Supply chain software is essential for the success of various firms in the market. For example, manufacturing companies need supply chain software to manage their everyday activities and ensure that they have a steady supply of core resources for their firms. Similarly, software developers may need supply chain software to ensure they possess all the proper resources for developing certain apps. After all, development requires both software and hardware.
Generally, there are two approaches to the usage of supply chain software. On the one hand, you can buy a supply chain solution based on some general market requirements. These solutions are called off the shelf and are usually developed by independent product firms. On the other hand, supply chain software can also come in the form of custom apps that require supply chain software development services. These are designed for specific firms and help them solve their unique problems. In this article, we’ll look at the key benefits of custom supply chain software for enhancing operational efficiency.
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Critical Problems of Proprietary Software
Proprietary software has multiple problems that make it suboptimal for supply chain management. First and foremost, these solutions often fail to fit the relevant customer profiles. In many cases, they have features that are unnecessary for their customers and, at the same time, don’t have crucial features. There is a constant risk of a misalignment between the customer requirements and the capabilities of an app.
More importantly, a more significant risk is involved with proprietary software in general. This more considerable risk comes in the form of ownership problems. A different company owns proprietary software. This factor creates multiple issues. You cannot affect the development of the relevant app. Any license changes can immediately affect your ability to use the software. Lastly, if your partner company fails, it can damage your business tremendously by disrupting your documents or even leading to the deletion of the core supply chain details. All in all, proprietary software is full of risks that are often difficult to avoid.
How Custom Supply Chain Software Solves the Presented Problems: Critical Benefits of The Technology
Custom supply chain software solves the problems of proprietary software in multiple manners. The first solution comes in the form of better alignment between the relevant software and what your company does. With custom software, you can control the key features of your app. This approach reduces risks of resource waste and underutilization. You won’t have unnecessary features.
Consequently, the relevant apps considerably raise productivity in various firms by ensuring that they have the tools specifically tailored to their unique needs. For example, let’s imagine that you have a car parts business. In this situation, you may have many unique part models that are difficult to register in proprietary apps. Custom software will solve this problem by giving you the forms necessary for registering this information.
There’s one more positive benefit of custom supply chain software. These benefits come in the form of ownership over the solutions. Ownership over the custom app has multiple significant benefits. The primary benefit is adding new features to those apps without waiting for other firms’ decisions. More importantly, ownership over a specific app becomes essential because it prevents juridical problems arising from particular license changes. In this case, you have complete control over your license. As a result, there’s also a decreased risk of encountering large-scale problems with vendor lock-in. Since you have full control over development, you can always change the developing company or even abandon the software by creating some easy transfer solutions.
All this dramatically raises the efficiency of supply chain solutions. Unique features help with maximizing the positive outcomes in your firm. At the same time, ownership over your solution prevents situations in which issues such as vendor lock-in are likely to lead to long-term inefficiencies in your production. Custom solutions are about maximal control and the prevention of potential crises that may arise from the erratic actions of other companies.
Potential Pitfalls of Custom Solutions
At the same time, custom solutions have some potential pitfalls. The first vital pitfall is price. In many cases, developing a custom solution is a relatively expensive endeavor. As a result, many companies can’t invest in them due to fund limitations.
Another problem with them is that certain features may require economies of scale. The developers of large proprietary solutions typically have access to more extensive resources than firms that want to develop custom frameworks. This means that they have an advantage when implementing features such as artificial intelligence, for example. In this light, many smaller companies may want to avoid investments in custom apps.
What is the potential solution to those problems? In our opinion, developing a full-scale custom solution isn’t always necessary. Instead, you can create feature expansions that will help maximize the positive effects of certain proprietary apps. Another way to minimize costs is to use no-code and low-code solutions. In this regard, companies like Keenethics offer some of the best options for their customers.
What should you look for while searching for a development partner that can enhance the efficiency of your supply chains? We believe the best option is to seek companies with at least five years of experience and an extensive development portfolio. If you want to work with a startup company in the development field, the best option is to search for developers and managers with significant experience in other firms.