Custom Software Development

The Case for Custom Software Development

Buying CTOS applications involves several risks. But, at first, these solutions seem to be the most cost-effective solution to start under budget. But, in the end, CTOS's lack of flexibility and hidden costs force clients to look for more flexible programs that allow them to achieve their goals.

Small business owners usually guess that only more prominent companies can afford a tailored application. So, as a result, they end up buying CTOS software. But, to their surprise, these entrepreneurs find that they only own a yearly subscription, which requires them to buy more and more features over time to afford more capabilities. In addition, some vendors force their clientele to use their services uniquely, such as credit card processors, email, cloud storage, Etc. Supposing a client wants to cancel the subscription, exporting their customers to a new vendor is complicated. For example, it would be very frustrating if you could not use your local state bank because of its preferential treatment and low fees.

if you are using a CTOS e-commerce application, please notice that you resemble your competitors and pay for many services included in your subscription. For instance, you pay for the number of products in your store, credit card processing fees, email, storage, marketing, and search engine presence. If you want to top score in searches, you must increase your quota by buying additional services.

This challenge's solution consists of creating a bespoke application, an investment asset, and not an expense. Therefore, this program must solve the client's problem in the short term and adapt automatically to solve new requirements in the long run.

Yet, starting from scratch increases the costs substantially and makes the product not affordable. Also, developing an application for the first time is error-prone because the client and vendor speak different languages and are not always on the same page. If this is the case, the vendor is responsible for overcoming these difficulties. Only its experience constructing similar projects can guarantee the delivery of the right solution under budget.

Affordable Custom Software Development Services.

Since 2008, our company has helped small business owners in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and other cities with their custom software development needs. Herlinda has built many applications for different industries and speaks fluently in the various protocols and standards required by the industry.

The core challenge in building custom software is defining the real problem and architecting the minimum viable solution toward constructing the final product. This statement might sound like a primary school paragraph. However, we found a language barrier thru the years: customers speak business lingo while software vendors speak technical language. In addition, building software does not resemble building a home, where you have a blueprint and know all the details in advance. Instead, building software is an iterative process of constructing parts to assemble the final product. For example, new requirements and enhancements might pop up during the second stage, requiring remodeling the previous step. To make the situation worse, many volatile variables like market trends, the pandemic, and search engine visibility introduce new requirements not considered by the client nor by the vendor in the original plan.

Herlinda employs a methodology focused on analyzing all the assumptions and removing those not based on data and facts. Unfortunately, the received knowledge asserting that the customer is always right many times ends up in failure. Our development process targets as much as possible the final audience, including our clients' customers and the search engines. The search engines constitute hidden customers with different requirements when the solution ranks in Internet searches. This approach allows to decrease uncertainty and to build a minimum viable product (MVP). Once we deploy the MVP, the entire process repeats to change direction if required until building the final product.

The right approach assures we are building the right product. However, our clients benefit more from our proven recipes developed over many years. For example, the costs and development time decrease when your product includes a requirement or feature we already have solved or constructed.

Herlinda employs free-open-source technologies provided by giants like Google, Facebook, and the open-source community to reduce costs. In addition, our solutions include a free Content Management System (CMS) to administer your application and a free Content Development Network to handle your media files.

The CMS system requires only configuration and not programming, which accelerates the development time. However, handling pictures and media files constitutes a time-consuming and expensive task. Therefore, we provide free CDN storage via our business associates. First, our customer can upload their media files to their CDN storage. Then, using a web browser, they can manipulate the media files by only adding parameters and not modifying the originals. In addition, the CDN storage offers features like formatting, adding filters, padding, cropping, Etc.

For example, one of the e-commerce customers based in Florida handles a catalog of around two thousand products classified in many brands, families, categories, and models. In addition, the pictures of every product come from different sources in different colors, sizes, and formats. They tried several CTOS solutions before and hired us to build a fast-performing e-commerce solution for their customers and an administrative program to handle their varied catalog. Indeed, our CRM and CDN solution managed their product catalog, and We only constructed their e-commerce application.

If customer software development constitutes a solution to unleash your business potential, consider Herlinda for your next project, and contact us for a free demonstration and estimate.