Benefits of Custom Software Development Service in 2024: Why Find an IT Vendor?

• By Bohdan Vasylkiv
• 29-07-2024
• Software

Let’s start with the basics: What are custom software development services, who offers them, and most importantly, why do you need an IT vendor when considering a custom software development project?

To cut a long story short, there are two main approaches to embodying your ideas in the world of IT:

• Developing them from scratch
• Finding a ready-made SaaS solution that matches your needs and expectations.

Custom Software Development vs. SaaS Solution

The software-as-a-service approach is a fast and simple way of satisfying business needs and implementing software solutions that help achieve those needs.

In a nutshell, SaaS is a ready-made software product designed and developed by a third party that distributes this solution for certain payments. For instance, instead of a custom CRM system development, which is a resource-intensive and lengthy task, you can find the most suited CRM, like monday.com or ClickUp.

As a result, for a relatively small fee and after a few hours of research, business owners can find the best solution and start working on achieving business goals. Otherwise, it will take extra time to:

• find a reliable software development team,
• plan and design the development process,
• create a desired product,
• test it,
• Implement it into business.

At first glance, SaaS solutions seem to be a clear winner. However, it is not so simple.

Clearly, you can benefit more from adopting ready-made systems instead of custom software development. Still, these benefits are relatively short-term: after some time using such technologies, you will better understand your needs and face the need for further improvements. At this stage, you will learn you have almost no control over SaaS solutions.

Of course, you can find a more complex and suited SaaS product or buy advanced packages from the same vendor. Nevertheless, you will still face the limitations of such options.

At this point, you can start considering custom software development.

Developing a product from scratch is more complex, intensive, and challenging. However, creating your software system gives you an essential advantage that SaaS distributors can’t offer—customization and flexibility.

The project is designed and agreed upon with the client to meet all expectations in terms of custom software development. If a client requires extra functionality or has other specific requirements, they can be approved and implemented during or even after development.

While SaaS requires customers to adapt to offered features, custom software development prioritizes and adjusts to customers' needs.

Eventually, all the foregoing is primarily related to management or other additional systems, not the product itself. If you want to develop a unique and game-changing product, then you have to stick with custom software development.

Nevertheless, the foregoing is not the final list of custom software development benefits.

Benefits of Custom Software Development

Undeniably, there are more advantages to using SaaS solutions in the short run, including:

• Faster implementation into business
• Easier process of adoption
• A cheaper way to satisfy the requirements

However, you need custom software development services if you are looking for reliable long-term software that can be customized and scaled on demand.

Tailored Solutions for Specific Business Needs

One of the main benefits of custom software development is the customization and adjustment capabilities:

Custom software solutions are designed and developed on demand and must correspond to the business client's needs. Clearly, when you pay for any product creation, you are looking for a tailored solution that meets your needs or demands.

For example, you were using a HubSpot SaaS for in-house management. Yet, after hiring outsourced team members, you realized that some metrics the HubSpot platform offers are insufficient. Thus, you can look for alternatives or consider developing your management platform with all the required instruments.

Finally, revolutionary and unique software solutions that are changing the world are always custom-made. This allows us to find new niches, offer unseen features and functionality, serve specific needs, etc.

Such advantage of custom software results in another reason to consider custom software development.

Scalability and Flexibility

Having complete control over the developed application creates a prosperity of choices and possibilities for business owners.

Among the most vital custom software development advantages are such solutions' overall scalability and flexibility. Unlike SaaS solutions, custom software can be scaled and redesigned whenever needed. For example, you might want to integrate a new AI module like ChatGPT or other features not included in SaaS proposals.

Finally, custom software development allows the integration of any third-party software, such as APIs, plugins, add-ons, etc. At the same time, SaaS offers a limited number of such third-party integrations and collaboration options.

Competitive Advantage

The benefits of custom software offer a significant boost over potential competitors.

