than the general offerings. 

Custom software development is important because it helps meet unique requirements at a cost-competitive with purchasing, maintaining and modifying commercial software

• Flexibility - The feature of scalability is perhaps the best reason why organizations should go for custom software development applications. When you gather information, you will be able to assess your future needs. Once future needs are assessed then these factors can be carefully embedded into applications instead of purchasing expensive licenses. 
• Efficacy - For the changing needs of organizations, custom software is structured in a manner that supports the change. 
• Independent - Custom software development helps in the reduction of the burden of sourcing licenses and merge with the common runners of the business. This can get expensive for the company which wants to get it developed. 
• Profit-earning - Companies who have decided to go for custom software development can attain a license on their solutions and can later sell it as a full-fledge software product and earn royalties out of it.
• Low Integrations costs - If you go for commercial software, you might not be able to align with your overall applications. But if you do it, you have to incur additional expenses. Custom software can be built in a manner that it already integrates the applications and what it wants to achieve. 

KEY POINTS IN CUSTOM SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Without considering these key points it will be difficult to understand Custom software development. Let us take them one by one:

1. To build or to buy one:  As the name suggests, organizations first have to decide if they have to build custom software or go for the available packaged software. If your existing solutions cover at least 80% of your functionalities, then you don’t have to build, else you know what to do. 
2. Collaboration: According to IBM®, collaboration means “collaborating with business users on requirements, sharing knowledge among global development teams, and working hand-in-hand across development and operations teams to improve quality and responsiveness.” 
3. Specify your requirements: While stating your requirements, you have to factor in all the functionalities of the organizations so that budget, ROI, goals, and objectives, everything can be considered. 
4. Development methodology: Your development methodology is a very important step for you to carry on with your project. The decision made will solely be based on the complexity, time duration and also the importance of it. Before going into the types, we can see from the chart that agile methodology has captured Lion’s share followed by scrum and others.

• DevOps: It is an agile-based methodology that integrates software development and other IT functions in the design and development process. 
• Agile: The best part about this methodology is that it breaks apart the requirements into bits and swiftly delivers along those lines. 
• Rapid Application development: It does not follow a precarious approach and compresses the design and code making into an intermingled functionality.
• Scaled Agile Framework: This methodology helps in scaling down of the agile methodology to a bigger enterprise like the Global development team. 
• Prototype Methodology: This is also a specialized procedure that lets the developers make samples of the resolution in order to validate its functional elements for the customers in general. 
• Scrum methodology: SCRUM is the most widely preferred agile software development approach. This development methodology is suitable for those projects where constant alterations are required with complex development requirements. 

5. Technology used: Which technology will go with your requirements and style of functioning? Based on the needs, you can make a call, but let us consider these emerging technologies to do the needful.

• Open source - This is a source code that is open to the public. Linux is an open-source operating system that helps in improving the overall productivity of the custom software application development. 
• Artificial Intelligence - AI has revolutionized business with the help of ML, NLP, Chatbots. It has enabled them to emulate human emotions and intelligence to improve the decision-making process and to engage customers in the best possible manner. 
• Cloud computing - The benefits of cloud-based development are that it helps in supporting coding, integrating and testing to build applications keeping in mind its cost and development time. It gives the convenience of not restraining yourself to a location and produces work on the cloud to enable faster implementation. 
• Blockchain - Developers are increasingly switching over to blockchain ledgers to build secure applications so that no hindrances can put roadblocks on your business processes whatsoever. 
• Data Analytics: With the onslaught of data, it is extremely important that you incorporate data analytical tools for predictive analysis and customer engagement strategies.

With the necessary information in your kitty, it is now the right time for businesses to opt for this with a custom software development application company that can fill the bill and meet all your requirements.