What is Custom Software Development for Enterprise Businesses?

What is Custom Software?

Custom software is a software application designed and developed for a particular organization’s specific requirements. For example, a bank might use custom software to manage its customer data and financial transactions.

What is Custom Software Development?

Custom software is specially developed for a specific user group or organization keeping business-related challenges in mind. Look at Uber, a leading on-demand app that uses custom software to provide a seamless experience for drivers and riders. It helps riders to find the nearest available driver and drivers to navigate routes conveniently.

This is the reason a custom app is developed keeping the company’s management, branding, implementation needs, and business processes in mind. Custom software can also be called bespoke software or tailor-made software.

Moreover, custom software helps in filling in the gaps when you can’t find packaged software, off-the-shelf software, or readymade software that suits your specific needs. The custom software development process includes designing, creating, deploying, and maintaining software.

How are custom software solutions built?

Custom solutions are either developed by an in-house development team or outsourced to a third party. However, the development process and methodology remain the same as other types of software development.

On the other hand, off-the-shelf software is ideal for a wider audience.

Here are four examples of off-the-shelf software.

  • Microsoft Office
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • SAP
  • Norton Antivirus

If you’re interested in learning how to build a software, let’s first understand what custom-made software is and explore some of the best examples of custom-made software solutions.

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What is Custom Made Software?

87% of IT leaders believe that custom software applications are driving innovation in business technology. This is the reason enterprise businesses are taking a keen interest in creating custom software and new software.

Custom-made software is intended to work best only with a given company, department, or team in mind. However, small and large enterprises can use custom-made software for a variety of purposes.

Here are some of the purposes for creating custom software.

  • To automate manual data entry processes
  • To avoid duplicate work, reducing costs, and risk
  • Helps employees to work continue on higher-level activities
  • Reduces manual error
  • Enhanced data sharing and resource management

These are some of the general purposes. It could always vary based on your business goals and requirements. Based on your unique business needs, you can have different tailor-made reporting features and integrations.

However, ensure that you integrate the exact features that your business requires. According to a study, it is found that 80% of software features were rarely or never used, wasting your valuable time and money. You can check the following image to see the percentage of features that are actually used.

percentage of features

Which enterprises are using custom-made software?

McDonald’s, Amazon, Uber, Netflix, Google, and several other enterprises are using custom-made software to lead their industries and automate processes.

Now, let’s discuss the different types of customized software.

Types of Customized Software

We have mentioned the 5 most common types of customized software that enterprise businesses can benefit from. But before you check the customized software in detail, please take a look at the following table to get the gist of these types.

Custom Software TypeBest For IndustriesUseful For BusinessesTop Example
Content Management Systems (CMS)
  • Blogging Platforms
  • Marketing and Sales Platform
  • News Portals
To update their own websitesTechCrunch
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
  • Retail
  • Banking
  • Hotels
  • Insurance
  • Consulting
To keep track of the internal workflow and business processesAirbnb
Enterprise Resource Planning System
  • Manufacturing
  • Distribution
  • Industrial Services
  • Service Business
  • Healthcare
To manage day-to-day operationsMcDonald’s
Operations Management Software
  • Retail
  • Construction
  • Transportation
  • Hospitality
  • Healthcare
To automate the business capabilitiesTELUS
Enterprise Software Solutions
  • Financial and Healthcare Sectors
  • Sales and Marketing
  • Inventory Management
  • Distribution
  • Logistics
To boost revenue streams & meet business needsAmazon

Now, we will discuss these types in detail, so you can choose one of them according to your business requirements.

  1. Content Management Systems (CMS)

    A content management system helps businesses update their websites with new posts, content, and documents without needing a web developer. The content management system handles all the basic tasks, helps you focus on essential parts of your website.

    In technical words, a content management system lets you build a website without needing to write all the code from scratch. This means you can save time and cost for creating web pages, storing images, and other functions.

