Bespoke Software Development
It’s still unclear why so many companies no matter what willing to waste lots of money for IT products that will further on require months of expensive consultancy to deliver on business needs.
This is the accusation of both IT purchasers and suppliers that users getting used to daily IT system reboot as regular practice. Such level of service is unacceptable for any business and is not stood from any other supplier, from accountant to car lease company.
One should not trust arguments stating that bespoke software is too expensive, time-consuming, creates too many risks and is not supported. These statements are groundless especially while implementing complex business process requirements, using technology toolkits; bespoke solutions can be scoped, developed and delivered more time efficiently than packaged solutions. They can be completely customized to your requirements and developed at a strictly fixed price which is more favourable compared to packaged alternatives.
Of course, a decision for a bespoke development is quite risky and demands a degree of trust. It also may be reckless to completely trust to packaged IT solutions when almost any product can suit your business needs.
It is not surprising at all that many companies chose management consultant and IT specification that take weeks to complete and can give little insight into real business needs.
It’s hardly the best way to invest in business success.
The idea that bespoke software development is nothing but tread water is not accurate – it is about using toolkits to implement the most customized solution to satisfy company’s business needs. It’s not just about buying a box from the shelf: you can easily rework it, add features on the fly, test it while in the middle of development – all that to receive cost efficient ready-to-use solution, it’s up to you to decide.
Bespoke developments can leverage bleeding-edge technology to provide business a competitive edge. Above all is to realize all possible risks and rewards and make sure that outsourcing company can and will deliver.
There exists some conditional checklist the companies selected this way of doing business should observe. Use the fixed price model and pilot projects to develop the trust with outsourcing company. Make sure that your change requests, unless significant, will not influence the fixed price.
Businesses should not make a stake on software outsourcing or packaged solution only: one should consider both possibilities and some alternatives considering the business requirements, their complexity and uniqueness.
To make a right decision which to use to get most benefits, businesses should start with a thorough scoping exercise that considers the organisation’s infrastructure, the required technology architecture and database design, hardware and software requirements.
If you have a clearly and thoroughly worked software specification it will give a clear view on best approach to selection of an appropriate IT solution.
Sometimes scares this persistent acceptance of poor IT system performance. There is no universal solution and without thorough analysis of their own business requirements and all available IT solutions companies will not make their business successful as they wish to.