Our Services: Why "Custom", not "Canned"? (cost-of-ownership
& more)There are usually many
factors to consider when attempting to estimate the cost of ownership to implement a new
software system. However, our solutions offer true financial benefits, especially
when compared to other types of solutions, because we provide custom enterprise software
development. This type of development includes direct communication with you,
detailed development schedules, efficient design, implementation, and testing
methodologies and procedures, onsite installations, integrations, and training, extremely
competitive rates, and low-cost support options.
Offerings from other software suppliers may include
"canned" software or other software that was customized for another company,
which may or may not be very similar to your company. These applications may meet
some of your specific needs but will definitely require additional costly customizations,
integrations, and possibly proprietary hardware, software, networking equipment, or
interfaces. Furthermore, there will usually be annual upgrade costs and required
support contract fees. Unfortunately, your suggestions for improvements, requests
for enhancements, requirements for corrections to errors and other "bugs", and
requirements for your growth and expansion are usually only "slated" for
consideration in the next expensive "release" -- which can be six months to a
year or more -- and may or may not be part of that release, depending on what other users
of the same system have requested, or how "marketable" your suggestions will be
to future users. Even with canned or previously-customized software that may somehow
remarkably meet 75% of your needs initially, your custom implementation, training
programs, and integration with existing hardware and software systems may take a year or
more to complete.
With a custom-developed software system from our company,
none of these factors apply. We work directly with you to design systems that work
exactly how you need them to work. We take into account your current business models, your
desired changes to existing systems, your growth and expansion requirements, and your
existing hardware and software systems and integration requirements, and we provide
personalized, detailed, onsite instruction. Our systems do not require proprietary
hardware or networking equipment, and even though our software is "customized"
for your company and is a "proprietary" solution for you, the code and tools
used to develop this software are not proprietary; the tools are standard,
industry-leading software development tools, and the code is written using Microsoft
standards and standard software engineering methods and protocols, so you are not locked
into us as the only vendor who could maintain or support the systems. With our
custom-developed software, there are no annual upgrade costs; upgrades are driven directly
by you, so you only pay for additions or enhancements that you specifically request.
There are no required support contract fees; you pay only for the actual time spent
on support incidents, on a case-by-case basis at our standard rate. Any of your
suggestions for improvements, requests for enhancements, requirements for corrections to
errors and other "bugs", and requirements for your growth and expansion are
immediately dealt with; errors are corrected immediately at no charge, and any other
additions, modifications, or enhancements are submitted back to you with detailed time and
cost estimation, so that you can make the decision as to which modifications are feasible
at that time. Our solutions meet 100% of your needs, and are built to meet your
future needs as well because we work with you to define these factors. Finally, we
combine all aspects of implementation into our project schedules, which provides efficient
and effective development and deployment. We design, develop, implement, install,
integrate, test, and provide training for custom-defined, enterprise software systems in
less time and usually at much lower cost than most other solutions including
"canned" and previously-customized applications.