Entrepreneurs and managers want to increase the effectiveness and productivity of their employees. However, this is easier said than done. Mainly because there is no cookie-cutter solution that works for every employee. However, custom software designed specifically for your business environment, employee, and goals can help with this problem.
Many businesses go for off-the-shelf or pre-made software to use in their operations. When I ran my first business, I used a typical sales tracking software that only required my Spectrum internet to work. This type of software is based on the concept that whenever a specific task needs doing, it can be done the exact same way every time. This can be problematic.
Consider this. My sales tracking software assumed everyone sells their goods or services in the same way. It assumed that everyone spends on advertising the same way. It also defined success or failure for any business based on the same statistics. Do you see the problem?
Why Off-The-Shelf Doesn’t Always Work
Buying off-the-shelf software for your business can be tempting. It doesn’t cost as much as a full custom software deployment. It doesn’t require you to maintain it in most cases. It normally has off-site servers, so you don’t have to worry about downtime. These are great advantages of off-the-shelf or pre-made programs. But when it comes to business productivity, they may not always be the best choice. Here’s why:
Businesses Have Different Tasks
Businesses all have one ultimate goal, profits. But the way they try to achieve that goal differs from business to business. Even two businesses in the same industry may not perform the same tasks to reach the same goal. If businesses belong to different industries, the differences are even more obvious. One program cannot work well for both a business selling clothing and a business selling jewelry online.
Employees Work Differently
The way employees work also differs from business to business and employee to employee. A creative agency will employ people who are don’t function under rigid structures and use their creative abilities. A CPA firm will have employees who pay strict attention to detail and rules. An off-the-shelf solution cannot work for both types of employees.
The Learning Curve
There is usually an intense learning curve associated with new software that can be very disruptive. This can actually reduce productivity instead of increasing it. If your new off-the-shelf software doesn’t work well with your existing systems, you will have to train your employees on it. That’s hours of time that could have been used for productive work instead of training.
How Custom Software Increases Business Productivity
Most experts agree that automation is one of the best ways to increase business productivity. Automation usually concerns tasks that are repetitive but take up significant time to perform. For example, you need to transfer information from one system to another. It can take up several hours and tie-down resources for that duration. The software that you use to automate this should ideally work with all your different systems. It should also be intuitive and simple enough so any employee can use it. Custom software is the answer to both these problems. Here’s how it increases business productivity:
It Does What You Require
The software does exactly what your programmers designed it for, i.e. what you need it for. You can use it to automate any number of tasks that are specific to your business and that consume time and resources. This frees up those resources to be used productively elsewhere. At the same time, the system does nothing more than what you require. That means it takes up less space on your system and doesn’t come with any unnecessary features.
It Is Specific To Your Business
When custom software is in the works, a team of developers will first get to know your business and its processes. They will also take input from the employees involved in those processes that will be using the software in the future. The final deployment only happens after a lot of testing and redesign. The result is a piece of software that is specific to your business and is unique. If designed right, it can even give you an edge over the competition because they don’t have it.
It Involves All Relevant Employees
Employees within different departments and functions need to communicate with each other to make sure processes flow smoothly. Businesses with remote and overseas employees have even more need for effective communication and collaboration between diverse teams. Custom-made software can help in both cases. It can bridge the gap and offer a secure space for employees to collaborate on tasks and improve their productivity and effectiveness.
Conclusion
A small mom-and-pop business like my first one doesn’t need much in the way of technology. I just had Spectrum packages, my computer, and a bookkeeping program as well as myself doing most of the tasks. But when my business grew and I opened several stores in the state, I knew an off-the-shelf program wasn’t going to cut it. So I went to a friend who is a professional software and management systems whizz.
A little investment, testing, and a few weeks of redesign later, I had my own software that did all the tasks I required from it. And it still works 4 years and 3 stores later.
