Custom Software Development Services – Worth Considering?

Do you believe that it is more secure and cost-efficient to hire in-house staff than working with, custom software development services providers?

If so, then you need to think again before making any business decision!

Today, the time you reach the end of this read, you’d have explored –

• Difference between in-house vs outsourced software development
• Why are CTOs opting for outsourced custom software development?
• Why are CTOs Moving Away from COTS and Adopting Custom Software Development?
• Bottlenecks of your Legacy Software and how to overcome them
• Why ignoring custom software development can be Risky for CTOs?
• How to decide if custom software development is right for you?
• Reasons to upgrade your custom software regularly
• Best ways to choose an ideal custom software development partner

Without any further ado, let’s begin the first chapter by striking an edge between what’s in-house & outsourced custom software development.

Custom Software Development – In-House vs Outsourced

Realize, custom software development is a costly affair.

The approach you choose determines your chances of success.

Your answers will provide a measure to rightsize the approach.

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Without any further ado, let’s get started!

What is In-House Software Development?

In-house software development is an organizational system where you will develop the software application by yourself, entirely.

In this setup, you will assign software application development tasks to the IT experts you have onboard as your in-house staff.

In this case, you will have zero external assistance and support.

Keeping it in-house is no different than the conventional hiring process.

To build an in-house team of IT experts, you will have to go through the hiring, screening, interviewing, and onboarding processes.

What is Outsourced Custom Software Development?

Outsourced custom software development is the process where you choose to outsource custom software development to a third-party partner, such as a custom software development services provider.

In this scenario, you opt to delegate the responsibility for sole software development duties to a firm that offers custom software development services.

Software outsourcing is further subdivided into onshoring, offshoring, and nearshoring. Offshore and onshore developers are both viable options in the custom software field when developing a customized software solution.

Although outsourcing is most popularly identified with affordable cost rates, there are other advantages that external custom development teams can offer your company.

Now that we understand what in-house and outsourcing development basically means, let’s carefully analyze them further based on the pros and cons they bring to the table.

In-House vs Outsourced Development – Challenges & Benefits

Both in-house and outsourced software development has their own set of benefits & challenges.

You can make the right choice for the custom software development approach based on your requirements, budget, and expected time to market.
Let’s take a look at both sides of the coin.

Benefits of Hiring In-House Development Talent

Building an in-house team is a feat to achieve for a progressive business, right?

But it comes with its own set of benefits to offer.

Employee Commitment and Accountability

In-house employees appreciate knowing that their efforts are contributing to the company’s success.

When you entrust your software development to an in-house team, you can expect high levels of dedication from them. It is because they will take great pleasure in developing something that will allow them to highlight their skill sets while also advancing the company’s success.

Comprehensive Business Knowledge

An in-house development team is, as the term indicates, a part of your organization. As a result, employees are constantly exposed to the internal operations of the firm. They can make suggestions for enhancements to the workplace or modifications that would increase the company’s competitiveness.

An in-house workforce contributes to the culture of the company and, through their work and performance, represents the organization. It’s rare to find a comparable impact from an outsourced software developer.

Confidence in Security & Quality

Because of their training, offshore developers could be familiar with a variety of technologies and tools, but they typically just have an academic knowledge base.

Such developers lack the practical abilities required to design real-world solutions using these technologies, exposing their customers to unforeseen quality issues that could ultimately ruin the project.

Furthermore, many international laws do not provide the same level of protection for software and intellectual property as the United States, making code theft or infringement a genuine problem.

You can feel more secure with the safety of your software solution with an in-house team because of the laws and penalties in place in this country to safeguard such assets.

Drawbacks of Hiring In-House Development Talent

Now, let’s understand the shortcomings of hiring an in-house team for custom software development.

Hefty Hiring & Retention Costs

Maintaining an in-house development staff can be an expensive proposition for your company. IT professionals are in high demand, and keeping such talents requires paying hefty salaries to ensure your staff is the best in their field.

In addition to a good salary, many employees expect additional benefits such as medical insurance, a 401(k) plan, personal days, and paid leaves, which raises their overall income.

Time, Energy & Cost Burnt in Recruitment Process

Finding a suitable workforce to put together an in-house development team is not something that can be done overnight. It requires a lot of time to find qualified talents that meet your business needs.

While you look for personnel who will be a good fit for both your current and future software demands, you are wasting significant time that could be spent actually developing the new software technology.

Staffing Challenges

Business needs frequently shift year after year, resulting in extreme highs and lows in IT staffing requirements. Hiring onboard new employees just to meet the business requirements of the current quarter could result in being over-staffed the following quarter.

Once this abundance is scaled back when demands are minimal, it is all too common for another rise in IT demands to emerge again quickly. This volatility in business needs and the resulting personnel numbers is a regular issue for firms, resulting in either resource waste or squandered business opportunities.

Benefits of Outsourcing Software Development Talent

Outsourcing the complete custom software development to a custom software development services provider is a crucial decision to make.

Given the cost, energy, and time it demands, it’s a costly affair; of course, with its own bit of benefits.

Reduced Staffing Overheads

Outsourcing is practically synonymous with cost savings in today’s competitive business world.

You can save a significant amount of time, cost, and energy by outsourcing development outside of the country, notably in terms of staff costs and benefits.

This is because several international countries do not have the same regulations and payment requirements as the United States.

Local outsourcing also cuts down overhead costs. Several organizations have sufficient resources to accommodate multiple IT professionals to work on a project.

And as a result, they end up shortening the overall duration of the project from inception to deployment when opposed to the given timeframe in which a small in-house development team can accomplish the work.

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Short-term Dedication

When a project with outsourced work is completed, the developing company’s services are no longer required.

The custom software development services provider may continue to provide services as part of maintenance. However, the expense connected with such action is small in comparison to the potential inefficiency of maintaining in-house software developers.

Outsourcing allows for a shorter-term commitment. In contrast, when an in-house team is used, the personnel is often retained once the project is completed, regardless of whether the individuals’ knowledge and skills are completely suited to current business demands.

It is often due to the significant time and effort required to establish and train the in-house workforce.

Improved Focus on Core Competencies

Outsourcing your custom software development services to an external software development company allows you to focus on your core job, which is running your business. You will no longer have to play the role of the project manager for a technology with which you are unfamiliar.

The development business can take up this responsibility, freeing you up to focus on marketing, customer engagement, sales, and other areas you are most familiar with.

However, when working with an in-house team, especially a small one, you must assume the position of project manager during the software development process.

Choosing the correct technology, verifying coding guidelines are met, and determining whether the project is moving on time all fall directly on your shoulders. And if monitoring such technology is not a primary responsibility of your company, your new software could be vulnerable to a range of threats.

Access to a Vast Talent Pool

Finding the right personnel with the desired skill set for in-house software development teams requires time and effort, resulting in small teams. Because of the tiny size of the teams, it is usual for one technology to be prioritized above several others.

