For some, the world of business is akin to the coliseums of ancient Rome. A daily battle against phone calls, emails, to do list and everything else apart from the nuts and bolts of ensuring the business is producing what it needs to be successful. There can be very little time left at the end of the working day to take a holistic view of the business as a whole and to look at where improvements can be made.
Most modern businesses utilise computer systems to handle and manage the day to day business processes that are needed to manage customers, clients and products. Consultants and contractors can be successful in the short term and cover any cracks, but there is much more benefit to be had in reviewing the processes at ground level and how they are effecting the overall success and growth of the business.
For handling email, word processing and for general office use standard packages rarely let anyone down. They do what they say on the box and the modern versions of these programs are more stable and reliable than ever before. However, start using these programs for purposes other than this, for example, handling customer data and problems can quickly ensue.
Using ‘off the shelf’ software products for handling business data can be done, it can just often involve having many programs open at the same time and a lot of importing and exporting of data. Moving data from program to program can be slow, but there is also the risk of data becoming lost or corrupted due to the inevitable human errors that can creep in.
Custom software, or bespoke software as it is also known can solve these problems. As the name suggests it is software built to suit and fulfil a particular business need. The advantage of combining the job of many different software packages not only improves efficiency from a technical point of view it can also reduce the stress of employees as they no longer have a long list of commands to remember to fulfil their duties.
From the original design through to implementation the needs of the business can be communicated to the software developers. This can be to ensure all required features are implemented, but it can also be useful to set out an implementation plan early. This can be a good from a budget point of view as well as a logistics point of view, providing time for the system to be gradually implemented.
Often, when custom software is being designed for specific business processes or needs, other areas are highlighted that may need attention. Even if the problems are not software related, by digging down into the fundamental processes of your business it can be quite an eye-opening experience to see where improvements can be made. Starting with the implementation of bespoke software can be the start of overhauling the whole business and provide solid foundations to build upon.
Learn more about custom software and Delphi programming by visiting the MSM website.