When asked, “what is custom software” any halfway decent software developer will generally respond with some form of “it’s software made for your business.” It’s not that we’re intentionally being vague, its just that to define exactly what is a custom software is like building Ikea furniture without a diagram; you know it’s some type of table, but how you get it from flat pack to it standing wobbly on your kitchen floor is another matter.
Niche and Specific
In order to answer the question, “what is custom software,” it is better to look at what custom software does. Since by seeing what the final product can do what it is will become clear.
Specific to your business
Custom softwares are developed for a specific organization and its specific needs. This is different from specialized softwares, as these softwares are developed for a specific industry.
Niche versus Mass market
MS office is a mass marketing word process tool, but for the most part we tend to use only a small percentage of its avaliable functions. However, we don’t all go out and develop our own custom versions of Word, partially because of the cost, but because we are content with the functions that Word offers.
The problem comes when MS office cannot fulfill the desired functions you need. There are specialized softwares which might perform some of these functions, but they cannot do all of them. The reason for this is that the business is very niche, and that the best available software still cannot provided them with the necessary tools.
That’s all great but I still want a definition
Custom software isn’t so much a product as a solution for a specific type of business. If you are a business which requires specialized software but because of you’re specific niche cannot find anything off the shelf then think of the solution or hole in the process you want patched. Once you have got a clear picture of what that is then that is what a custom software is.
Do you have that image, or even if you need someone to help you figure out if a custom software would be helpful, contact us.