Why Australian Businesses Need Custom Software More Than Ever.

Not every business will require custom software, sometimes off-the-shelf solutions, or traditional pen and paper are just fine. However, with one of the highest adoptions of contactless payments, early adopter status and a $167 billion tech sector, it is clear Australia is moving forward into the digital age.? But how can Australia’s businesses use custom software to take advantage of this, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of custom software?

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What Can Custom Software Do

One of the greatest advantages of custom software is the ability to streamline tasks. Many businesses will have piles of paperwork to fill out, but most of it is the same information, this process could be partially automated with custom software. Maybe your business must contact customers every 12 months, custom software could store your customer’s details in your database, and automatically email them after 12 months. Custom software can be designed around your business, unlike off-the-shelf software which requires your business to work around the software and is likely developed outside of the country.

Custom software can also provide additional functionality that was previously unavailable to your business. For instance, your customers could benefit from online ordering, but by using custom software you could utilise their demographic information from checkout to further refine your target market.

Custom software can also integrate into your existing workflows. Many off-the-shelf softwares provide APIs that can be used to retrieve data, so you could integrate your custom software into your invoicing software, or automate sending emails to your mailing list, but still use the same email provider.

The goal of custom software is to integrate into your business to improve the customer experience or increase business productivity. So, if your business has goals beyond what any off-the-shelf solution can help you achieve, custom software may be the solution.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Custom Software

While custom software can do a lot, not every business will need it. If off-the-shelf software is lacking an option that integrates well into your business operations, custom software can provide productivity advantages over the competition that uses many off-the-shelf softwares for each part of the business’s operations. As you own the software, you won’t have to pay to use it and can save money by avoiding using multiple third-party software packages and you won’t become trapped in another company’s software ecosystem which can become very expensive. Furthermore, your custom software may be useful for others in the industry, in which case you can expand into alternative income streams by licencing your software for other companies to use.

However, depending on the scope of the solution, it may be costly to build the software initially. This may make it a bad option if an off-the-shelf solution already exists with the functions you require. Also when building custom software you must also know what the software needs to do before building, without a clear scope, parts of the software may need to be continually redone and expanded upon, or scrapped, which may become costly quickly.

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How LocalTeam Australia Can Help

LocalTeam Australia can help you scope out software projects, so they have a clear goal and can be built in a cost-effective manner. The documents from this scoping session are yours, and after scoping LocalTeam’s experienced developers can bring your custom software to life. If you want to find out more then don’t hesitate, to get in touch. We specialise in all things software related and are in this business to help people.? Shoot us an email at [email protected] or call us at (07) 4599 7300 Mon-Fri: 9 am-4 pm.