Outsourcing custom software development services allows you to locate developers who have a lot of expertise and have experience in a variety of technologies. You can then choose the developers who are most closely connected with offering a solution to your business’s requirements.

Drawbacks of Outsourcing Software Development Talent

Now, let’s look at the flip side of the coin – shortcomings of working with a custom software development services provider.

Security Concerns

Sharing essential corporate data can sometimes introduce risks. To avoid this, select a custom software development company with enhanced security protocols and establish security standards in an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).

Communication Gap

Different time zones, cultural differences, and a lack of basic English skills can all hinder efficient communication. Make sure to discuss communication practices ahead of time and choose a suitable communication platform.

Limited Control

Because you are not physically there during the development phase, you might lack control over how tasks are monitored and completed. This blunder can be easily avoided with team management tools and consistent communication.

However, in the conflict between in-house and outsourced teams, an increasing percentage of organizations prefer to hire a fully outsourced team rather than expand their own staff.

It is because the benefits of outsourcing custom software development surpass its drawbacks undoubtedly.

Let’s understand why leaders like yourself are prioritizing working with custom software development services providers.

Why CTOs Opt Custom Software Development Outsourcing Over In-House?

The most common reasons for companies to choose outsourcing are as follows –

• You can have access to readily available IT teams with everyone you might need for the development project. Therefore, instead of wasting time on team relationship building, you can jump-start the project development process.
• Outsourcing allows for an efficient hiring process that puts greater emphasis on essential business operations. You can focus on other value-added tasks because you’re delegating the majority of the workload and handing only supporting processes.
• You will be assigned a qualified team of professionals with prior software development experience in a relevant niche. It also implies that outsourcing custom software development extends your reach for technical talent, allowing you to acquire skill sets that might otherwise be unavailable to you.

Got clarity on the primary approaches available for custom software development? Build vs Borrow.

Now, let’s unwind the third most contemplated approach – Buy. Would buying Off-the-Shelf software make sense? Let’s explore!

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Off-the-Shelf Solutions – An Alternative to Custom Software Development?

Packaged applications or commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) applications are made available by popular software vendors.

Before the popularity of Custom software development, COTS was the default choice for every industry.

COTS software vendors have created solutions literally for every sector or necessity. COTS software is available for various data warehouses, sales, customer management, middleware, server, and many more applications.

Traditionally, COTS apps were preferred because there was a belief that the total cost of ownership (TCO) decreased over some time. But for a long time, it has been known that COTS apps are not fully leveraged.

Customized software defeats the purpose of COTS because off-the-shelf means as per customer need.

Customers have complained about the costs associated with customizations which, instead of lowering TCO, increases TCO. But if you want long-term benefits, then utilizing Custom software development services is a good idea.

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Sounds confusing? Let’s clear off the clouds of confusion.

Why are CTOs Moving Away from COTS and Adopting Custom Software Development?

We understand you are here for an honest comparison between the available alternative to custom software development.

Trust us when we say this – we won’t weigh custom software development above other available options, just like that!

Custom software offers a leverage that COTs would never be able to cater.

Weighing custom software development above the other options just for the sake of it is not something that

Let’s dive straight in to understand what custom software has to offer.

Move to Cloud from On-premises

On-premises installations are being migrated to the cloud through Custom software development services by numerous companies. Even enterprises that traditionally were reluctant to move to the cloud are doing it with conviction.

Open-Source Revolution

With an onsite cloud paradigm, and the option to go for open-source services, the need for COTS is reducing. Customers prefer a mix of commercial and open-source services. Hence customers see viability in choosing Custom software development services to de-tangle vendor lock-ins.

The proliferation of open-source technologies has created more opportunities for organizations to diversify their application portfolios. They can utilize the services of Custom software development firms to help build applications based on open-source technologies. By doing this, not only are organizations reducing their TCOs but also creating applications that support integration.

Standardization Erosion

COTS was highly preferred because software offered a degree of standardization. The functional and non-functional aspects of COTS software were standardized. Be it performance, integrate-ability, portability, security, plugin compatibility, standard functions, etc., most COTS software operates on a standardized plane.

But standardization patterns in COTS are not a strong business driver for organizations to consider COTS over custom software.

Enterprises have also changed their stance. From being inward-centric, they are now outward-centric. Meaning; that enterprises are purely customer-focused. Another issue is that customer engagement differs across geographies. Some countries or geographical regions have more technological advancements than others. COTS cannot cater to such variations as much as Custom software development can.

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Cloud Unready

COTS is still catching up. And this is not an ideal thing to do in the fast-moving software technology landscape. Either go off on a separate tangent and offer a USP or build a robust future-proof product from scratch. Several COTS software were never produced with the future in mind.

Making such COTS applications cloud-ready, IoT-ready, or AI/ML-ready could become a clumsy affair, whereas it is easy to create future-ready applications with Custom software development.

The cloud paradigm is versatile, hyperflexible, and constantly evolving. From social technology integrations to mobility to data analytics, a typical cloud-ready application is fully capable of interface with as many cloud capabilities.

The architectural inability of many COTS apps makes customers go the Custom software development way to evolve as per the market trends.

Although many product vendors have tried to adapt their COTS products to the cloud with upgrades, the applications could only operate on limited hardware.

Customers aren’t impressed because scalability, hardware virtualization, and plug-and-play modes are some of the pillars of cloud deployment.

Several COTS applications are built to operate on specific hardware or dedicated hardware. Running such applications on the cloud may not be optimal, which is a stark contrast to Custom software development apps that are almost always cloud-ready.

Customers and software purchasers worldwide are working with Custom software development services to bridge this gap. They seek the services of such organizations to migrate their applications to the cloud and help build new cloud-ready application portfolios.

SMAC Disruption

Social, mobile, analytics, cloud (SMAC) technologies affect enterprises individually. The convergence of these technologies is what enterprises aim for. Leveraging SMAC helps companies reach closer to their customers. Organizations use technology, build their stacks, and rely less on COTS applications to align to SMAC. By creating their tech and working with Custom software development companies to build internal platforms, companies are tapping into SMAC.

COTS has a more generic flavor, and a generalized solution could result in “functional wastage.” But companies want more specialized applications and are thus seeking Custom software development companies to help them build such applications.

Also, COTS is not data-friendly – because to be data-driven, it should be open-source friendly. The increase in structured/unstructured data created by devices has created the need for data-driven approaches. Wearable technology, sensors, connected devices, social media, mobile devices, website browsing, and loyalty card promotional programs – all of these contexts generate data.

Cloud computing provides a way to converge SMAC technologies. It enables enterprises to respond to market signals quickly. The highly dynamic nature of SMAC means that Custom software development is probably the only way to leverage SMAC the right way.

Complex Integration

Many COTS applications have complex architectures. An attempt to make COTS products “one size fits all” has resulted in many of them having complex, inscrutable architectures.

Adding to the technological stagnation is the snail’s pace of addition of new features by COTS vendors. The use of proprietary technologies means that COTS vendors have a limited supply of resources to work on application customization programs.

