Business-focused custom software

Answer: Not everyone. In many cases, off the shelf software will serve your basic business needs. However, there are several situations where custom software is worth considering - here are a few:

1) Devilish Duplication. Do your employees enter the same data into multiple systems? Perhaps you use one application for capturing orders, and another for tracking inventory. Custom software could give you a way to move the data from one system into the other so that your employees don't spend their days moving files between "drawers".

2) Spread the work around. Do your employees input data provided by your customers? One of my clients was able to handle double the work with the same number of employees simply by allowing their customers to enter the information online for them. It saves them time and eliminates re-keying errors.

3) Hands-free assistance. Do your employees answer questions from customers that could easily be answered if they had online access to their information? One of my clients allows their customers to download status reports about their projects. Previously those report requests were handled manually. Now it is easier both for the organization and for their clients!

These are just a few examples of when custom software can help an organization provide more value for less money.