Software can be a lot like clothing, and shopping for the stuff can be like a trip to the department store. You can do like most of the world does and buy your clothes off-the-rack, in which case it will:
a) fit perfectly (extremely rare, given the penchant clothing designers have for idealizing the human physique instead of making clothes to fit it); or
b) mostly fit, within acceptable parameters, or
c) fit like a potato sack, so you either take it back or give it to Goodwill.
The only way out of this gamble is to “go bespoke”, the gentleman’s term for buying clothes tailor-made. While it can cost a lot of money, it doesn’t cost as much as you might think, and your clothes are guaranteed to fit you the way they’re supposed to. Get a good tailor and it almost doesn’t matter what kind of physique you have – you’ll look great anyway.
It’s the same way with business software. Think about it: You’ve got a business and you need the right software to help you run it, or run part of it – like QuickBooks to help you be your own bean-counter without sweating the consequences at tax-time – but then QuickBooks turns out to be a “b”, a “mostly fits” application. Sure, it will keep you clothed, but there are about five pockets more than you need, and an extra pant-leg, too. Depending on your business, it may even turn out to be a “c”, a piece of bloated software with too many features and too many choices and an instruction manual three inches thick. I’m not picking on QuickBooks – I’ve used it myself and it’s pretty tight – I’m only using them as an example, a common application that multitudes of business owners think they must have in order to keep their business in order.
But the most well-known software applications are not necessarily the best for your company. Just because the world is addicted to MS Excel doesn’t mean you can effectively run your company with it. Sometimes you just need to drop the cash and go bespoke. Have the tool you need made for you. The up-front cost may be higher, but even the short term benefits (not to mention the long) can make it well worth the money for the benefit of a streamlined, custom-built application designed to benefit your business. That means software with no excess baggage and a host of features you’ll never use, no additional drain on resources, and a much easier time getting support if something goes wrong.
To be fair, custom-made software isn’t always the best way to go. We’ve turned down clients with tens of thousands to spend when we determined that an off-the-shelf program would work better for the type of business they had, and it can certainly be a less expensive way to outfit a new business. But when the time is right (usually when you’ve reached a glass ceiling with the way your company operates), you can really break through with the right tool helping you out. Save time, reduce cost, streamline daily operations – in the end, that’s what technology is for: It’s all about getting things done. Right and fast.
