Benefits of Custom Software Development for Small Business

When it comes to implementing software for your business or daily operations, there are two options: custom software and a template-based solution. Thus, you can invest in an off-the-shelf solution or develop a new product based on your unique requirements.

If you’re in need of a unique product, you should choose custom software development for small business. The custom software market is booming. It is projected that it will grow from $44.52 billion in 2024 to $54.26 billion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate of 21.9%.

Being flexible and scalable, bespoke software increases business output and reduces costs in the long run. As a result, it brings the high ground to your enterprise.

Let’s look at the approach’s benefits in more detail.

What is custom software development?

Custom software development is the process of designing, deploying, and maintaining software products. Its uniqueness refers to the fact that it is specific to each client’s business, their needs, and definite parameters. The approach is about building a project with a particular idea and audience in mind to meet your exact product requirements.

As a rule, bespoke software development is applied to particular and rather narrow industries. The approach offers sophisticated solutions for these domains. It helps get exactly what the enterprises need.

For example, the following domains benefit greatly from custom software:

• Online banking
• Healthcare
• Finance
• Travelling
• EdTech
• Ecommerce and more

Let’s take a look at the major custom software development stages, which include the following:

• Research and product discovery. This is the starting point for custom software development with deep research and consultations with the client. The stage may include interviews with stakeholders, on-site workshops, and product discovery sessions, among other activities, all aimed at understanding your product’s requirements and budget needs.
• Product UI/UX design. This is where your brand identity is preserved. The prototypes agreed upon in product discovery sessions get more detailed and styled according to your requirements.
• MVP development. A test-driven development stage is when your solution takes shape. At Codica, we use guidelines from the UI/UX design stage, following which developers create your product.
• Optimization and quality assurance. Once the development is finished, we proceed to code optimization and testing. Your custom software must be bug-free and enjoyable to your customers.
• Launch, monitoring, and support. As your product is ready, we launch it to production. Monitoring is necessary if the client opts for support. The monitoring ensures that updates are made on time and the solution stays secure over time.

Tailored products improve the overall efficiency of companies. The matter is that custom-built solutions are closely connected with business objectives.

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Why implement custom software development for a small business?

You should take into account that for any enterprise, including small business, custom software development is not a magic wand. So, before investing in the approach, think about the following:

• Does your business comply with specific standards of your industry or government regulations? Usually, it goes about healthcare, finance, and education, as the needs of these industries are not common for other branches or organizations, e.g. to store processed data of patients, etc.
• Do you have security rules?
• Do you have a large amount of complex data to work with? Do you want to optimize it?

So, if your goal is to build a unique product with high security standards and you are not limited by time, invest in progressive, tailor-made solutions. Otherwise, you can consider off-the-shelf software to launch fast, but be ready for scalability and sustainability problems.

The benefits of custom software development for a small business are numerous. In this article, we have listed the main reasons to opt for this approach.

1. Meet specific requirements and problems

Each company is unique and has certain needs and issues to be solved. For example, you are going to build a product with special security regulations. Or you want to give your consumers specific functionality that is not found across your competitors.

If you choose custom software development for a small business, it will help meet your concerns and key needs, as it is not just a set of general features. Tailored products are about taking into consideration your small business fine points and hidden risks.

That is why many organizations prefer to collaborate with custom software development companies.

It is extremely important to determine the requirements you want to meet. If there is no ready-made approach to fit your needs, then custom software development for small business is surely your best solution.

2. Reduce costs with custom software

Most people believe that developing a product from scratch is more expensive than using an off-the-shelf platform. However, when it goes about a long run period, custom software development for small business can be the best choice. So, what goes into the project price?

Typically, custom software development depends on the following:

• Software project scope. It includes the features you want to include. If you plan your feature scope with product discovery sessions, you get on the right track from the start, and get optimized development, thereby reducing costs. With custom software development for small businesses, you can easily add new functionality, as your business scales.
• Software development type. Whether you develop a marketplace, SaaS, mobile app or progressive web application, they all have different sets of features and user flow. Depending on the type and features, your solution falls into different pricing ranges.
• Team expertise and location. Depending on the level and type of expertise of your team, your solution will also vary in price. Moreover, locations also affect the price. For example, in Eastern Europe, tech vendors charge $50 per hour for development on average. In Western Europe and North America, charges are higher.
• Maintenance and support. This part of the software development lifecycle is necessary as your project evolves over time. Software maintenance costs typically range between 15% and 25% of the initial cost, as observed in our experience.

To save costs with custom software development, we recommend starting with a minimum viable product. It costs less than the full-fledged solution and meets the needs of small businesses. With MVP development services, you reduce costs, gain a marketable product that enables you to collect valuable feedback, and can scale your product as you want in the future.

For instance, at Codica, we created an MVP for PlanMyKids, a platform for booking children’s activities. David Watkins, the founder and a parent himself, discovered that booking activities is also hard for other parents. Thus, the idea of creating a relevant platform arose.