    Custom Software Build Using Content Management System (CMS)

    • RCDSO’s – E-Portfolio Accreditation Platform
    • Iridium – Partners Portal
    • Bell – Consulting and E-Procurement Solution

    Top Features of Content Management System (CMS)

    • Manages unstructured information
    • Focuses on content generation or production
    • Content delivery is done through the apps
    • Supports workflow and content categorization capabilities
    • Stores digital files in nested folders
  2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

    Customer relationship management (CRM) software lets businesses keep track of customers, referrals, prospective customers, and vendors for sales and marketing departments.

    CRM software manages all the customer information into a single repository so you can organize and manage relationships better. It also automates common processes and helps to monitor performance and productivity.

    Custom Software Build Using Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

    • Google – Programmable Search Engine
    • DHL – Unique Logistics and Tracking Code
    • Auzmor – Learning Management System

    Top Features of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

    • Helps in storing contact information of customers such as names and addresses
    • Track interaction history to document communications with contacts
    • Helps in lead management
    • Integration with emails such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo
    • Quotes/proposal management
  3. Enterprise Resource Planning System

    Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software helps in managing the day-to-day operations of enterprise business, including accounting, risk management, and compliance, procurement, supply chain operations, and project management.

    Moreover, it can help you to combine a bunch of existing business processes into one easy-to-use customized system while eliminating unnecessary data duplication.

    Custom Software Build Using Enterprise Resource Planning System

    • McDonald’s – POS Technology
    • Uber – Uber API
    • Monster Movers – GPA Tracker Application

    Top Features of Enterprise Resource Planning System

    • Provides a fully integrated and intuitive platform to analyze and monitor data-driven tasks
    • Has the capability to do tedious tasks, including data entry, accounting, invoicing, and reporting
    • Helps in managing every aspect of sales and revenue for your business
  4. Operations Management Software

    Operations management software is designed to help a business from automating manufacturing capabilities to managing business processes.

    However, the operations management software mainly ensures that a business’s operations are as effective and efficient as possible to help you deliver the best results to customers.

    Custom Software Build Using Operations Management Software

    • TorahResource – Custom Software to Manage Business Operations
    • BlackBerry – Issue Tracking Application
    • UK Government Agency – Idea Street Software Solution

    Top Features of Operations Management Software

    • Increases reliability of operations due to analytics-based capacity planning
    • Improves quality and regulatory compliance of production outputs with standardized operational processes
    • Reduced inventory costs due to accurate inventory planning and tracking
    • Lessen operational risks and give timely alerts on operational issues, such as delays and defective products
  5. Enterprise Software Solutions

    Enterprise software solution helps an organization to enhance the business and management reporting tasks. Such software helps organizations with easy online payment processing, interactive product catalogues, automated billing systems, and security.

    Custom Software Build Using Enterprise Software Solutions

    • Air Canada – In-house Financial Application
    • Life Support Systems – Performance Tracking App

    Top Features of Enterprise Software Solutions

    • Helps finance teams with the process by tracking, analyzing, and reporting business data
    • Acts as an end-to-end employee management platform
    • Create efficiency in manufacturing processes with planning, sourcing raw materials, and forecasting

Now we will discuss some of the best custom software examples with their use cases. Let’s dive deeper into each use case.

Best Custom Software Examples

We have taken some of the top examples of enterprises that are using custom software. We have also discussed its use cases, so you know how well these companies have used custom software to increase profits in their respective industries.

