Let’s get this out of the way: custom software is expensive. Sometimes, extremely expensive. Anyone who tells you differently is not in the business of making good software. 

Some business owners may hear a total dollar amount and immediately determine that their organization cannot afford custom software.

But before ruling out such an investment, it is important for organizations to understand what it might be costing them if they fail to invest in custom software. In other words, what are the hidden costs of keeping your current software systems if your company is outgrowing them? 

You may be asking, “Can I really afford to build the custom software my business needs?” A better question may be, “Can you really afford not to?”

## When you don’t need custom software

Let’s start by considering when a company does not need to consider a custom solution. Think of purchasing software as traveling from Point A to Point B toward a destination. 

If you live somewhere with an excellent public transportation system, purchasing a car may not be a worthwhile investment. If the metro or the bus efficiently and affordably transports you to the desired destination, take it.

Similarly, if your out-of-the-box SaaS easily moves you from Point A to Point B in the direction of your organization’s goals, consider yourself fortunate. You do not need a custom solution.

Often, this is the case for smaller organizations that have a high employee retention rate and low training costs. While no system will seamlessly meet every need, if your systems are working, your staff is sticking around, and there is not a general feeling of frustration from your staff or your customers, you don’t need custom software.

In addition, if your current technology aligns with your long-term business goals, you are content with the current state of your business, and your goal is simply to maintain that over time, then investing in custom software would not make sense for you.

## When you should consider custom software

But what happens when a company grows in size and begins to push the limits of its current software systems?

![A man is resting his head against a dramatic mound of paperwork, frustrated and defeated.](/uploads/customsoftware-frustration.jpg)

### Increasing Frustration: When Your Existing Software Fails You

One telltale sign that you are outgrowing your SaaS is a sense of sustained and increasing frustration.

If your technology no longer aligns with your business processes, here’s what happens. Your staff is frustrated because it takes an inordinate amount of time to accomplish simple tasks. They might be forced to use multiple systems, multiple devices, and re-enter the same data across platforms.

This, in turn, opens the door for mistakes and inefficiency. An increased amount of time and money for training is required, and a higher turnover rate results.

The frustration then makes its way up to management. The outgrown SaaS creates or contributes to a negative loop of recruiting, training, and losing new staff. In addition, the clunky systems lead to an increase in payroll costs and mistakes that may necessitate costly remediations. The growth of your organization is now stymied. 

Worse yet, your customers may also experience frustration if they have to use your system. In response to customer complaints about the UX, your staff member says, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you. There’s nothing I can do about that.” Now, instead of your current systems simply preventing growth, they are harming your company’s brand, your customer relationships, and jeopardizing the revenue earned through repeat customers. 

If you are a business owner who is torn between upgrading to enterprise software or augmenting staff and dealing with frustration, consider the potential ROI on the right custom software solution. Compare that to what you are losing over time if you keep the same outgrown systems. If a $250,000 custom software solution can save your company $1 million within the first few years, it has more than paid for itself.

### Dealing with Cruft & Rising Subscription Costs

It may also be time to consider custom software if your organization is using a SaaS laden with cruft—badly designed, unnecessarily complicated, or unwanted software.

I saw an example of this recently when I consulted with a pest control company. They are beholden to a software system that has so much cruft that the software company literally offers “university” classes to clients so they can learn how to use (decipher) it. If the classes aren’t enough, customers can pay $150 to $250 per hour for specialized training. That’s a lot of money to understand a crufty system with an interface that looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1999.

In situations like these, many organizations pay for features they simply don’t need or, worse yet, have no idea how to use.

Another factor to consider is rising subscription costs. Many SaaS systems raise their prices every year, and what started as an affordable compromise could become a liability. As your business grows, the value you get from the SaaS keeps decreasing while your subscription costs keep increasing.

![The old man hides in his fort made of paperwork and accepts more paperwork from someone through a window like a troll accepting a bridge toll.](/uploads/customsoftware-dataproveance.jpg)

### Data Provenance: Trust and Control Over Your Data

Data provenance is another consideration when it comes to custom software.

If you ask your team for a report and receive conflicting information from different team members or different systems, that means you have a data provenance issue. If you are using a cobbled-together system, your data resides in different places. This makes it difficult to accurately identify, and therefore correct, the source of the data discrepancy. But if you have one system that is built correctly, it’s much easier for you to trust your data.

Custom software allows you to gain full control of your data by providing the necessary trust and reliability in your data provenance as well as elevated security.

### Boosting Business Valuation with Custom Software

If you are a company that hopes to be acquired one day, a discussion about custom software is one you need to have. Having your own IP will increase the value of your business.

In most cases, companies that do not have their own tech will receive a lower valuation because an expensive, enterprise out-of-the-box solution is considered a liability.

On the other hand, companies that own their software system—particularly if it’s a well-built system—will receive a much higher valuation. A custom solution that helps optimize your business is now an asset, especially if it sets you apart from the competition. If your custom software has automated and simplified your business operations, prospects will take note.

