Every business has unique needs that require tailor-made solutions. In order to address them properly and solve business challenges, off-the-shelf applications can help. But, these off-the-shelf applications are built in a generic manner to ensure suitability for multiple businesses. As your business scales, a generic solution may not work for you, and in some cases limit your ability to grow faster. That’s when you know your business requires a custom web application. Whether you are looking for a comprehensive marketing dashboard, a user-friendly ecommerce experience for your customers, or an efficient collaboration tool for your team, a custom software solution may be the right way to go.
Here’s how a custom web application that has the ability to scale can help you meet the complex and unique needs of your business
1. Process streamlining
To stay competitive in business, you are not only expected to keep up with customers’ needs but also learn to anticipate them.
This is not easy when you are presently dealing with legacy systems, paper-based processes, and highly ingrained organizational habits are slowing down your organization. To address some of these challenges, developing a custom web application that can streamline your process from start to finish may be the best decision.
The time you invest in developing a custom web application will result in a client-centric tool that’s available 24/7.
Your customers, partners, and employees will be able to communicate and perform tasks using a reliable, unified channel, that can have a direct impact on employee productivity and even your ROI.
2. Customization capabilities
There are many pre-built web applications for businesses to choose from. But, off-the-shelf web applications are usually limited in the number and nature of features that could cater to your organization’s unique needs. To customize an off-the-shelf application to meet the needs of your business, you may, at some point, have to spend on expensive programming resources, unavoidable upgrade fees and exorbitant licensing costs.
On the other hand, custom web applications are specifically built to help you address your company’s unique needs, no matter how complex. This means that you can choose which features are essential to your business and avoid cluttering your system with irrelevant ones. As a result, you’ll create a seamless customer experience that will help you build authentic, long-term relationships with your customers.
Most importantly, this will also help you avoid licensing fees and dependency on expensive programmers with highly specialized knowledge on the off-the-shelf product.
By working closely with your preferred web application development company, you’ll create a delivery plan that matches your needs and eventually unlocks your organization’s real potential.
3. Scalability
One of the biggest advantages of choosing a custom web application is its scalability.
At first, your organization might just need a small set of features to cover your basic requirements. But as your business evolves over time, the web application will need to adapt to new challenges and needs.
A custom web application can accommodate seamless addition of new features as and when your business requires it. Whether you have a clearly established product roadmap for the long term, or intend to build features as the need arises, a custom web application will support both scenarios.
On the contrary, choosing an off the shelf product locks you into a framework wherein the original developers of the product may at some point choose not to support the product or provide upgrades/enhancements to it. Unfortunately, more often than not, it tends to happen and companies that depend on that product are suddenly caught off guard at a highly inconvenient time for their business.
4. Ease of maintenance
As long as you develop the custom web application using widely used technology stack and industry standard best practices, it is very easy to maintain and enhance them in the long run. Reason being, you own 100% intellectual property rights to your application.
With that being said, you are in total control of how you run the application, how often you plan to update/upgrade it, and when you take it offline to perform maintenance tasks without interrupting scheduled business activities.
5. High-security levels
At its core, a web application is simply a website on the front-end and a software program in the backend that you can use over the Internet. It offers your organization strong data security because the data is stored remotely in a secure database, not locally, on your computer.
Depending on the sensitivity of the data that your business deals with, you get to choose the level of data security your business requires. For example, you could use multi-factor authentication, if the application handles highly classified information as is the case with banking and healthcare.
6. Long-term cost saving
Building a custom web application from the ground up could be a large investment. But in the long run, the benefits of having one will save you money.
With ready-made web apps, you might end up spending a lot of money on upgrades, new features, or licenses. And at some point, you might even need to move to another application, if the current one limits the possibilities for your growing business.
By owning a custom web application, your only long-term cost would be its maintenance and enhancements to the extent you need. In short, a custom web application allows you to free yourself up from technology issues, and focus your efforts on strategic business issues.
Whether you are looking to improve customer experience or streamline internal processes, a custom web application could offer a user-centric, fast, secure, and flexible tool that can pave the way to developing a competitive edge for your business.
