Introduction to bespoke software, part 3: Examples of how you can benefit
In our Introduction to bespoke software blog series we have already covered what bespoke software is and compared bespoke to off-the-shelf software.
In this blog, we’ll show you some real-life examples of how bespoke software can unlock the full potential of a business.
Lab31
There are many off-the-shelf e-commerce platforms available - some of them are free to use, such as WooCommerce, OpenCart, and PetraShop, and some are paid, like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento. These are all decent examples of platforms that allow you to kick off your business quickly. However, there is more to a business than showcasing your products and accepting online payments. When a customer places an online order, a whole chain of events and processes is triggered.
That was also the case for Lab31, a photo printing e-commerce business. They have a set of processes that needs to be followed behind the scenes to prepare the images, print them, pack and ship to the customer. The system we built for Lab31 covers not just the front end, but every aspect of the order lifecycle, from allowing the customer to select the size of the picture and the style of the frame, to receiving their order in the mail.
The bespoke software we built for Lab31 was made to match their internal processes, fitting around the team’s well-organised workflow. It aligned perfectly to their work, making them even more efficient and cost-effective.
“The Beaverhad have created a new, intuitive solution that allows you to place complex orders in a simple way … They designed the architecture of the system in a way that would allow it to expand with many functionalities in the future … The project allowed us to move from a local to a nationwide market. We have gained many new customers and accelerated the order processing process.” - Mateusz Papliński, Owner, LAB31
Big Lazy Panda
These days, you can find off-the-shelf solutions for almost all of your business problems. There are spreadsheets that are very flexible and easy to use, there are accounting platforms and form creators that allow you to create any document you want. The problem is that many of these tools are not created to speak to each other.
You can try to integrate all of them, but you always end up with one main product doing most of the work and sending data to or needing information from the other tools. Such an environment is not efficient and opens you up to a lot of risk and extra work.
Fortunately for their business, Big Lazy Panda decided to avoid these problems by investing in a custom solution that removes the need for most of the tools they use and replaces them with one central platform. They still use their favorite third party tools, but now they are integrated with their central system and communicate seamlessly, without the need for manual data entry.
“The Beaverhead's work has allowed us to focus on creativity knowing that our project management is exactly where it needs to be.” - Brad Powell, CEO, Big Lazy Panda
Pest Control
There are situations when a business must take a step forward to prepare for growth and to become a market leader - even when it’s a local business. This often requires them to create something new, something not yet available on the market.
With the ability to create new tools to be used by pest control technicians, leveraging tablet devices to aid their work, it has become possible for our client to speed up the work and provide better customer service thanks to their newly created platform.
This would not have been possible without the courage from the business owners to invest and the engagement of a managerial team that was aware of the possibilities that new technologies bring. From our experience, it’s not always obvious to stakeholders what options they have and what they can achieve with the right approach to custom software.
"The Beaverhead’s knowledge on android development has been very helpful and contributed a great deal to us on the project we're working on.” - Elliot Lawrance, CEO, Squeeze Technologies
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many benefits to getting bespoke software solutions to solve your business problems - from streamlining your internal processes to gaining a real competitive advantage.
It’s worth noting that modern bespoke software solutions are different from the ones that were built 20, or even just 10 years ago. In the past, bespoke tools were mainly desktop applications installed on a corporate computer. Today, most of the tools tailored for a business operate in cloud and leverage functionality of modern web browsers and mobile applications. They are more secure and their access can be limited to your company network (with global access through VPN).
So what are you waiting for?
Find out how custom tools can improve your business performance, or even generate an extra revenue stream, by contacting us today.