The short collection of niche skills-sets means that COTS applications are always catching up, but non-elegant, whereas Custom software development is ahead of the curve.

COTS applications usually have their application data storage and retrieval mechanisms. This includes proprietary data models and databases operating upon individualized APIs.

So it is not a surprise to hear customers complaining about the integration chagrins of COTS software when compared to the ease of integrations offered by Custom software development vendors.

Customers would leave their COTS product portfolio alone than think of writing integrations around it.

They eventually work with custom software vendors to help them build this capability or help them build bespoke applications to support their expansion requirements.

Pace of Innovation

Custom software programs are already future proof.

A custom software web, mobile, or desktop application will integrate easily with bleeding-edge technologies several years down the line.

This is not as much about the architecture as it is about the pace of innovation. Custom software development providers can implement upgrades and customizations faster.

COTS vendors’ innovation pace is stifled due to consensus, production overheads, and administrative constraints.

Unlike a COTS vendor, a software shop specializing in Custom software development is highly agile and nimble-footed. Its organizational structure is versatile and adaptable.

Such a company can also engage with contractors whenever needed. The intent is to be ahead of the innovation curve so that customers can seize opportunities in a tight competitive landscape.

Fractionalization

Organizations want simple product portfolios. COTS applications may not allow this. An organization could be using multiple COTS applications but using only a fraction of the features that the entire COTS applications offer put together.

Being billed for the whole functional list and not using all the components is not an efficient way to do business.

Instead, organizations prefer to work with Custom software development firms to build modular applications, either on-premises or cloud-based.

COTS are Cost Intensive!

COTS isn’t a bad idea to invest in, no I mean seriously few genius minds have invested a fair amount of time to understand business operations. And, they have made an effort to build a uniform piece of software that is eligible to be used for business of any sort that uses standard operations.

It’s a great invention, indeed.

But, why would you pay for something that you don’t need in your business?

Whereas COTS provides an extensive set of features, most of which may not apply to an organization’s business requirements. Yet, the organization investing in COTS is compelled to pay for all the features. Over a while, the TCO of operating the COTS might override its benefits.

Organizations want a modular approach where they can pay for what they want! This is the reason they are working with custom software application development companies who can customize the business solutions for them.

Being a modular application, custom software is versatile, and there is no technology or vendor lock-in. Modules developed by a vendor can always be replaced with another module from another vendor.

Limited Configure-ability

COTS cannot support the tons of use-cases that various organizations may encounter. Even if COTS applications have rich feature sets, the feature sets may not fully cover the complex use cases of organizations.

Companies use plugins, externally developed modules, and internal customizations to align their COTS portfolios to specific business requirements.

But, this approach defeats the very purpose of purchasing COTS as the organization has to spend extra costs on customizing it to suit the business requirements.

Ideally, they can change the approach and select to go for custom software application development which is built upon the unique business requirements.

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Customizations are Expensive for COTS

Companies that didn’t find value in COTS resorted to the Modified off-the-shelf (MOTS) approach.

With this approach, companies would first invest in COTS and then decompose it with the help of an in-house development team and customize it to suit the business requirements. Though, these sorts of customizations are not supported by COTS vendors and may backfire in a way that no one could imagine.

However, it’s been found that this approach was expensive in comparison with custom software application development.

Modified Off-the-Shelf Software is not an Easy Bet to Take!

Right from acquiring legit resources, training them, conducting orientations to align them with the business requirements, guiding the way, and managing the teams effectively is way too much critical than one can think.

Another reason not in favor of MOTS is the lack of standardization. If the COTS vendors made upgrades, then the MOTS portfolio had to apply these upgrades, and compulsorily so if it was related to security.

Another issue was that in-house customization led to a lack of coding, development, design, and testing standardization. It led to decreased integrate-ability between MOTS applications.

Open-Source Mix

COTS vendors are reluctant to integrate open-source technologies. The strategy is to monopolize the adoption of technology by not giving open-source technologies recognition.

But in comparison to custom software applications, the open-source mix in COTS is still catching up. COTS introduces constraints in the way open-source features are leveraged. Most often, end-users are constrained to use proprietary technologies along with open source technologies.

Irrespective of the budget constraint, custom software development is based on open-source technology.

Businesses needing small to high-density solutions for various markets, problem areas, and opportunities can use custom software applications. By partnering with a custom software application development company like Integrative Systems, customers can address business-specific challenges.

Regulatory and Legal Compliance

Custom software application development is preferable for solutions that demand a high degree of regulatory and legal compliance.

As an example, a COTS supply chain product may be customizable. But the customizations could be generic, as each company would have its own set of requirements.

The COTS supply chain product may not be able to cater to these customizations.

For the companies that abide by regulations and compliance, COTS customizations are inadequate and they demand something much better. Rather, something very specific that complies with the specific set of needs, like a custom software application.

By building only a specific set of features, they can get a full-fledged solution and something that is lightweight and with low TCO.

Custom software application development companies such as Integrative Systems can build mini solutions for specific problems and also large solutions to address large problem sets.

This versatility is often a catalyst for rapid business transformation.

Now that you understand why COTS are getting replaced by customized software, it’s time to open a new chapter.

Legacy systems are another villain in modern business’s story, holding them back from growth.

Let’s understand how custom software is the perfect replacement for legacy systems!

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Bottlenecks of your Legacy Software and How to Overcome Them

Is your company lagging compared to its competitors because of your currently employed legacy software?

If yes, here’s the truth bomb – You are not alone in this!

Legacy software applications are at the foundation of many top-tiered organizations. They have software applications and IT capabilities that are still widely used and crucial to the entire operation of the business.

They are, however, out of date and, in several cases, no longer supported by the original vendor company or program developer.

While running legacy applications might not appear like a huge deal, they do, however, present several unique challenges and potential risks that organizations would be negligent, if underestimating.

What Are the Bottlenecks of Legacy Software?

Here are some of the major bottlenecks of legacy software that companies need to be cautious about:

Security is a Major Challenge

To begin with, legacy software systems frequently pose a significant security risk. This is because they are undoubtedly old and, in some cases, are no longer supported by the developer or software application development company that built them.

The complexity with outdated systems, such as legacy software, is that they are not maintained or patched to tackle security breaches. Consequently, you could end up jeopardizing your entire network’s security solely because you are operating an outdated software system that is no longer supported.

No/Less Compatibility with New Technologies

Many legacy software systems functioned independently and were never intended to work with other software integrations. While this may have been feasible in the past, it now severely limits your company’s performance and adaptability and the integrations it can accomplish.

If you want to take advantage of new technological solutions and all the benefits they offer, you should consider having your legacy systems modernized or rewritten. Modernization will enable them to integrate with the best custom software solutions your company would build.

Single Point of Failure

Legacy software solutions are quite often a two-fold point of failure. When we say two-fold, we mean that they can become a single point of failure on both the IT development side and the end-users.