EnterpriseUse CasesRevenue (2020)
NetflixNetflix uses custom software that allows it to collect a large quantity of data to understand the viewing preferences of users. It helps to serve customers better services so that they can increase viewership.USD 20 Billion
AmazonCustom software helps Amazon to lead by understanding what customers want. Now, Amazon collects data on the product preferences of consumers and creates a hassle and risk-free online buying experience for everyone.USD 386.06 Billion
GoogleUsing custom software, Google helps users by providing them with content they were looking for. It uses their feedback and responses to the displayed results. Over the years, Google has created vast search result listings to offer the best customer experience.USD 181.69 Billion
UberCustom software helps Uber in providing a seamless experience for drivers and riders. It uses an intelligent dispatching system that allows riders to meet the nearest available driver conveniently. Also, it helps in navigation and guidance systems for drivers.USD 11.13 Billion
McDonald’sMcDonald’s custom software allows employees with minimal training to quickly learn and become productive team members. McDonald’s has invested in custom technology (first in Canada) to offer self-serve kiosks nationally for being more customer-centric.USD 21.07 Billion

After discussing important use cases of custom software, let’s identify the advantages of custom software development. Check the top 7 benefits of custom software in the next section.

Benefits of Custom Software

We have already mentioned the bespoke software advantages briefly in the entire blog. However, we will take a closer look at the essential advantages of custom software in this section.

  1. Custom software is specifically developed according to your needs and enterprise requirements
  2. Best for long-term investment as you don’t have to purchase unnecessary and costly hardware solutions or pay for licenses, features that you will probably never use
  3. More secure against external threats as the custom software is built for your organization and will be used within your organization
  4. You get a dependable technical support team because the team that has developed custom software will guide you and also during the maintenance or upgrading process
  5. Integrate your customized software with already existing enterprise software to smoothen the business process
  6. When you develop a custom software solution with the help of a top software development services provider, it can easily fit within the existing software ecosystem.
  7. Flexible and can be changed easily to suit your business requirements and boost your business development

Have a Customized Software Idea for Your Enterprise Business?

Want to validate your idea? Want to get a free consultation?

If you still have questions about what custom software is, you can learn more by reading our post on app development vs software development.

Also, check the next FAQ section to know the difference between an off-the-shelf solution and custom software and the time duration for custom development. Let’s check the most common questions one by one.

FAQs About Custom Software

What is the difference between a custom software and an off-the-shelf solution?

Custom SoftwareOff-the-shelf Solutions
  • Fully customizable
  • Business criteria might not meet
  • Only required functions are added
  • Best practices are used
  • Lifelong support
  • Low chances for customization
  • Costs vary based on requirements
  • Fixed prices
  • Offers scalability
  • Easy to install

How much time does it take to build custom software?

The timeline could vary to build custom software. However, a simple customized solution may take up to 1 month – 6 months. On the other hand, a complex customized solution may take up to 6 months – 2 years. The factors that influence custom software development are complexities, features, and functionalities.

Which mistakes to avoid while building custom software?

  1. Developing unnecessary features and complex solutions for your business
  2. Making quick decisions so that you can develop custom software before the deadline
  3. Not providing acceptance criteria or enough information for each feature

Want to Create Your Own Custom Software?

In this blog, we have learned about custom software, the benefits of custom software, the types, and top examples of custom software, along with its use cases. We got to know how custom software helps an enterprise business to boost revenue streams and meet business needs.

Now start building software solutions that meet your needs and help you to streamline the working process. In case you want to hire experienced developers to create custom software or want to share the idea to build an easy-to-use solution, contact us.

We have developed many successful apps and web-based custom enterprise software solutions for medium and large enterprises. Look at some of the best apps that we have developed.

Let’s get in touch with us to discuss your ideas and get a detailed roadmap for your software project.

Bhaval Patel

Written by

Bhaval Patel is a Director (Operations) at Space-O Technologies. He has 20+ years of experience helping startups and enterprises with custom software solutions to drive maximum results. Under his leadership, Space-O has won the 8th GESIA annual award for being the best mobile app development company. So far, he has validated more than 300 app ideas and successfully delivered 100 custom solutions using the technologies, such as Swift, Kotlin, React Native, Flutter, PHP, RoR, IoT, AI, NFC, AR/VR, Blockchain, NFT, and more.