Time is money: Custom software can help you save it

How much time do you and your team spend figuring out confusing software features? Or struggling to find workarounds for missing features? Or taking Tylenol to quell the headache onset by these inefficient systems?

If your answer is anything but “none,” it’s too high. 

Off-the-shelf software applications certainly have some value, but they’re far from perfect. Because they're designed to serve a wide range of businesses, they often become bloated with features and overwhelming to use. To make matters worse, it’s common for these options to lack some key features, despite having so many you don’t need (and pay for).

We say, leave ‘em on the shelf.

Instead, consider a custom software solution. They may be more initially expensive, but when you look at them as an investment in the overall health of your business, it’s clear they’re the most profitable option.

Solutions as unique as your business 

Let’s say you have software for measuring company data. It’s great in every way except for one: It can’t export a report to another software application your team uses – like your financial platform.

You might invest in a yet another application for this purpose, one that bridges the language barrier between the two apps but requires you to reformat the data and do some designing. If there’s even a small error with the data, you’ll have to go back to the first system and repeat the process. Small inefficiencies like these can add up to a major loss of time for your business, even if it’s no more than an hour each day.  

With custom software, each feature is tailored to your needs. Instead of juggling multiple systems, you could use one that holds the data, analyzes that data, automatically generates reports and is even capable of developing recommendations to improve business performance based on the data set.

This would save time in your day-to-day and even simplify employee training. By using a single cohesive system, you're making your team’s lives easier, improving their job satisfaction, and potentially even reducing turnover. You could also evolve the system as needed and stop paying for multiple software subscriptions. 

More than data measurement

Measuring data is just one realm where a custom software solution can impact your business.  In other cases, it makes sense to build a custom application that works in conjunction with commercial software. Because these solutions are built from the ground up, there’s no limit to their uses.  

To help you get an idea, here are some ways that businesses benefit from custom software: 

• Digital modernization
  Custom software can transform outdated manual processes into streamlined digital workflows that reduce human error. This can include automating administrative tasks and enhancing communication between departments. 
• Payroll management
  For restaurants, a custom application could streamline restaurant payroll and tip management, ensuring timely and accurate compensation. Another reason custom software triumphs over existing solutions are they’re a lot more secure for storing sensitive information, as you would need for a solution like this. 
• Inventory tracking
  You could create custom software for tracking your company’s packages as they travel from warehouses to clients. You could also store all the tracking info on a cloud system, making it easily accessible from portable devices. If you ever needed to share this info with clients, you could do so immediately, improving your customer service. 
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
  Custom software can streamline how businesses manage interactions with current and potential customers. It can integrate sales, marketing and customer service to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Less time working in the business.

More time working on the business.

And, as an aside...If you rely on Excel for important data, a custom application is worth considering. We all know how easy it is to accidentally delete a figure or change a formula (and how much harder it can be to fix them).

Although custom software solutions come in endless forms, they all share the ultimate benefit of saving time. This is huge. By devoting less time to automatable tasks, you can use your reclaimed time to find ways to keep growing your business. 

Embrace the search 

Look, change is hard. And identifying what needs improvement and where to begin is a challenge. It takes an open and critical mind to embrace a positive transformation and move beyond familiar-yet-inefficient work processes. It also requires an investment – of time, effort and training. 

For these reasons and more, many organizations grow comfortable with imperfect processes and tolerate many inefficiencies. If you think you’re at risk of falling into this trap, don’t worry. It won’t take much to start seeing the opportunities. 

When we work with companies to build their custom software platforms, we take a challenge-first approach by identifying what the software is intended to solve. To identify a company’s inefficiencies, we map out your work systems and think about what the ultimate goals of each of them are.

We ask questions like: 

Not all programmers are equal 

Many feel daunted by the thought of pursuing custom software. Rethinking your systems, working with new tech... it can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be. Even if you’re unsure about how your processes could be improved with custom software, a team of good programmers can easily identify opportunities for you. We do it for our clients all the time.  

Custom software is a big commitment. It’s a future-proof approach that’s intended to become a crucial part of your business, so it’s important to work with the right people. You’ll want to make sure they understand the technical side of things and are skilled at boiling those concepts down into clear explanations.  

Remember, a lot of people claim to be developers without really knowing how to code, which limits the scope of their customization. Make sure they can walk the walk. Even if they can code, they’ll also need to have a knack for good design. The more intuitive the user interface, the better the user experience is for your team.  

At Show and Tell, our team of programmers have decades of experience. Each member brings their own specialties to the table, allowing us to deliver tailored solutions that precisely meet our client's needs.  These programmers work with our award-winning creative team to deliver a seamless, intuitive user interface and experience.  

The result: Custom software applications made to solve your specific challenges and improve your business performance.