For example, you have got a legacy software system that is critical to the operation of your organization. However, just a few of your business users are aware of how to utilize it, and only a few employees of your IT team are aware of how to support it.

Contemplate what would happen if your business users or IT personnel were unavailable. Assess how your business would operate without the services of that legacy software when your staff are unavailable for that timeframe.

Furthermore, it would be more appropriate to use your IT professionals’ skills to focus on the more modern and current technological solutions you have built. That would be more productive rather than spending all their time struggling to keep legacy software applications running.

Not Reliable and Efficient

Aside from being incompatible with modern tech solutions and having a single point of failure, legacy software systems are typically inefficient.

In other words, they are not necessarily advantageous to increasing staff or workflow productivity.

This is because they were developed and built when business operations and practices were less modernized.

Furthermore, legacy software systems are frequently unreliable. Because they are no longer maintained and do not receive vendor updates that address vulnerabilities and performance issues.

Now that you are aware of the potential risks, let’s not get overwhelmed. You can undoubtedly overcome these challenges with a custom software solution.

Benefits of Custom Software Development Services

Here are some of the important perks of outsourcing custom software development services.

Custom Software is Tailored to Your Business Goals

The most substantial benefit of custom software development services is that they are tailored to a company’s specific goals and requirements.

Some advantages of off-the-shelf software could be beneficial to your company. However, because it is intended to serve a wide range of organizations, it is quite doubtful that it will contain all the functionalities you would require to achieve optimal productivity.

The same applies to legacy software solutions. They are outdated and won’t serve your company’s needs after a certain time and won’t even integrate with modern tech solutions to optimize your company’s business operations.

However, that is not the case with custom software solutions. Cloud-based custom software solution, on the other hand, is developed solely with your organization in mind.

This means it can incorporate every criterion you require to flourish. It can even replace your off-the-shelf software to meet your company’s desired goals.

Custom Software Development Services Offer Scalability

Because bespoke software is designed for specific business needs rather than a broad category, it can seamlessly integrate with legacy systems and scale as the brand grows.

Brands can also better foresee their goals and convey them to the custom software development firms they collaborate with. Outsourced software developers can then build the software application to support future expansion.

Custom Software Amounts to Lesser Expenses over Time

At first glance, off-the-shelf software solutions might appear to be less expensive. However, it is essential to understand that the low rate that organizations initially perceive is often an ongoing cost that needs to be paid either monthly or yearly.

As a result, firms looking for a long-term solution frequently spend substantially more money than they planned with off-the-shelf software that is easily available in the market.

Custom software applications have greater upfront costs for development and deployment.

However, they do not require long-term subscription fees, which typically makes them significantly less expensive over time, not to mention the likely boost in return on investment.

A Custom Software Belongs to Your Company

Although off-the-shelf software might seem like an easier solution, it should be kept in mind that you do not own the off-the-shelf product you are utilizing.

Instead, you are paying recurrent fees to use someone else’s software application. This makes you bound to adhere to their rules, guidelines, features, functionalities, upgrades, and more.

Moreover, if you decide to discontinue using their software, you will lose all your data. Your software license simply ceases to function.

However, when you invest the same amount of money on licensing your custom software development product, you’ll end up with a software application that belongs entirely to your company.

In essence, you are in complete control of the product.

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Custom Software Service Providers Offer Long-term Maintenance

With custom software development, there is no limit to how long your product can be maintained. However, that is not the case with commercial off-the-shelf software applications.

This essentially boils down to software application licensing. Because your firm does not own the off-the-shelf software and instead rents it from the company that developed it and sold its services, that company has the final word.

This puts the company that is utilizing commercial off-the-shelf software at a disadvantageous position. There is little one can do if the firm that created the off-the-shelf software application decides to stop developing and supporting the software.

If this occurs, your only alternative is to switch to another software, which again requires time and budget.

However, when you use a custom software application, you can simply contact the company from where you are outsourcing custom software development services. You can request a specific update or improvement, and they will do their best to accommodate you.

This can continue for an indefinite period as long as you choose to utilize the software application and are not bound by any licenses.

Custom Software Developers Provide Higher Security Assurance

Security vulnerabilities are a major cause of tension for any type of product or software application. This is especially certain when it comes to anything that may gather and keep data about your firm, employees, or end-users.

Data threats are plentiful, and the damage they can do to a company’s finances and reputation is often irreparable. Because off-the-shelf software is frequently utilized by hundreds of different businesses, hackers target them more frequently.

That doesn’t mean they will not target custom software applications. They will do so, but only if they explicitly target that company. Regular security updates and patches, on the other hand, can effectively address persistent security vulnerabilities.

Now you know several perks of outsourcing custom software development, let’s understand the repercussions of ignoring it.

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Why Ignoring Custom Software Development can be Risky for CTOs?

Statistics show that more companies around the world have decided to develop their own software over the years.

Why so?

Because by developing custom software, you can grow your business as efficiently as possible. And your competitors know that.

What do You Miss out on When Delaying Custom Software Development?

Using custom software solutions can reduce the time and cost of doing tasks.

You can facilitate communication and grow your business as needed. But this is just a tiny part of the benefits you get from custom software.

Have a look at the five valuable benefits for your company that come from developing customized software.

Automation of Manual Tasks

With the dedicated software, it’s easy to speed up your tedious tasks. Many custom software solutions are created using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques (instead of off-the-shelf solutions).

These digital installations teach you to identify recurring elements and automate their work, allowing your employees to focus on the more essential tasks. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are fundamental to data-based decision-making.

Running More Comprehensive Analysis

Custom software developers often offer Business Intelligence (BI) solutions to you to visualize data sets. It combines business analysis, data mining, data visualization, and transparent data and infrastructure tools.

Business intelligence converts data into actionable insights that support business decisions, including holistic analysis.

With BI, you can create reports, summaries, dashboards, graphs, charts, and maps and get real analytical value. So, instead of manually gathering information from different parts, your analytics tools do it for you. Data is available every second.

Easy Integration with Existing IT Solutions

Companies use different software solutions to run their businesses. Dedicated software can collect data from these solutions using the Open API and create a communication highway.

By quickly exchanging information across various IT tools, it is easy for you to set up a data center and grow your company quickly.

Security Under Control

Digital security is a big deal right now. The market is growing very fast due to fast working cybercriminals. But!

Due to the large population using such solutions, cybercriminals are attracted to off-the-shelf software. This means they avoid unique software developed just for one company as the chances of success are low here.

Another advantage of developing a custom software solution for your company is that you will have complete control over the creation of security layers.

For example, you can implement blockchain or its alternatives to ensure transparency of transactions. In other words, during the software development process, you can build a secure fortress for your business data and assets.

Quick Results

Thanks to the agile process, custom software development companies deliver the initial release of your product in a matter of months. It’s incredibly fast! After that, you can continue to develop your software.

That way, you avoid mistakes, unwanted features at work and manage a team well.

In a few months, you will see results and build your competitive advantage very quickly.

