Custom applications are the backbone of an organisations digital estate. They provide you with the ability to design a solution that meets your needs and is tailored to you. But when people think about custom applications, they regularly make some negative assumptions.
In this article we bust the myths around custom applications.
- Custom apps are expensive – This is a myth that we hear a lot. When you compare a custom application project to a low code development or CRM implementation, it is true that in terms of upfront costs, custom applications can regularly be more expensive. But when you consider that custom applications do not come with license costs simply hosting costs, the ongoing costs are typically much lower. When you consider the total cost of ownership across the application lifecycle then it is regularly true that custom applications are cheaper.
- With custom applications you need to build everything from scratch – This is a common misconception. Custom application languages come with development frameworks that contain prebuilt elements. These elements provide you with a head start saving development time and cost.
- Custom applications are hard to adapt and evolve – The cost of change is something that is raised when thinking about custom applications. When comparing it to low code or CRM solutions both of these solutions are more restrictive in terms of the ability to change, and both also require a specialist consultant or developer to update. So, when comparing updating custom applications to other solutions both require expert input.
- Custom applications are restricted in their architecture – Again, people regularly think that depending on the development platform you use that you are stuck on one platform or another. With custom applications you can host your application anywhere in the world and generally on any hosting platform, on-premise, cloud and with the use of containers in any cloud environment too.
- Deploying custom applications is hard – With the rise in PaaS services it has never been easier to host and deploy a custom application. Plus, when it comes to global deployment there are a number of advantages for deploying a custom application vs a business system or low code solution.
As you can see, when considering the total cost of ownership, a custom application can regularly come out as a valuable option. It is way more flexible than the perception and when it comes to changes and keeping it up to date it shares a similar maintenance overhead as other options do too.
One of the main reasons to build a custom application is that you can break away from the crowd. How are you going to outdo your competition if your technology is basically the same. The ability to develop a unique approach and a unique software solution is a way many successful organisations find to drive extra efficiencies and build a USP around.
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