Your software systems could be holding your business back from achieving its true growth potential. A business will evolve and change over time, the piece of software you bought off the shelf may have fitted your model a few years ago, but it is likely to be showing the cracks of age as your company moves forward into new markets with new challenges and your software does not offer the flexibility to do move with you.
Does it fit your current business model? The model adapts as new customers come on board with differing needs and requirements and your database needs to be flexible enough to handle all of these circumstances.
How much time do you have to throw at your software to make it work with your current processes? The usual solution to inflexible software is to prop it up with manual processes. It starts out with a slight tweak here and a small process there, but over time the amount of man hours support your database needs to get through the month becomes a much bigger number than anybody expected.
Do you have adequate reporting functionality? If a customer requires a report to be filled out in a specific format, how much of a challenge would that be? Many companies will assign a person to manually produce the report because their database system cannot do it. With a custom database, it would be as simple as a call to the development team and the required report would, shortly thereafter, be available for the effort of clicking a button.
Can you predict the future? Does your current database give you enough management information to make decisions about the future? Your operational software has all of your data in, it has been collecting data since the beginning of time. Wouldn’t it be great to make some use of that data? There are inevitably patterns in there, and by having that data aggregated in a useable manner, it would be possible to predict trends and to proactively counter: busy periods where it would be good to have some extra resources to deal with it. The traditional flat spots where other activities could be engaged in if the knowledge exists to make the prediction.
Do you have a competitive advantage over your competition? As your competitors won’t have the same software, your business could benefit from a competitive edge. By having a more effective software system, it could make your business a more viable proposition to a prospective client, the demonstrable improvement in performance improve and likely higher customer satisfaction levels, could put you ahead enough to seal the deal.
Could overall productivity be improved? Bespoke software will allow your staff to be more productive. As the software is built to meet your exact business requirements, it becomes easier to use and will give employees greater control when utilising it. Bespoke software allows specific tasks to be automated which can reduce workloads and allow you to be more efficient with your time and money in the long run.
When your business model changes, your software needs to adapt to meet the new requirements. An off the shelf system is a decent starting point, but it is unlikely to be fit the whole journey. Bespoke software will evolve alongside your developing business model.
See our case studies for some examples of how bespoke software has helped other companies: https://desktopenterprises.co.uk/case-studies/