Custom software is just that, custom. SaaS has its place, but it is built to hit the needs of the maximum number of customers. It will inherently have more features than you will want or need. Most likely the feature you do want will require some sort of upgrade and licensing fees will be due in perpetuity. Further with SaaS you will never own the software your company lives and breathes on. This keeps you in constant dependency, less agile and potentially restricted in your ability to make decisions for your business down the road.
In addition to the complete customization, future iterations can be designed and implemented based on your timeline and business needs. You won’t have unsupported versions that require an upgrade just to maintain basic functionality. In fact, you are not tied to anyone. You own the code after the project is complete. If you hired a quality shop, there shouldn’t be a pressing reason to change, but if you decide to go another direction any future development team will have documentation available to pick up and run with.
A custom shop will have efficiency down to a science. They employ great BAs to drill down into the business needs. They will uncover the problems that the software is to solve and translate that information into actionable tasks for the development team. A quality shop will write clean code, perform extensive testing and train your team on the new product leaving you in great shape as they exit.
Many times we hear, “that’s too expensive” only to get a call 6 months or a year later asking if we could take a look at what has been done by company X and clean it up. The project has stalled, still isnt delivered, does not perform….. And then we are hired to clean up the mess. Just like anything else on this planet, one gets what is paid for. On the surface is it more expensive to hire a stable team of outside senior developers, maybe. However, what costs are there that don’t show up on a line item? Lost time to hire and ramp, lost revenue, lost opportunity costs these are all very real and greatly reduced if using the right partner. Bonus: There are no employee benefits to pay and consultants are a business expense. The invoice may be tax deductible. There are no headhunter fees and no internal cost of recruiting. Additionally, no unemployment to be paid once the project is over or the business needs to make a pivot.
An outside shop is dedicated to the project at hand and not pulled away by other needs of the business. They do not answer to internal politics, favors being asked or emergent fires that distract from the work at hand. A quality shop has spent the time and money to invest in top tier engineers that ramp quickly, know how to work with each other as a team and delegate tasks to be most efficient. They have seen and worked through many pitfalls over the course of their varied and extensive careers which help them from falling into quicksand. A shop’s profitability relies heavily on their ability to deliver on the client’s timeline.
The key contribution any quality consultancy partner brings is that of a trusted advisor. They have worked with multiple tools and see what works as well as - and arguably more importantly - what does not. Consultants have been in shops to clean up the mess after bad development. They have seen the terrible code, bad documentation and heard the frustrations of unhappy end users. The ability to confidently recommend and implement new tools, stack integrations, preferred vendors, new programming languages etc only comes from years of diverse experience. They will save budget dollars and implementation time due to their learning from other people’s mistakes.
As previously mentioned, a custom partner brings a treasure trove of technical skills to the table. They have been through similar projects or know a technology front to back inside and out. A dedicated shop has spent the dollars needed to hone skills, understand cutting edge technologies as well as their use cases and gain certifications as needed. If you need experience to augment your current team or a full team to knock out backlogs and projects, a quality custom shop has you covered.
Your solution may not require all hands on deck from the get go. Time and material is the best way to ensure you are getting only what you need. Depending where you land in the development process, an architect may be the only player needed to start. They will design your build out and offer best options for analytics models, platform and data storage. Once the plan is in place, senior developers are brought in to complete the build. A sudden change in market requires the business to pivot mid-project? No worries, engineers can be added or subtracted as needed. You only pay for the time and material associated with YOUR project.
Quality custom shops will have an inherent knack for leaving your internal team in a better spot than they found them. Whether that is through mentoring junior developers, training staff how to use the brand new application, maintaining the data or a combination of these, your development partner will provide support. As a true partner, your ongoing success and usage of the products is paramount to the shop’s success.
Are you feeling like you are out of your depth - over your skis - out kicking your coverage? Whichever analogy you prefer, experienced custom developers have your back. There is no shame in the game. Top talent, project management and years of experience are all at hand to help get projects unstuck, improved, planned, started or scrapped and rewritten fast. You will have a product that end users will enjoy and appreciate. Reduce stress and put your team back in the position of tackling the work they do best.
In conclusion, whether you have an idea for a great new product, outdated legacy software, data sitting around in a smelly container, a Frankenstein tech stack needing streamlined or apps you love but could be better Devobsessed can help. Our initial consultation is always free. Call us at 402-957-1262 or email us at info@devobsessed.com
Darrel is the VP of Business Development for DevObsessed, click here to learn more.
.svg){kind=icon}
