Custom Software Development generally refers to software that is tailored to meet
the needs of your specific company, as opposed to something purchased as an "off-the-shelf"
or "packaged" product. Off-the-shelf products are instead intended to be sold to
many different companies, and therefore designed to meet a more generalized set
of requirements. Some may be designed with the flexibility to be highly customizable
so as to potentially address the needs of many different companies, possibly after
enlisting the aid of a consultant to assist with adding customizations to the software.
Before investing in custom software development, it may be prudent to first take
a look at what off-the-shelf products
are already available that might meet your business need. If an off-the-shelf
product is available, it may be a good idea to see if you can obtain an evaluation
copy before committing to a purchase. You will want to install and evaluate the
product in the most typical real-world situations possible to see if the product
really does what you thought it would. Don't base you decision solely on sales literature
or documentation accompanying the product which can often be easily misinterpreted.
You may also want to talk to existing users of the product, if such references are
available from the product vendor, to hear how well the product is actually meeting
the needs of other companies in your field.
However, when searching for off-the-shelf products to fill a business need, companies
are often surprised to find that there may be little or nothing to choose from in
the way of off-the-shelf products that fully address their company's specific business
needs. Your company may have developed certain methods of conducting business that
have worked very well over the years and that even provide the company with a certain
competitive edge. Would you be able or willing to change your way of doing business
to be more like every other company in your field for the sake of conforming to
the design of an off-the-shelf product? If not, then this is where custom software
may enter the picture.
Instead of conforming your way of doing business to match the design of an off-the-shelf
product, you may instead opt to keep your business processes as is, and have custom
sofware designed to work well with those specific business processes.