Customised software (also known as bespoke software or tailor-made software) is software that is specially developed for some specific organization or other user. As such, it can be contrasted with the use of software packages developed for the mass market, such as commercial off-the-shelf software, or existing free software.
Advantages
Custom software will generally produce the most efficient system as it can provide support for the specific needs of the business, which might not be available in an off-the-shelf solution and will provide greater efficiency or better customer service.
Disadvantages
Custom software is often several times the cost of the other mass-market products, and will normally include an ongoing maintenance cost. This will often make custom software infeasible for smaller businesses. These higher costs can be insignificant in larger businesses where small efficiency increases can relate to large labour cost savings or where custom software offers a large efficiency boost.
Our Choice: Hybrid model
Particularly with modern cloud software, a hybrid model of custom software is possible in which the main focus is on the commercial off the shelf software – mainly the mismatch between its features, functions and the business requirements, preferences and expectations. The idea here is to buy a commercial off the shelf software which satisfies maximum number of requirement and develop custom software (extensions or add-ons) to fill the gaps left by it.
Full-cycle custom application development
BWSoft develops software products from the ground up as well as takes up development at any stage of the software lifecycle. We help our customers generate detailed requirements that we turn into real applications. We also assist companies in the post-deployment period and provide long-term maintenance and support services for the implemented solutions.
Step. 1
Requirements gathering
Our business analysts possess extensive technological and domain-specific knowledge to collect, analyze, assess and structure our customers’ functional and nonfunctional requirements for their applications. This stage is followed with drawing up a detailed solution development roadmap.
Step. 2
Prototyping
Based on the deliverables from the business analysis phase, our team builds wireframes and prototypes to assess software feasibility and get the customer’s early feedback. In case our architects detect technical bottlenecks, we offer alternative solutions to address the initial requirements.
Step. 3
Product design
Our team of UI and UX designers translates the collected requirements and prototypes into product design. We set up the product usage scenarios, navigation, and interactive components. We also define user personas and their paths to deliver an intuitive design.
Step. 4
Custom app development
BWSoft develops custom web and mobile applications while prioritizing their easy management, integration and scalability. We couple our development activities with continuous testing to check the solution’s performance and behavior, as well as assess the functional health of all software components.
Step. 5
Testing and acceptance validation
Only when your software is fully tested according the agreed and collected requirement, your business will start using it for a pilot phase during which the last refinement are collected, and will be added to your fully customized software
Step. 6
Maintenance and support
We offer three levels of support for applications developed either by BWSoft or by a third-party vendor. We can solve a variety of challenges: application upgrades and functional improvements, performance monitoring and security assessment, application migration and integration.