In addition to these values, your business also gets services like –

• Easy Maintenance
• Fast, personalized, and detailed support from the custom software development company
• Intuitive design (UX/UI), ensuring less distraction at work.

If you lack these values in your day-to-day work, this is an excellent time to talk to your stakeholders about connecting with a custom software development services provider.

Still indecisive?

Next up, let’s understand when the right time is to approach custom software development.

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How to Decide if Custom Software Development is Right for You?

At times, it’s tough to decide whether you should go for a custom software solution or stick to the traditional software.

But, considering the emerging needs of customers, businesses worldwide need unique software to cater to their needs.

In such a scenario, custom software development services are the popular option for all such companies. A customized solution will be developed specifically as per the company requirements.

Moreover, custom software development services will give you so many opportunities to optimize your business process to increase your productivity and make you financially more rewarding.

Suppose you are running a business in this modern world.

In that case, sooner or later, you will face a situation where you need custom software development services to make your business operations faster and fulfill customer requirements efficiently.

It’s tough for a company to decide whether they need to have a custom software solution onboard or a readymade solution that will work for them.

Let’s discuss the possibilities and benefits in detail.

Let’s first understand What’s Standard Software?

You must be familiar with software like MS-office, SugarCRM, and Vtiger, and undoubtedly, these products have a proven track record in their fields as per business requirements.

Also, standard software applications save you lots of precious money.

By installing the readymade software, you’ll gain access to essential business management tools. Moreover, you’ll also get some additional plug-ins for integration with other software.

Standard software is “good to go” if your requirements are limited.

On the other hand, you’ll notice that you’ll need to have a customized solution onboard with increasing demands.

Up next, let’s understand why you should consider investing in a customized software.

When Should You Consider Investing in Customized Software?

Custom software development services can benefit your business in the following conditions:

If you want to stay ahead of your competitors in the market.

If you’re going to grow your business to the highest level and grow enough to cover the cost of custom software.

Although the development of custom software is expensive compared to buying readymade software, the investment will be worth it. Also, don’t forget that the result of any custom software will require substantial resources, time, and patience.

Have a look at some critical aspects of custom software:

Standard Software is Not Expected to Fulfil Every Need of Its Buyers!

This is because such software applications are built on the mainstream needs of varied businesses and not prepared to fulfill specific needs.

If your company has unique requirements, then you should connect with a custom software development company.

Readymade Solutions are Rigid

Most of the software you buy from the market will not allow you to make changes in its existing setup at any cost. It will have lots of features and functionalities you need, but at the same time, there will be lots of unnecessary features that are not of your use.

Readymade Solutions May Not Be Compatible With other IT Software

You know very well that a business must integrate with some other software to fulfill specific tasks. So, you need to understand that a custom software solution is perfect for getting the job done.

Readymade Solution does not Suit Your Business Situation and Workflows

“One size fits all” may be true to some extent in terms of clothing, as you may wear a couple of sizes, either big or small, but in the end, you will be looking for more comfort. Custom software development services work on the same phenomenon, as they develop customized versions as per your requirements.

When Should You Consider Investing in Standard Solution?

For a second, let’s have a look at the second side of the argument.

Remember that it still might be more reasonable to stick with off-the-shelf solutions in some situations, especially for smaller businesses.

If you think this will be the case, you should consider these factors –

When You Have Limited Budget

The costs of developing custom software can be a valid reason to drop the idea of creating your solution. Readily available software applications are available at less price, and they are enough for companies with a small budget. So, it makes sense for such companies to go with standard software.

When Your Team Lacks Technical Skills

If you are considering developing the custom solution in-house, make sure you have enough resources. Also, it should not hamper your mainstream business operations. Making a wrong decision can lead to tragic results and can cost the company hugely.

When Standard Software Solves the Purpose

For a typical business task like warehouse management, readymade software is already available in the market. Just buy them, implement them, and start working.

You can get various helpful software on the Internet, sometimes free and sometimes by paying for it. But most of the time, these applications are not so pocket-friendly, or maybe they are not worth it.

What You Gain with Outsourced Custom Software Development?

Companies find it challenging to develop the software in-house or choose outsourcing services for their custom software development.

Outsourcing can save a lot of resources, time, and opportunity cost of brainstorming new ideas.

Let’s understand what you gain with outsourced software development.

Access to a Skilled Workforce

Custom software development outsourcing gives the ability to an organization to gain access to highly skilled software professionals.

Outsourcing simply means you are free to choose the best custom software development company from the market to fulfill your company’s needs. As a business leader, it isn’t ideal to indulge deeply in recruitment, training, and scaling a workforce.

It’s always a safe bet to vouch for the best-in-class custom software outsourcing development services and let them build in line with your business requirements.

Liberty to Focus on Core Business Functions

R&D is the core of many business work models.

We are living in the advanced technology era where companies are focused on empowering their core business strategies and functions with the modern-tech.

To balance business strategies and software development at the same time would be like exercising a tug-of-war for many organizations and business leaders.

Outsourcing custom software development will not only bring a perfect balance to your in-house team but also will offer the liberty to focus on core business functions.

Save a Considerable Amount of Costs

An outsourcing company may be located in another part of the world, but they will get your work done at a reduced price without compromising quality. Here, you can save on a considerable amount of costs as compared to the costs involved in building an in-house team.

Organizations cutting their costs in half is one of the most significant benefits of custom software development outsourcing.

Faster Time to Market

In business, time is money.

Custom software development outsourcing will help you effectively reduce the product’s time to market with a great margin. Considering the expertise in building projects in a similar space provides them an advantage to achieve the results for you and within lesser time.

The software development company will accelerate your project as per requirement and assign the tasks to highly experienced developers.

Mitigate Incurring Business Risks

When you have lots of internal business projects, it’s not a good idea to sacrifice quality and productivity.

With the development services from a custom software outsourcing company, you not only reduce the risk of hammering the core business function but also empower the onset of your custom software development effort.

You get to leverage the years of expertise and experience that the custom software development company has earned over the years. And, this ultimately reduces the incurred risks and contingencies that may occur during your project.

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Customized Software Outsourcing Trends to Watch

Up next, let’s look at the top trends you must watch for in the custom software development market.

Role of AI in Custom Software Development Industry

Computers around the globe are getting digitized and smart. Advanced AI trends in the computing world have allowed computers to think about themselves.

According to some research around the world, 8 out of 10 companies are investing in artificial intelligence.

Furthermore, artificial intelligence has scope in the field of custom software development also. With AI technology, developers can make modern and unique websites or applications and convert ideas into reality.

Today, the AI algorithm in software ensures your groceries are delivered to your doorstep and even drive your car without human intervention.

Increasing Reliance on the Cloud Computing Technology

Cloud computing is one of the most rapidly growing software development trends in today’s scenario.

A lot of companies are moving towards cloud computing as they are migrating their operations online. The demand is increasing every year, as companies are handling a large amount of data.

Companies worldwide are spending billions and millions on cloud computing services, which has emerged as one of the largest developed trends in 2021.

