With the progress of digitalization, more companies seek to rely on custom software options. Why it is worth investing in custom-designed software is outlined in this article.
Custom enterprise software has been a steady trend among wide-ranged businesses in recent years. Despite the abundance of ready-made business solutions supported by Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and other global ERP suppliers, a wide number of companies still pursue to design their own type of business system that would fit better with their business models. Why? The reasons are many. First, it allows you to control all of your business processes in one place without the need to rely on third-party services and tools. Second, it ensures a higher level of data security, especially if you stick to a hybrid cloud model or prefer on-premise servers. Finally, it makes you independent because you are the main Product Owner and decision-maker when it comes to further software development or improvement.
The rise of digital transformation in Japan has led to the massive adoption of information technology in business. Blockchain, cloud computing, robotics, and AI are just a few of the technologies widely adopted in the business environment these days. While Japan itself is a hub of world-changing discoveries and uninterrupted technology revolution, the use of IT for business purposes further strengthens the digitization of the economy at a fast pace. The most common way of driving digital transformation within an organization is by onboarding IT specialists from software development companies that collectively work on enterprise software and help businesses speed up the process of digitization.
One of these companies is Computools, a global full-service software company that creates one-of-a-kind software products for business needs. Their R&D center along with the Expert Team has named four major trends in enterprise software development that most likely will dominate the Japanese market as well.
1. Discovery phase
Prior to starting developing a digital product, many credible companies, including Computools, prefer conducting the discovery phase. Its role in the software development life cycle is as important as coding itself. The discovery phase is meant to align the client’s and the team’s vision of the product and make up a blueprint for low-risk and effective software development. At this stage, lots of IT specialists are involved in the requirements engineering process: Architect, Business Analyst, Software Engineers, Team Leads, and Client. By the end of the discovery phase, the client has the software documentation, inducing software architecture, solution requirements and design, and product specifications. The point is that the discovery phase is essential for all businesses that want to build their own digital products. Without it, it is impossible to foresee the majority of project-related risks and most often the team fails to stick to the stated budget and deadline. Here, at Computools, the discovery phase is considered obligatory for every new project, and as practice shows, it fully pays off when the client receives the desired software with workable and relevant functionality after the product release.
2. Software design patterns
Today custom enterprise software is not something built from scratch. It is possible to use solution patterns or ready-made boxes that provide you with the basic functionality to which you add additional customized features. The biggest advantage of design patterns is that it does not affect the quality of your product but allows you to save on your budget and develop your system within a short period of time. So far, there are a variety of boxes for every industry and domain of knowledge. The most popular boxes are usually targeted at eCommerce companies that look for customizable marketplaces. However, we offer a lot more versatile boxes, such as video-conferencing/video-chat kits and object detection kits, that can be tailored to any industry or field.
3. Cloud solutions
Building your enterprise system from the ground up allows you to create any IT infrastructure depending on your business needs. The cloud model has become the cornerstone of serverless architecture that ensures extreme flexibility and scalability of the software. Supported by the tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, Google, cloud capacity is leveraged in each and every industry, providing businesses with plenty of benefits. For example, cloud computing creates a favorable environment for creating scalable serverless architecture which can automatically switch server parameters depending on your workload and traffic. Additionally, the whole idea of managing all business operations in the cloud helps significantly reduce the cost of software development and maintenance, as the designed solution will require no physical servers and no team to keep the hardware in operation. Moreover, cloud solutions provide greater flexibility for distributed teams, as the technology gives them an opportunity to work on the same project, document, or business activity without the need to put effort into synchronization because the cloud does it for you through automated data updates.
4. Full-cycle development
The most successful partnership between software developers and businesses takes place when the product is not just designed but also maintained after its release. As was mentioned earlier, the discovery phase is the pre-production research stage when the team thoroughly explores the product’s functionality and business value. But once it is validated and the project has gone through the design, development, testing, and release stages, reliable software companies stay with the client to ensure appropriate maintenance of the product while keeping space for further scalability. They are responsible for the smooth bug-free operation and get involved with further product updates and modifications.
Why go for custom-designed software?
The latest research on the Japanese market shows that CRM and ERP are the two most popular types of enterprise software that continue to grow in use. However, not all IT vendors can predict what you expect of your business system. This is why custom software development remains a good option for every type of business. It enables startups and enterprises to make the most of their digital systems without creating dependency on third-party providers and vendors. Computools does not require you to go through all of this. Computools’s partners are free from unnecessary paperwork and formalities because what they care most about is the client’s future that can be created with custom software tailored to their business value and goals.