3 Reasons to Say Yes to Custom Software

The project management system crashes for the second time today—the 4th time this week. Suddenly your Slack blows up, the whole team is frustrated, and you can’t find that linked document you need. Your day went from I-only-need-one-cup-of-coffee to coffee-in-an-IV in the amount of time it took you to realize restarting your browser wasn’t going to help.
And by the time everything is back up, you know you need a new project management system.

But you don’t have to spend countless hours demoing other project management systems only to find out none of them have everything you need. 

You need custom software.

At Primitive we think the expense of custom software is worth it because with custom software you:

• Own it
• Simplify and save
• Solve industry pain points

You Own It

Owning Your Own Software Delivers Client Consistency

No matter what industry you’re in—healthcare, education, financial, digital marketing, or ag—client experience always matters. And when the software you use—internally or client facing—doesn’t deliver, it shows. If your project management software fails, a team member might miss a deadline or important client feedback. Or if the video conferencing software you use has trouble sending invitations or syncing with calendars, a client may see your team as less professional.

But, with custom software, you’re not dependent on another company to create the experience you want. And when you own it, if it’s not working, you change it. 

So, if you’re looking for a consistent client experience, try working with a team of developers to create custom software.

Custom Software is a Goodbye to Work-arounds 

One of the biggest hassles of using canned software is that moment when you realize the feature you actually need isn’t built in. Suddenly, you’re looking for integrations with other companies, seeing if there’s a work-around with another existing feature, or if you’ll have to use a completely different software to compliment the one you already have. We’re not saying integrations and work-arounds are bad, but they’re not easy.

With a custom software, you hop on a call with your expert dev team, and we create the feature you actually need. 

No More Email Only Customer Service

We’ve all had bad customer service experiences. That moment when your CMS won’t let you log in and the only way to get a hold of customer service is email. And their first response is asking you to do the troubleshooting steps one more time. And the whole time, you’re not serving your client. 

If you have custom software, the fix is emailing your developers, not customer service. And a team of expert, imaginative developers can solve just about any problem.

Simplify and Save

Custom Software Simplifies Your Process

Let me tell you one thing that never feels simple: password management. And when you’re using three platforms and four integrations to track your entire inventory management process, you’re either using a password management system (that you need a password for) or you spend too much time resetting passwords. And that doesn’t even cover time spent training on different platforms, learning their work flows and terms, and maintaining relationships with client reps. And so when you hear, “Custom software is too expensive,” you may not be taking the cost of time and employee stress into account. 

When you use custom software, you’re looking at one login, one user training, and no customer service reps. 

Save Money by Cancelling Software Subscriptions

When you’re working with custom software, you pay upfront for development, and for changes and maintenance. You’re not looking at recurring user fees. You’re not paying more per-seat if your company grows. And while the upfront cost of custom software can seem big, when you add up perpetual use of all four softwares you're using to support one workflow, there is a savings. You’re also looking at fewer administrative hours tracking subscriptions, changing plans, and the inevitable cost of half your team reviewing new software, when an old one doesn’t work.

What we see over and over is custom software cuts administrative time down, delivers the solutions you actually need, and simplifies revenue and billing. 

Solve Industry Pain Points

As a team of developers, we love being part of industry solutions. And custom software isn’t just redesigning a project or inventory management system. Custom software is creating a solution that doesn’t yet exist. 

Common Contractor Practice Becomes Illegal

We recently worked with a client who wanted to save himself, and his peers from losing money. He told us that contractors regularly lost money to be competitive. In his industry, many companies waived client insurance deductibles to get that client’s business. And while it was revenue lost, it kept them in the game. Eventually legislative changes made this practice a form of fraud. And those contractors lost more than the waived deductible, they lost their income stream.

Find an Industry-Wide Solution with Custom Software

People didn’t have an extra $1000 sitting around to cover a hail-damaged roof. And they were choosing to not get the work done at all. This was detrimental to contractors and was even worse for people living in damaged homes. Our client was determined to find a solution. He met with industry experts, insurance companies, and legislators. And he found a fix. He wanted to create a platform where contractors could let customers set up a flexible payment plan for the deductible. It was legal. And insurance companies and legislators all agreed. But, then came the hard part. He had to find or create software that included a CRM, a calculator, invoicing,  payment processing, and was secure. And pulling together multiple softwares would have over complicated the process for customers. 

Instead, the Primitive software team worked with FMD to create a software that does all those things. We helped create software that serves contractors and customers. Custom software helped solve an industry-wide problem.

So, step away from that crashing project management system. Stop the demo meetings. And consider if custom software is the next investment your business needs to make.

Whether you’re looking to create a solution or software product that doesn’t exist or make a project or inventory management system that works for you, let’s talk. Our team of approachable, expert developers are waiting for the next challenge!