Moreover, companies are moving towards the cloud due to additional security features and reduced business costs.

The Rise of Cybersecurity

As malware and ransomware attack is at an all-time high, the demand for cybersecurity has increased. Organizations around the world are struggling to have the best security on board for their data protection. A phishing attack can cost millions to an organization, and along with government agencies, every online company is at risk of being exploited.

Ethical hackers always look for loopholes in the software and gain access to valuable information. Cybersecurity is essential for every business, either big or small if they are operating online.

Robotic Process Automation

Robotic process automation is another exciting software in demand. It refers to the use of software for automating complex business operations. RPA helps in reducing the overall cost of the project and even reduces the chances of human error.

In the manufacturing, retail, and e-commerce sectors, robotic process automation plays a significant role in – order management and logistics management processes.

The IoT Technology

The Internet of things has emerged as the most demanded technology in the past few years. IoT applications can be seen more commonly in electronic appliances and smart devices. IoT enables devices to communicate with each other and exchange information.

The Rise of Blockchain Services

Along with AI, and IoT on board, blockchain is also the fastest emerging technology in the world. Blockchain applications are endless in creating the most decentralized business application to perform smart contracts.

In custom software development companies, blockchain can develop vast financial applications and only payment applications. Due to the ever-rising demand for blockchain in the industry, it is one of the biggest global trends in 2021.

The Rise of Edge Computing

In the last decade, edge computing has been on a steady rise. With the significant boost in its popularity, it is not hard to admit that edge computing is one of the most popular trends in 2021.

Customized software offers a great deal of impact and an unfair competitive advantage that no other alternative could ever offer.

Understand that this doesn’t end with just getting customized software developed for your business. It must grow as your business requirements grow.

Let’s understand why it’s essential to regularly update/upgrade your custom software.

Reasons to Update your Custom Software

Getting custom software developed is one thing and keeping it updated is another.

No, we are not going to overwhelm you with false claims.

Rather, we are going to unwind the facts that align perfectly with the idea of keeping your customized software up-to-date and allowing it to evolve with your business needs.

Let’s look at the top reasons to keep your custom software updated!

Frequent Updates Keep Bugs at Bay

When you incorporate additional functionalities and add data to software, a bug is sure to crawl in overtime. It is also essential to note that web hosts constantly change their hosting architecture.

Consequently, the custom software becomes incompatible with the updated version of the web host, bringing in bugs.

That’s why it is crucial to keep your custom software up to date.

Security Issues and Updates

Most businesses believe a popular fallacy: quality and effective custom software development ensure eternal security. They frequently follow the idea that it does not need any attention if it is not broken. Essentially, there is nothing to be fixed.

However, you may not realize it is faulty until your data is compromised. Data and security breaches are severe problems that can harm your company’s reputation and business. Security risks may not be as obvious as bugs, but they require the same level of attention.

Because of security concerns, you should update your custom software regularly. While your software application may appear in top condition, hackers may discover some loopholes beneath the hood.

Frequent updates and maintenance patches are just as important as having your custom software development designed the first time correctly. Occasionally, a five-minute check-up or a quick reboot of the central server is all that is required to keep things protected.

However, the ideal strategy is to review the logs at least weekly and install the security patches regularly or quarterly.

Changes in Business Operations

You decided to develop a custom software application to offer your company a competitive edge in the industry.

Also, because off-the-shelf software that is widely available in the market did not satisfy your requirements, you chose custom software, which served you successfully.

But now, your company is not operating the same way it did when the software was created. Companies’ objectives and operations change as they expand. As time passes, updates may be required.

When developing custom software, the company keeps its operational processes and requirements in mind. However, if the company grows or adds new functions to its operations, the custom software application will keep it up.

One of the reasons companies update their existing software is to fix problems. A major revamp is usually not the best option. Still, you might be amazed to discover that integrating a few additional functionalities and updating the design can be cost-effective.

Incorporation of New Technologies

The advancement of technology is competitive and ever-changing. The online world did not even exist four decades ago.

And now we spend a substantial amount of our time on it!

Nowadays, consumers seek additional features and efficiency as newer technologies are developed, whether a smartwatch integration or customized push alerts. The rise in demand and popularity of devices such as the Apple Watch and Fitbit could crack open a whole new world of conveniences for your existing software applications.

Wearable technologies serve as an avenue for sending information to and from your software. You might send push notifications to your customers, or you could enable them to send data back to your application, such as location or voice mails.

Every other day, a new software application is developed or released to advance technological advancements. Embracing these new tech solutions will help your company stand out from the competition.

Manage Increase in Demand

Was your custom software application designed for fewer users than you currently have? Is your company’s business expanding quickly?

If yes, your software application requires an upgrade.

It goes without saying that as your business expands, so will the number of users on your software. This, of course, only means that your company’s business is performing well. However, it also implies that it is necessary to make adjustment and improvements to your custom software.

Upgrading your software ensures that it can keep up with your business growth. It’s necessary to make sure your custom software can keep up with your company’s increasing demands. When the software cannot accommodate your everyday users, it will impede transitions or the software’s performance.

If your consumers are complaining about a lack of functionalities or slow loading speeds, chances are your custom software isn’t keeping up with the rising user demand.

This is the first indication that it is time to upgrade your custom software and seek the assistance and collaboration of a custom software development company.

Small tweaks like expanding server size, which can frequently be done for only a few dollars more per month in hosting expenses, can significantly improve performance and efficiency.

To Reclaim Your Company’s Competitive Advantage

Of course, custom software gives your company the competitive advantage required to thrive in the industry. But perhaps a competitor is closing in on you, and you need to reclaim your market position.

To remain competitive, invest in your software needs, just as you do in your workforce and IT infrastructure. Small but frequent upgrades can help you avoid a total revamp every half a decade or so. However, if it has been more than half a decade, a major update could be the best solution.

Even if a major update is required, it can be accomplished in segments. For instance, a new front-end can be developed on top of an existing back end, which can then be modified in a subsequent phase.

There are numerous options to consider when deciding to update. Collaborating with a custom software development company that will take you through the process is always the best place to begin.

Save Time and Money in the Long run

As the number of users or functionalities increases, your software could become slow and cumbersome. It shouldn’t slow down to ensure that the custom software lessens it’s time to perform a task and enhances productivity.

To accomplish this, you need to update your software regularly. Investing in updates will save your company funds in the long term by improving productivity.

Custom software development is advantageous to every company since it provides a digital augmentation of the workforce. It is just as crucial to analyze your workforce’s performance as it is to ensure that the software is efficient, safe, and provides the necessary solutions.

To ensure that you are always generating the most out of your software, discuss this with a custom software development company.

Unsure how would you choose the right custom software development company to shape your vision?

Read ahead to explore how you spot an ideal custom software development services provider.

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Best Ways to Choose a Software Development Partner in 2024

Finding the right software development partner can be tricky.

This decision involves looking for a partner who can deliver on the company’s demands and fits well with the project type.

