Pros and Cons of Custom Software Development

 

What is customized software?

Build vs. Buy? It’s the dilemma that just won’t die. Often the answer comes down to budget. Even when the more expensive option is best, the disparity in cost between purpose-built solutions and out-of-the-box tools can be insurmountable. Custom software is a type of application developed specifically to suit a particular business or an organization to fulfill its specific business-centric requirements. There are many benefits of designing and developing software exactly as per your requirements. Here is an article by Lisa Michaels on how custom-made software can benefit your business. It sheds light on the real cost of making the wrong decision when deciding on a software solution.

 

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Maximize the value of business intelligence

Software tools have advanced to the point that almost anyone can access Business Intelligence and perform at least basic analysis within their organization. Small and medium-sized businesses have access to data that just ten years ago was available only to the largest and most profitable companies. Now that BI is no longer a luxury only the richest can afford, companies are seeing varying results from their BI efforts. Why do some businesses seem to be getting more from their BI efforts than others? The reasons are as varied as the companies themselves.

Here are 2 ways your business can maximize the value of your BI.

 

Spread it across your whole team

This information shouldn’t be a secret shared only in the boardroom. One of the most powerful things about having well-analyzed data is that it allows managers to share the metrics that are important to their whole team. When you give an employee a clear benchmark they have a way better chance of improving and are able to focus on the exact area where improvement is needed. The value of the data you have is directly proportional to the number of people in your organization that understand it.

 

Automate

BI is only as good as the data behind it. Many businesses resort to manual processes to meet this need, manually extracting data into Excel and preparing it for reporting can be extremely time-consuming. This process not only wastes time, it leads to data errors. A company cannot have full faith and confidence in data that was gathered manually. You must automate your data collection wherever possible and normalize it within a data warehouse and through the use of an ETL tool, this will save time and reduce errors in your data.

 

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Importance of Data Hygiene

Customer data is the core of your organization. It allows you to engage with customers and prospects to deliver exactly what they need. Customer data is only as valuable as it is accurate, so it’s crucial that you have confidence in the data that is influencing your decisions. By cleansing your data, you will see many benefits:

 

  1. Improved data quality – By cleaning your data, the problem of incorrect, tainted data is effectively removed. This will help create a more efficient prospect list which will dramatically boost your customer acquisition efforts.
  1. Increased productivity – By having a database that has been cleaned and properly maintained, management can maximize staff productivity and efficiency by quickly and confidently finding reliable records.
  1. Improved account management- Having a clean database gives you the power to more effectively analyze and manage your company’s spending and creates clear opportunities for upsells. Clean records display where funds are going and if there are any ways to cut costs.

 

At the end of the day confidence, or lack thereof is what really influences key decisions. The best way to create this confidence is to have a credible third party audit your data hygiene and help correct any areas that need improvement.

 

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