The MVP experience with Codica was essential for him as he did not want to overload the solution, and reducing costs was also important. Thanks to our team’s work, we managed to deliver an MVP just on budget and with the necessary features.

What else can you do to reduce custom software development costs? Here are the strategies:

• Prioritize the product discovery phase where planning outlines your future solution and minimizes risks of feature creep;
• Partner with a small but experienced tech vendor team;
• Choose cloud computing technologies and low-code/no-code elements and options;
• Use an agile approach that allows for swift responses to changes.

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3. Add extra features when needed

Ready-to-use platforms cannot always provide you with all the required functionality and can be a real problem in the future. Off-the-shelf solutions may become the best choice for small companies or startups that are just going to the market.

Let’s look at it in detail. Your business grows, so do your needs. Custom software development process allows you to have more options compared to out-of-the-box platforms. This user-oriented approach is more flexible and efficient. Especially, you can notice these benefits when it goes about long-term perspectives.

So, you do not have to be limited by the functions offered by ready-made platforms.

As an example, Codica provided redesign services and feature updates for Tradeaboat, an online marketplace for selling boats and marine equipment in Australia. Our team not only redesigned the solution, but also added features to connect various dealers' CMS/CRM systems to the platform.

4. Automate manual operations

When you decide to expand your business, you should realize that the number and complexity of operations performed will increase. Endless manual actions may become ineffective for your company’s workflow. As a result, you can face an automation problem.

In this case, automating manual operations becomes a sound idea. It saves both time and costs and improves labor efficiency in the long run. For example, you have a small catering business with a great number of items and suppliers in the base. Your employees spend hours analyzing product balances and demands. They try to give surplus-free orders to providers.

Here comes custom software development for small business tuned to your particular needs. This way, you can both manage your key processes and make the connection between the departments easier. The improvement includes procurement, accounting, and finance managers.

Moreover, automation with artificial intelligence brings tangible results to small businesses. For example, the automation of composing resumes in a SaaS platform that Codica created for RecruitAgent.ai saves recruiters tons of time and makes resumes standardized as industry leaders set it on their job platforms.

5. Make your data secure

The number of cyberattacks is increasing day by day. Hackers want to benefit from vulnerable enterprise systems. They aim at thieving intellectual property, personal data, credit card passwords, etc.

There is no need to say that both small business owners and customers sustain losses, from reputational damage to cost loss. In fact, some 60% of companies that have been under cyberattck, go out of business in under 6 months.

When it goes about sensitive data, i.e. personal or financial information, tailor-made solutions win the prize. It is much more difficult to hack custom software, as most tailored solutions are not publicly accessible.

In addition, bespoke solutions include specialized security code and encryption. These technologies make your product safe and sound.

Ready-made platforms are more susceptible to external threats and require less effort to be hacked. Why is it so? Off-the-shelf solutions are developed for wide use. It means that the source program code is easier to hack compared to custom software.

So, why is custom software development important for small businesses? What benefits does it provide? You can be sure that custom software agencies:

• will analyze risks;
• apply best practices and standards;
• deliver you a highly-secured tailor-made product.

For example, at Codica, we rely on DevOps services for security. Before every setup, we discuss with the client their requirements and budget expectations to set up the infrastructure in an optimized way. Considering security necessities, we also provide regular security monitoring and necessary patches when the project goes into support. These are necessary measures to protect your product against today’s vulnerabilities.

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6. Get technical support and improvements

With your company changing, the software also needs to evolve. Thanks to custom software development, you can always get access to a highly-skilled web agency to add the desired features.

One of the benefits of custom software development for small business is cost reduction. Having a development team to upgrade your custom product is more reasonable than customizing ready-made solutions.

Today, off-the-shelf solutions provide a wide range of plugins, themes and customization options. Still, when your tech partner develops a custom solution for you, they know the intricacies and can help you with the necessary updates, such as features and security.

Working with a custom enterprise software development company helps you boost enterprise performance. It also makes the operating process as smooth as possible.

Besides, when facing different problems with your online platform, you can be sure that all of them will be solved efficiently in the near future. For example, DevOps services help with that. At Codica, we rely on this indispensable part of development from start to maintenance and support, with regard to the needs and budget of every particular project. They provide you with all the necessary setup and monitoring options. So, be sure that your solution is in good hands.

In general, custom software development companies are responsible for your project managing and changing. They make it a product of great vitality and high performance.

Isn’t this what you want?

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Custom development vs packaged software

Below is the table which compares bespoke software development and out-of-the-box approach.

Final thoughts

Bespoke solutions are designed for the particular needs and requirements of a company. The approach helps you get exactly what you want from your software project.

So, in case you want to get a unique product, choosing custom software development for small business will be a great option. Tailor-made solutions scale and adapt to your project’s progress. Thus, it becomes a long-run investment for your enterprise.

If you are looking for a custom software development company that will help you deliver a reliable and fast-loading solution, we are glad to help you. Contact us to discuss your project and to get a free quote.