Which companies can benefit from bespoke software

Custom software caters to specific business needs, offering competitive advantages over generic solutions, popular in recruitment, hospitality, manufacturing, and healthcare industries.

With so many off-the-shelf software solutions dedicated to a wide variety of industries available on the market, having bespoke software designed and developed to meet the needs of your company may seem unreasonable. The reality, however, is quite the opposite. Customization is one of the most followed trends in the modern software industry. The reason for this is gaining the competitive advantage which ready-made software cannot offer.

According to a recent survey conducted among over three hundred decision-makers from various industries, more and more companies are deciding to invest in custom software applications. However, there are several industries that show a bigger interest in implementing such software, as they find the solution indispensable. If you wonder whether your company should have bespoke software designed and developed, keep reading.

What is bespoke software

Put simply, bespoke software is a solution developed by a third-party company to meet all of the needs of your organization. The process of bespoke software development consists of gathering and analysing your requirements to make sure you know exactly what you need and that you receive it.

Contrary to popular belief, bespoke software is not dedicated to unique or large businesses only. Due to its extreme popularity, custom software is nowadays just as often implemented by small businesses.

Bespoke vs. off-the-shelf software

As opposed to bespoke software, off-the-shelf software solutions are developed to meet the needs of as many users as possible. They often contain a wide range of functionalities that you may never use because they simply do not suit the requirements of your company and which slow down the solution at the same time.

The two differ in price and waiting time as you can start using off-the-shelf software right after buying one. More importantly though, custom and ready-made software differ when it comes to the maintenance process. Once developed, a bespoke software solution is regularly tested and, if necessary, fixed by the third-party company which has developed it, making sure its users receive a flawless product.

Which businesses can benefit from bespoke software

Many companies find custom solutions unnecessary for them as they believe bespoke software is dedicated to unique businesses only. There is no doubt that organizations that cannot find suitable software available on the market decide to invest in bespoke, but there is no reason why more traditional companies should limit their possibilities. On the contrary, implementing tailor-made solutions allows them to gain a competitive advantage. Bespoke software is most popular among the following industries:

1. Recruitment

Nowadays, most recruitment companies rely on digital tools, which allows them to achieve a wider reach of audience and improve communication with candidates. Automating their administrative tasks helps them to improve their hire quality and reduce the amount of time it takes to identify and hire the perfect employee. With bespoke software, recruiters can:

  • Store all of the resumes in the cloud to make sure none of them are missing,
  • Filter through CVs with a single click to easily match perfect candidates to job positions,
  • Share a calendar with their team to have an immediate access to all interviews,
  • Communicate with candidates via the platform to speed up the hiring process,
  • Gather data concerning each of the hiring processes they manage to analyse and improve their performance.

2. Hospitality

Bespoke software is especially popular in the hospitality industry. Running a hotel or an estate agency without a software solution which automates and thus supports most business processes is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Most of the interactions with customers take place online, which is why having a web-based platform is a necessity. It enables property managers to:

  • Store all of the lease agreements and other documents in the cloud to make sure the sensitive details of their customers are secured,
  • Pay online and enable their customers to pay online in order to receive the payment faster,
  • Conduct inspections online to save hours of administrative work,
  • Give residents access to their profiles to ease their stay and improve communication,
  • Manage maintenance requests online to speed up the maintenance process.

3. Manufacturing

No matter the product, manufacturing it on a large scale means there is a need to implement bespoke software. With globalisation, businesses need to reduce the time it takes to ship orders, generate and prioritise jobs, and manage their production in order to improve the customer experience and thus gain a competitive advantage. A suitable software solution does just that by enabling its users to:

  • Convert the quote into a sales order with a single click to speed up the manufacturing and shipment processes,
  • Synchronise all processes from all departments to gain control of production,
  • Create financial reports to better manage savings,
  • Automate jobs generating to ensure everything is on hand by the planned start date,
  • Build advanced and multi-level bill of materials (BOMs), without relying on spreadsheets, to access the database from anywhere at any time.

4. Healthcare

Working in the healthcare industry goes far beyond treating patients and writing prescriptions. For a medical centre to prosper, a software solution enabling them to control their finances and provide an excellent customer experience is inevitable. By implementing one, they gain the possibility to:

  • Store electronic health records and access structured patient information from anywhere at any time,
  • Enable patients to create their own profiles so that they can access their medical data and schedule a visit whenever they need,
  • Track medical purchase orders and health insurance claims to avoid doubled or missing invoices,
  • Provide your patients with a mobile app to gain better insight into their health and to diagnose them faster,
  • Collect data to discover and follow treatment patterns.

Of course, there is a wide range of companies which were not mentioned here and yet find a bespoke software solution necessary. They do not have to be unique or large businesses. Often organisations who can buy an off-the-shelf software still prefer to go bespoke to gain the competitive advantage. Whoever requires improved communication with their customers, better insight into their business operations and ensuring advanced security, should without a doubt obtain such software.

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