Almost every business in the world functions on IT, regardless of the size and scale of the business. From communicating with customers to registering orders, troubleshooting complaints and monitoring physical warehouses, IT is an indispensable part of normal business operations. This makes it so much more pronounced when the software or IT solution that a small business uses does not quite fit its requirements, its business model, or the metrics it has to meet to keep growing.

While these solutions are implemented with the best of intentions, what can tend to happen is that a lack of overall knowledge leads to the purchase of what seems to be the easiest choice. This is typically an out-of-the-box solution, or something that is geared towards different use-cases, and which would not take into account the business’ unique requirements.

The better option for small businesses is to opt for custom software, however many small businesses consider custom software as a more unnecessary expense.

Here are a few hidden costs tied to non-custom software that would be worth keeping in mind for small businesses looking to upgrade their IT capabilities.

Increased difficulty for employees to adjust

Every business depends on its employees’ productivity to succeed, and when you implement generic software, that productivity can become severely hampered, whether it’s due to a misalignment between the software use-case and your business needs, or simply a lack of technical expertise from your employees. As a result, employees will struggle to adapt to the newer way of working, and thus find it difficult to maintain an efficient workflow. This can thus lead to diminishing productivity and low employee morale as they struggle to keep on top of the work.

Manual processes are still required

While most out-of-the-box software will take care of a bulk of your IT needs, being intended for larger businesses or businesses of a certain size means that there is every likelihood that you will need to use some manual workarounds to meet your needs. Manual workarounds for small parts of the business can be fine to implement, but when it comes to elements of work such as data entry, the high risk for human error and data inconsistencies makes this an additional burden on your business.

Integration issues with existing software

Almost every business will use more than one kind of software within its operations; the problems arise when those two or three systems are not designed to integrate with each other, making you spend more time, money, and energy trying to figure out a way of making your different kinds of software interact with each other. Some of the integrations also require a baseline understanding of IT, making your easy out-of-the-box solution far harder to implement in practice.

Scalability that doesn’t fit business requirements

Depending on the size of your business, you may find that you will quickly outgrow your software’s capabilities, especially if it’s an out-of-the-box solution. As a result, you may find that you will need to change your business software sooner rather than later, and if you’ve only recently updated your software, this can be an additional cost that you would be able to circumvent.

While the majority of businesses will find at least one out-of-the-box solution that can fit some of their needs, they are unlikely to find a solution that fits all of them, leading to more money spent in the long run to address all business requirements. Custom software solutions, while initially a higher purchase, can be far more economical in the long run as you can design your software solution to suit your employees’ skillsets, the strategic plan for your business growth, and your existing software.

Ultimately, investing in IT solutions for your business will always be costly, however choosing custom software over an out-of-the-box solution that will allow you to tailor the software itself to what you require will significantly reduce operational and upgrading costs in the future.

If you need help finding a custom software solution for your business, reach out, we are always happy to help you determine what software fits best.

If you’re interested in custom IT solutions, and you have no idea where to start, reach out: we’re always happy to guide you along the right path.