From Day 1, we focus on delivering value. Build internal tools and B2B partner portals with unmatched flexibility up to 3x faster data-intensive application development with ready-to-go design system and enterprise-level UI toolkit.
Our experts will work with you to create your custom solution roadmap, define user stories, develop a comprehensive set of functional and non-functional requirements, and help you launch your project with confidence.
We design software that is built to withstand the demands of an evolving business. Our technical experts will help you select technology and design an architecture with security, reliability, ease of development, and efficiency in mind.
We help startups and SMEs unlock the full potential of data and machine learning algorithms. Leverage our Data Engineering services to build scalable data solutions.
Rapid web application development approach will help you create a complete web application faster. Leverage ready-to-go design system and UI toolkit to create your competitive edge.
Custom software development is a delicate process, and the best way to ensure successful project delivery is to carefully manage project deliverables and maintain a close eye on the budget and schedule.
Work with engineers who understand the need for bottom-line results from your custom software development initiative. From Day 1, our focus is always on delivering tangible business-aligned value from custom development.
Our team of software experts utilize leading-edge technologies, industry best practices, and decades of experience to provide you with the strategic support you need to transform your business.
Hire software engineering experts, UI/UX designers, and product leaders at competitive rates who are ready to jump head first into your software project, so you can get a competitive advantage and ROI faster.
We partner with entrepreneurs, business and technology leaders to bring their innovative software-driven products, processes, and business ventures to life.
Transform your ideas into software solutions faster with an experienced team of engineers, designers, and product leaders who understand the need for bottom line results.
Using Python / Django, React.js, AWS services, and cloud AI-based OCR to design and build a document processing software enabling supplier negotiations and contract management
Using Ruby on Rails, React.js, Gatsby and Contentful to design and build online booking software solution for small hotels.
A SaaS application built with PHP and Vue.js that helps businesses in the cosmetics industry to manage their marketing campaigns and mentoring training programs.
For many small business owners, off the shelf solutions (or sometimes called pre packaged software) provide a cost effective way to automate business processes and improve scalability. However, off the shelf solutions aren’t always the best choice. Custom software development is becoming increasingly popular as it offers an attractive array of advantages, including the ability to build a bespoke solution that perfectly aligns to the business’s needs and has the flexibility to scale as the business grows.
Let’s break down a few of the top advantages and disadvantages of each path:
| Custom Software | Off-the-Shelf Software | |
|---|---|---|
| Advantages | Tailored to your exact business needs Greater control over security and data Can evolve with business needs Complete ownership with low recurring expenses Changes and customization can be done relatively easily | Usually lower up-front costs Quick setup and readiness to use IT support is easily available People may already know how to use it Quality is easier to predict up front |
| Disadvantages | Higher upfront costs Lead times to develop and launch can be long Requires management of a development project May be difficult or expensive to get post-launch IT support Quality is harder to predict | Low flexibility to adapt to business needs Can’t evolve with your business needs Pay for features you don’t need Limited or no integration functionality Typically requires a high recurring expense |
If you’re unsure if you should purchase an off the shelf solution or choose custom software development, we recommend pricing out both options from end-to-end and analyzing the short and long-term ROI of each.
Read More: 6 Clear-Cut Steps to Decide - Custom vs Off-the-Shelf Software
Custom software development solutions require an investment in resources: time, personnel, and money. Maximizing your ROI on this investment is critical.
Software ROI can be defined as an organization’s gain or benefit from implementing new software or technology. It can be calculated as:
While the investment cost is simple to calculate or define, benefits or gains from software investment may vary from one business area to another. It may result in increased revenue, improved employee productivity, a rise in automation, or even higher cost optimization.
Because ROI can be seen in a variety of areas (some more qualitative than quantitative), putting together a strategy to maximize ROI can be complex. However, to help get you started, here are a few tips to maximize your ROI:
Read More: 10 Software ROI Factors You Should Measure & Improve.
Finding the right development partner to build your custom software applications is critical. As a small business, you should look for a partner who specializes in working with companies of your size, who understands the unique needs of a growing business, and who can provide you with the technical skills needed to bring your software idea to life and maximize your ROI.
A few things to look for:
Read More: How to Choose a Software Development Company in 10 Steps
While the investment in custom software development can be significant, businesses can see a significant long term return on investment (ROI) compared to purchasing pre-packaged software.
Every organization will have a unique business case for developing custom software solutions. However, a few benefits we’ve seen businesses enjoy with an investment in custom software include:
Read More: 12 Dos & Don'ts of Custom Small Business Software Development
Every business will have a unique set of priorities and requirements. The type of custom software solutions that will work best for your business will depend on your industry, your growth stage, short and long-term priorities, and in-house capabilities, among other things.
In short, the most suitable software development solutions are those that solve a client’s business goals. Some examples of software applications that can prove useful are:
Internal software:
External software:
Read More: 12 Dos & Don'ts of Custom Small Business Software Development
Top development companies will be able to provide comprehensive custom software development services to help with every aspect of developing small business software solutions, from optimizing business processes to data architecture design and project workflow management. You’ll likely be able to companies that offer software development for small businesses along with other services such as:
Regardless of the stage of the development process you are in, a software agency should be able to help you optimize your processes and make better development decisions. We recommend you speak with the software development agencies you are interested in working with to see if they offer the services you are looking for.
Ready to get in touch? Contact us today to discuss your project.
At SoftKraft we are dedicated to creating custom software solutions that deliver real business value. We start every new partnership with an initial discovery, research, and estimation phase to ensure all project requirements are clearly understood, then we move on to a planning phase, and then into well-managed front-end development sprints.
You can expect our software development for small business process to follow these steps:
We listen to understand what you want to build, what features your product should have, and what bottom-line results you want.
The results-driven design thinking approach we use at SoftKraft is a catalyst for the iterative custom software development process. It combines the best software development methodologies. Get ready for an intense design workshop that will clarify your business idea and help us build a much better custom software solution.
Software development life-cycle is a structured and repetitive process that is divided into smaller parts - sprints. Each iteration covers a part of the project scope that is deliverable in a short and controllable period of time. Following agile methodology best practices, each sprint ends with a demo of a working part of the product by our development team, which then opens user acceptance testing.
Custom software development is a complex process that needs a stabilization phrase. During this stage, we focus on perfecting every area that makes the final product meet the business agility goals. When the stabilization stage is over and we have positive user feedback from the first users we can deploy the first version of the custom software into the production environment.
After successful custom software development we can continue to provide your small business support. We can monitor the performance, and we are ready to fix all the issues based on the SLA or a different arrangement.
Depending on the client and project needs, we set the rules for support and technical improvements. We set the error handling rules, issues priorities, time of our reaction, and the amount of time of our developers that we should book monthly without sacrificing product quality.
Learn More: SoftKraft Software Product Development Process