Using a custom software development approach gives more flexibility and allows business owners to adapt to market changes as fast as possible. These solutions do not depend on anyone else except the custom software development team responsible for this project.

It becomes an excellent argument for dealing with rivals because custom software solutions offer unique and customizable features and functionality. At the same time, using SaaS gives no actual advantage over your competitors, and if not, it makes your business less competitive.

Moreover, there is no need to explain why you need a custom software development approach if you are willing to create your own software product.

Cost-Effectiveness in the Long Run

Finally, when discussing the advantages of custom software development, we must mention that it can be even more cost-effective than ready-made solutions.

In the short term, custom solutions cannot compete with off-the-shelf software. However, if you plan to stay on the market for long (who doesn’t want to?), custom software can offer you a great way to save expenses.

Using third-party software isn’t free. Most prices for SaaS solutions are exponential: they vary depending on:

• your business's scale,
• number of employees,
• accessed features,
• extra settings,
• and other preferences.

So, if your business scales and the employee team extends or you require more functionality, etc., - you will have to pay extra for offered services. Anyway, even if everything of the foregoing stays the same for a long time, calculating the spending will surprise you: it would be the same, or even cheaper, to design, develop, and maintain your own software product. Not to mention all the custom software development advantages you will get in such cases.

In fact, most of the resources and time required for custom software development are spent on the development itself. After creating the software solution, you will have to spend a little time just maintaining your application.

However, custom software development has even more hidden advantages, which can help cut development expenses even further without affecting the quality of the software created. For instance, you can easily outsource custom software development and hire a dedicated software development team from other regions like Eastern Europe, India, or Asia.

To be more precise, let’s discuss why you should consider cooperating with a third-party IT vendor instead of hiring an in-house custom software developer.

Why Choose an IT Vendor for Custom Software Development?

Custom software development requires a team of experienced developers capable of developing the needed product. There are many ways to find a software team. Still, there are two most popular types of cooperation for today:

• Gathering an in-house team of developers
• Hiring an outsourced custom software development company

Both approaches have pros and cons and should be chosen to meet expectations. The advantages of custom-made software with an in-house team are clear; it is the most basic approach you can imagine.

For illustration, an in-house team can offer you:

• A simple management and process monitoring,
• Predictable development pace and schedule,
• Shared culture and language, time zones, etc.

However, gathering an in-house team can be a challenging and expensive task:

• A limited number of experienced developers for hire in your region,
• You have to pay high salaries,
• You have to cover extra spending like office maintenance,
• You have to spend time and resources on hiring.

So, it is not surprising that many businesses, especially those with limited resources, are considering outsourcing services for custom software development. As the Clutch report shows, 83% of small businesses totally or partly outsource some of their business service development.

Therefore, to better understand the reasons for such trends, let’s examine the custom-made software advantages outsourced software development teams offer.

Access to Specialized Skills

First, collaboration with IT vendors has no borders: you can find an IT partner from wherever you want.

It is an excellent advantage for a few reasons at once:

• You can hire a full-fledged team at once without spending on HR-related processes.
• Due to the difference in hourly rates in various regions, you can significantly cut the expenses on developers’ salaries.
• You can easily find the required niche-experienced developers without spending time searching for candidates.

Frankly, the last benefit is probably the most essential: human resources are limited. So, accessing the global custom software development services market gives business owners a bigger talent pool.

As a result, it would be cheaper, faster, and easier to find a required specialist, or even a full-fledged team of experts globally, than looking for available candidates locally. What is even more critical, you can easily find highly specialized professionals who are required for particular tasks in terms of custom software development, like CTOs, DevOps, or other specialists in high demand.

Cost-Effective Resource Allocation

Once again, choosing to outsource custom software development allows you to cut expenses.

On the one hand, such an approach will cause challenges like team management and progress tracking because you won’t have direct access to your developers. So, you must schedule meetings, set up communication channels, create a secure development environment, etc.

