Software which is designed to meet your company’s specific needs can (and should) play a major role in improving efficiency.
Perhaps the most impactful difference is in the automation of manual tasks. Bespoke software can automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, reducing the workload of employees and playing a significant role in increasing efficiency. In many businesses, the automation of things like data entry are of critical importance. For others, it’s the automation of a particular systematic function, like report generation to aid stock control.
As well as aiding efficiency, the process of thinking about automation in your business can also help to improve accuracy. Bespoke software can be designed to eliminate errors that can occur with manual processes. When tasks are automated, accuracy improves and this has a knock-on effect on employee efficiency. There is no need to spend time resolving problems or correcting mistakes, so your teams can focus on more complex tasks.
When helping businesses find efficiencies, we often identify the need to integrate disparate systems such as accounting, CRM and stock management. Automation in these areas, which are common to most businesses, helps to ensure data is consistent and up-to-date, reducing the risk of errors and enabling all employees to access the information they need more quickly, safe in the knowledge that it is accurate.
Critically, well-designed bespoke software aids better decision-making. Software which is designed to provide real-time data and insights on key areas such as customer behaviour, costs, and sales trends can make an enormous difference, both in terms of the quality and timeliness of management decisions.
What exact is ‘quality’ software design?
Good software design will pay for itself time and again. But it requires careful planning and attention to detail. Key factors of a quality approach to bespoke software design include:
- Usability: good software is user-friendly and easy to navigate. We spend a lot of time crafting a clear and intuitive user interface that allows user to perform tasks efficiently. Usability testing is always part of the design process to ensure the software meets the needs of its intended users, and we build in time at the outset to make fixes and adjustments.
- Maintenance: Well-designed software is easy to maintain and update over time. We incorporate modular design principles to make it easy to add or modify features with minimal disruption. Maintenance is always well documented, with clear comments and documentation that makes it easy for everyone involved in the development project to see how it works. This is particularly important over time when business requirements change and we have to revisit the original code.
- Performance: We optimise at every stage for strong performance so that applications run quickly on a range of hardware. Performance testing is, again, standard practice so that we can unblock bottlenecks that could reduce efficiency.
Got a project in mind?
The starting point is a conversation with a member of our team. We can help you scope your project and look at the cost vs benefits to ensure your use of technology delivers real business benefit.