The idea of opting for an IT development company may call for outsourcing. And in outsourcing, it is essential to follow a particular set of guidelines.

While outsourcing software development is quite a fascinating thing, but you must be very careful when doing it. To follow a defined process in outsourcing, you must stick to the best practices.

So, without further ado, let’s understand how you can choose an ideal custom software development services provider.

Why Opt for Custom Software Development Services?

A software development partner signifies a company of IT experts who can help complete your software projects.

Such partners are generally agencies opted for by tech start-ups looking to cut down on costs by bequeathing the burden of hiring developers.

Your software application development company would consist of tools and expertise to help build your app or software product with ease.

Whatever the underlying cause may be, software outsourcing might be your best bet if you are kicking off a project that your company might not be proficient at.

How do You Spot just Right Custom Software Development Services Provider?

The idea is – why waste time, resources, and money on a project when you can outsource it and get it done quickly?

Once you have decided whether you wish to choose a software application development company or not, the next step is to understand how to do it.

Understand your Project Needs

The first step in software development is to understand your project like the back of your hand.

This step is important because you must consider all the factors before you outsource your project. For this, try to gather the whereabouts of your project goals and set the metrics that tell you whether you are meeting them or not

At this step, you ask yourself whether you want to outsource the entire project or just a part of it to an IT development company.

You should also understand your budget and subsequent restrictions. You must know your company’s staff well enough to know all the things they can do and what they cannot.

Know the Scope of the Project

Before you outsource your project, you should know what your final project should be like. This includes defining your goals.

You should know the absolute requirements of your project. But be mindful of your expectations; they should be realistic.

Know the resources you wish to use, and you can also get a visual understanding of what your project should look like.

While this may seem like a handful, it is undoubtedly an excellent way to honestly know your project so that you can present its proposal to your partners.

Clarify Your Expected Time-to-Market

Determining the time frame of your project is also quite crucial. While it is not easy to define the exact time your project might be done, but it is not as difficult if you have some software development experience.

For those who have no prior knowledge or experience of software development, you can set your project timeframe by taking the help of a software application development company.

As you decide the time required to fulfil the project needs, you can divide your project into several parts.

Know your Budget

Once you lay down the previously mentioned plans, you must know how much you are willing to spend on the project.

Here, you must determine how much of the budget you must allot the software application development company. To find out how much money should go into the project, you must estimate its value.

While money is not primary when it comes to outsourcing, it undoubtedly matters. Your focus should not be quantity while deciding your budget allocation; it should be its quality.

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Decide the Type of Outsourcing

How you subsequently outsource your project to the developers is of importance. To do this, you can choose from the following types:

Staff Augmentation

You can hire software-developing companies through staff augmentation. For this, you give contracts to external developers for a fixed time.

The internal management looks after the outsourced staff, who would work in close ties with them.

There are various pros to using staff augmentation. Some of these are changing the scope of the talent upon the progress of the project.

Project-based Model

If you opt for the outsourcing model based on the project, you practically hand over the entire control of the project to the software development partner.

In this case, you must opt for a partner carefully. Here, the credibility and experience of your partner are essential. It would be best if you trust the partner you chose.

Geographic Location Matters

The location of your software development partner is also a crucial factor to consider. The geographical location of the partner can either make or break your project.

Within the location, variables such as language, the difference of time zone, and culture have a sizable impact on daily ongoings.

Some types of location-based outsourcing are –

Onshoring

When you opt for onshoring, you are outsourcing from within the country you are in.

While onshoring is somewhat expensive, there are no barriers to conducting smooth business processes. There are no linguistic, cultural, time zone restrictions.

Nearshoring

When you outsource to countries nearby, it is referred to as nearshoring. In this, the cost is lower while the time zone stays almost similar.

With nearshoring, you also do not face language barriers and cultural differences. It is relatively affordable and easy to maintain.

Offshoring

Offshoring is when you outsource to countries far away because there is a cost advantage associated.

Countries like China and India have good talent pools, yet the cost is relatively low. This makes the prospect of offshoring quite attractive.

While language is not a significant barrier as many of the nations selected for offshoring are English-proficient, the time zone differences, and cultural distinctness make things complex.

Perform a Comparative Analysis

Once you lay the groundwork for hiring the right software development partner, your next step is to search for the one that meets the criteria.

In your final decision, affordability and reliability should be the dominating factors.

Some options that you can explore –

Freelance Marketplaces

Hiring a developer through the online marketplace is a decent option if done right. You can visit websites like Fiverr, Total, and Upwork to find the right IT development company for your software development project.

If you are ready to explore the online option, be extra careful about the reliability and credibility attached to the partner/s you shortlist

Software Development Firms

Choosing an expert team of software developers offers more flexibility. You can easily hire a firm that ensures a good talent pool.

Here, the affordability factor may hinder, as hiring through such firms can be somewhat costly, but the experience should be worth the cost.

Convinced that working with a custom software development services provider is a win-win deal to have?

Now, you must be looking for an ideal custom software development partner who can help you develop your custom software.

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Looking for Custom Software Development Services in Chicago?

Your search ends here with Integrative Systems!

Several decades ago, the software development market was heavily monopolized. In such a scenario, end-users were constrained into using COTS that were not customizable.

Customizations were primarily wishful thinking and restricted to high-demand features.

Custom software development has become the norm in today’s business world. Feature-rich custom software applications that are extensible and based on open-source standards have triggered many a business transformation.

We work with you as an extended team of developers to create robust and secure custom software solutions that meet the needs of your business. So, whether you’re a B2B company looking for innovative solutions to increase your ROI or a Start-up looking to increase your customer base, you can count on us.

Many businesses cannot rely on generalized solutions such as COTS because of the pressures of adapting to market trends.

Another driver of this growing need for custom software is the highly specialized nature of businesses and the verticals they cater to.

Companies believe in providing highly insightful, researched, and comprehensive services to their customers, so they want software applications to align with growing needs.

Hence they are keen to partner with custom software development in Chicago, as they can help them build a custom software application that fulfills their business needs.

What Makes Integrative Systems the Ideal fit for You?

Tailor-made, specialized, and customer-centric – these are the words of focus in a highly competitive landscape.

Opportunities are abundant, the market potential is immense, but the players competing for market share are sophisticated too.

These are some of the many reasons why customers are looking for a catalyst like Integrative Systems.

Have a look at the benefits of working with Us for a holistic business approach –

Purpose-built Software

Organizations need dedicated business solutions with zero functional wastage, and that can fulfill their business needs. Unlike generalized off-the-shelf software, custom solutions’ highly modular, pluggable architecture is more favorable for a highly dynamic business environment.

Businesses also want to leverage software-as-a-service by using existing applications or integrating their portfolio with cloud technologies. The need for scalability and to adopt the SaaS model is driving businesses to seek out custom software development firms.