Conversely, you can optimize your resources by delegating and sharing some expenses to the outsourced vendor. For instance, in such cases, you won’t need to spend on various “extras” like maintaining an office, paying for day-offs and vacations, bonuses, etc.

Focus on Core Business Activities

Additionally, cooperation with IT vendors helps to focus more on core business activities.

First of all, each such collaboration includes the project discovery phase, when the outsourcing company estimates the scale and budget of the development project, designs the future project, sets up guidelines, considers core features, creates a road map, etc.

For instance, one of the most popular types of custom software development projects nowadays is a minimum viable product suited for all kinds of businesses.

MVP is the most basic and straightforward version of the desired software, which offers only the most crucial functionality. Creating an MVP is an excellent start for any custom software development project because it defines and delivers only the core features, speeds up the custom software solution delivery time, and saves costs.

Besides, the IT outsourcing company is interested in sticking with core business activities, particularly custom software development and planning.

Timely Delivery and Support

Eventually, outsourced custom software development services commonly require a more structured and planned approach.

As a result, most IT vendors prioritize meeting deadlines and cutting development time as much as possible to deliver a product as soon as possible (without affecting the product's final quality).

Moreover, almost any custom software development company proposes postdelivery maintenance and support of a software product. This offer has a time limitation, yet covers and fixes most bugs and issues, as well as quality assurance. Besides, it can be prolonged on demand for extra payment.

Criteria for Choosing the Right Custom Software Development Company

The most challenging and important factor in outsourced custom software development is finding a reliable IT partner with proven experience in your niche who can deliver the requested product.

Fortunately, there is a short list of criteria to consider when looking for a custom software development company.

Experience and Reputation

You want to check the experience and reputation of your future development partner.

The easiest way to do so - is to look for potential candidates on specified B2B platforms like Clutch, GoodFirms, or their alternatives.

Such online platforms gather all essential information about different software development companies from various countries and display them in a user-friendly way. Apart from the company's niche, or its previous projects, it also gathers clients’ feedback and reviews.

Thus, the first stage in finding an IT vendor for your custom software development - is checking such platforms and gathering the most exciting options.

Technical Expertise

The next step is checking the technical expertise of the chosen companies.

To do so, you must find their websites, where companies expose their previous cases and define the proposed services like mobile and web development. Also, there you can find a list of technologies the company is familiar with and suggest.

Examining the website of an IT vendor gives a clear understanding of what it can and can’t bring to the table. So, after narrowing down the list of chosen custom software development companies, you can proceed to the next phase - interviewing.

Customization Capabilities

Frankly, these are primarily must-haves for any software development vendor. Yet, each such service has its limitations.

It is impossible to find out where the frames of customization are without an honest conversation. So, you will have to contact your preferred candidates and set up a meeting where you can explain your needs and ideas.

Apart from that, during the conversation, you can ask whatever you want, as long as it relates to custom software development services. So, don’t forget to prepare your questions as well.

Communication and Collaboration

After you have the final list of potential custom software development partners, you can start discussing the terms of your cooperation.

While most aspects are the same for most outsourcing companies, there are a few undefined terms:

• Way of communication and collaboration
• Cost and time of custom software development

We recommend starting with the terms of communication. Therefore, you can choose the most suitable conditions for your development.

Remember that software development takes time, so it is better to pay a little extra to avoid unwanted uncertainty or inconvenience during project creation.

Cost and Time Considerations

Afterward, knowing how the cooperation will look, you can discuss the time and cost of a custom software development project, choose the type of contract, and proceed to sign all the required documentation to start the development process.

Summary

To use the full advantages of custom-built software, you should look for collaboration with IT vendors.

Companies offering such services have much more experience working with various technologies and industries and have a better understanding of future products’ limitations and possibilities.

Moreover, by outsourcing the development of custom software solutions, you get a chance to cut the cost and time required for product delivery without affecting the quality of final results. Yet, you might sacrifice some control over development. Still, this is a fair price for the other advantages of custom software development in outsourcing.