Highly Integrate-able

Ideally, software should never be time-bound. It creates continuity issues. A time-wrapped software solution can levy constraints on businesses to upgrade to newer versions. Instead, the software has to be backward and forward compatible. This requirement is of great benefit and importance in modular applications.

A modular application can integrate with legacy, current, and future technologies. But COTS vendors create software for a general audience, focusing less on specific end-user groups. Purchasing COTS for specialized uses leads to functional wastage. Over a period of time, it creates a cost-over-benefits negative ratio.

So organizations can opt for custom software development services in Chicago to get future-ready software applications on board.

Independence

Organizations worldwide are at the mercy of prominent software vendors, their yearly licensing fees, support costs, and upgrade hikes.

Most organizations experience functional wastage, which pays for features that are not required or not used in full capacity.

Another downside of being locked into off-the-shelf products is if the product is decommissioned, software vendors might stop support and even ask customers to upgrade to a newer secure version.

This has led organizations, enterprises, and large industries to opt for custom software development services. With Integrative Systems, enterprises can own the software development process, as the output mirrors their expectations.

Collaborative

Bespoke application development by Integrative Systems is a collaborative process. Customers are part of the team in the software development process. They are free to choose features, functional flows, technologies, developers, designers, timelines, and delivery dates. They also have a say in the budget, costing, estimations, and final project billing.

The level of transparency in dealing with customers is high in custom software development firms in Chicago. Most customers want this type of collaborative systems development. They can fine-tune a solution as per their business-specific requirements. They can reap the rewards of such an effort in the near-term and long-term by creating unique solutions in the form of custom software applications to address specific problem sets.

Using SMAC and Bleeding Edge Technologies

Social Mobile Analytics Cloud (SMAC) and technologies such as Blockchain, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation, Internet of Things, etc., are going to be ubiquitous.

SMAC and bleeding-edge technologies will permeate all aspects of the public domain in some form or the other. Customers need solutions that have interfaces to such eventualities. Building a future-proof solution requires know-how and expertise.

Integrative Systems, a reputed company offering custom software development services in Chicago, uses advanced tools and technologies for this purpose. Solutions can be modular, docker or containerization-ready, and based on open APIs. Their efforts are not to reinvent the wheel; rather, to reduces cost and increases impact in the least possible time.

Low-code Declarative Customer Side app Builders

Integrative Systems can build custom software apps that are declarative. These are low code apps that are featured for drag-and-drop functionality. The drag-and-drop actions help non-developers, client-side data modelers, model workflows, business processes, data flows, etc. This type of application development plays an essential role in the custom software development evolution.

With an easy-to-use software interface and highly configurable feature sets, the hyper-flexible nature of the application makes it a powerful proposition for businesses who want creative solutions for creative problems.

Reusable Software Components

Modular code has been around for a long time. But not many software vendors are fully leveraging its power. One of the significant value additions that modularization brings is code-refactoring and reusability. Integrative Systems, an experienced custom software development company in Chicago, has experience in customizations, upgrades, and modernization of existing business applications.

There are numerous platforms, technologies that support this paradigm. Integrative Systems can help businesses implement modularization of their internal application portfolios. So that refactored or reused code can save costs, reduce cumulative development efforts, and standardize developments costs/efforts.

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Adaptive Maintenance

In custom software development projects, there are multiple types of maintenance. Adaptive maintenance is the change management of software applications responsively and proactively. Adaptive maintenance is highly critical and dynamic in a business environment.

Adaptive maintenance can be applied for a broad range of reasons. A change in regulation can create a need for aligning a software application’s data policies as per the regulation. A security upgrade may require changes in the code of the application to integrate the changes. Likewise, changes to the operating system, data format upgrade, etc., trigger the need for adaptive maintenance.

Improvisation maintenance is another form of adaptive maintenance. It is responsible for increasing the performance and security of existing applications. A trusted company offering custom software development services can remove vulnerabilities, reduce processing overhead, modularize code, and improve the overall performance of applications.

Improvisation maintenance is also similar to preventive maintenance. The effort is to rearguard the software application for being compromised by advanced security threats like the latter.

Meticulous Quality Assurance

Software quality is the most important thing when it comes to customer services. Integrative Systems, a versatile custom software development company in Chicago, has a sound testing and quality assurance framework covering all application development programs.

Unit testing, system integration testing, regression testing, re-testing, automated testing, user acceptance testing, production testing, performance testing, usability testing – all aspects of quality assurance are correctly aligned in a software development lifecycle.

UX-focused Development Approach

Integrative Systems incorporates a UX-powered approach using an agile development process that quickly tracks your project, facilitates team engagement, builds transparency, and reduces technical debt.

We begin by understanding your organizational goals for creating information architecture for your users and provide you the road map of your product. Moreover, we offer several sprints to demonstrate efficiency and keep you updated at every step of project development cycle.

Experts at Integrative Systems conduct periodic security audits such as risk assessment, vulnerability and security scans and access tests to identify imaginary cyber threats in your custom software solution.

Security tests are performed at each stage of development process, allowing us to identify vulnerabilities and avoid attempts to rewrite the code. This results in improving overall health of your software and facilitates faster delivery, increased ROI, and less time to market.

Post-delivery Support and Maintenance

We are your dedicated strategic partners, who understand the importance of keeping pace with emerging trends. Integrative Systems provide extended support even after delivery of the software, to find technical issues and improve the overall working of your custom software solutions.

We implemented enhancements in developed custom software solutions to improve features in your system – so that they can result in better performance. In addition, we scan for glitches in your software and take corrective action to prevent them. That way, working with us provides you with the benefit in the form of cost reduction.

Drop us a line at [email protected] and our team of experts shall get back to you in two business days.

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FAQs About Custom Software Development Services

1. How much does custom software development cost?

Ans: The cost of custom software development depends upon its complexity and technology integration. We are open to discussing your needs and providing detailed quotations.

2. How to have a meeting to discuss software needs with you?

Ans: Most of the time, the meeting is unnecessary, and the work can be discussed via Skype or email. Through online means, we can discuss your project and other requirements.

3. Why is custom software development expensive?

Ans: Custom software solutions is developed when off-the-shelf software does not work properly for an organization. Customized software saves licensing fees and training efforts because it is explicitly designed to match clients’ needs. Since the client owns the intellectual property, the cost is often high due to the initial efforts.

4. How do you ensure privacy?

Ans: All of our employees are full-time and adhere to the company’s privacy and non-disclosure terms. In addition, for sensitive projects, we create a separate cell that is not connected to any public network.

5. How long does it take to develop custom software?

Ans: The approximate duration for developing any software depends on its type and complexity.

In case you have a deadline, we will work hard to meet it. To find out the exact time to develop your software, you can consult our experts, and we will be present in front of you with answers.

6. How do you keep customers informed about progress?

Ans: We use agile scrum development methods. You’ll be an integral part of sprint planning – from the start to the review before the release date.

7. Do you have the expertise of mobile apps also?

Ans: Yes! We develop applications for all major mobile development platforms – iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, and Windows Mobile.