The exception to this would be if an acquirer’s goal is to roll up the newly acquired business into a larger one with preexisting processes and technology. In this case, they may not view your proprietary software as something that increases valuation, particularly if integration is challenging.

But generally, custom software is part of the secret sauce that makes you a viable acquisition.

## The Potential of Custom Software for Business Growth

So if your out-of-the-box SaaS aligns with your processes, you don’t need custom software. If your goal is just maintenance, you don’t need custom software.

But if your goal is innovation, growth, or acquisition, then investing in your company with custom software might be your best solution. Custom software allows you to start with processes and create a solution that maps to them.

The Smyth Group is ready to help you evaluate your software needs and see if a custom software solution is truly right for you. In the past 17 years, we’ve helped countless clients build custom software that’s resulted in more efficient processes and greater valuation. Get in touch and let’s see how we can do the same for you.

A clearly old man, both physically and fashionably, sits at an old desk with an old computer feeling old and sad.

How do you know it's time to make the investment in custom software? Here are 4 common indicators.

4 Signs Your Business Needs Custom Software | TSG Article

4 Signs Your Business Needs Custom Software

When fast-food powerhouse McDonald’s wanted to increase its milkshake sales, they did the seemingly sensible thing—researched milkshake-buyer demographics, built focus groups, and collected input from customers about everything from taste, to viscosity, to price. 

They implemented the changes recommended by their customers, sent “better” milkshakes out into the world, and waited for sales to spike. Instead, sales remained bewilderingly the same. There was no significant increase or decrease. 

What went wrong? According to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, they began with the wrong question. McDonald’s had asked its customers *what* they liked about milkshakes. But they failed to ask *why* they were buying them.

## Understanding the “Jobs to Be Done Theory” 

Understanding the motivations for customer choices—the why behind the what—is the central theme of Christensen’s 2005 paper, “The Cause and the Cure of Marketing Malpractice.” 

In it he states, “When people find themselves needing to get a job done, they essentially hire products to do that job for them… If a \[business owner] can understand the job, design a product…to do that job, and deliver it in a way that reinforces its intended use, then when customers find themselves needing to get that job done they will hire that product.” 

In other words, if you need a quarter-inch hole in a piece of wood, you’re likely to “hire” a drill with a quarter-inch bit to take care of that job. But if someone designed a phone app that could zap holes of any size into pieces of wood, would you still go out and buy a drill? Probably not. You would choose to “hire” the app for the job of making holes. 

A company could pour millions into designing the most amazing drill ever made, market it beautifully, and people all over the world would continue to happily zap holes with their phones, because no one ever really wanted a drill. They wanted holes.  

This outcome-driven theory is known as the “Jobs to Be Done” theory (“JTBD”) because it’s built around a central question: What is the job a person is hiring a product to do? What is the job to be done? In the realm of software, the JTBD could be timely communication, making data available to those who need it, or reducing friction within transactions, to name only a few. 

But pinpointing the real job that a product is hired to do can be elusive, and asking the wrong questions is a fast way to arrive at a wrong conclusion. McDonald's erroneously thought the job to be done was improving their milkshakes. How can you prevent a similar mistake in your organization?

![McDonald's milkshake in car cupholder](/uploads/mcdonalds-milkshake.jpg)

## Understanding Customer Needs: Decoding the Milkshake Mystery

When McDonalds hired Christensen to sort out their milkshake mystery, his team started without any assumptions. They stood in a McDonald’s restaurant for 18 hours, taking careful notes about every customer who bought a milkshake. They wrote down the time, what the customer was wearing, who they were with, whether they dined in or ordered take-out, and what else they bought. Essentially every detail was recorded. 

Soon, patterns began to emerge. Over half the milkshake sales were made before 8:30am. The customer was alone. They didn’t buy anything else, and they took their milkshake to their car and drove away. 

The next day, Christensen’s team went back and began asking the morning buyers why they were buying milkshakes. What job did the milkshake do for them? Turns out, these customers had one thing in common: a long, boring commute. They needed something to interact with as they drove and wanted to feel full until their first break. Other snacks were consumed too quickly or caused a mess. On the other hand, the milkshake lasted for the whole trip and fit right in the cupholder. It accomplished the job they wanted done better than other options. 

Who could have predicted that McDonalds wasn’t competing with the chocolatiness of Burger King milkshakes or the viscosity of Wendy’s Frostys, but were instead competing with the convenience of bananas and the satisfaction of snickers bars? 

## Why Demographic Data Isn’t Enough: Deciphering Customer Behavior

This brings to attention an important point: demographic data alone cannot accurately determine a customer’s intent. A person’s needs drive their behavior, even within structured environments. 

For example, if the database your organization uses is old and difficult to navigate, people may resort to using post-it notes to store information. The JTBD for them is, “have the information I need at hand for when I need it.” 

If a post-it note does that job better than your company’s software, it’s time to make a change.

## Identifying User Intent for Better Product Development

Identifying the intent of your users is the first step towards building a better product, and that starts with empathy. Whether you’re a CEO, a manager, or a UX designer, if you want to be effective at your job, you need to identify their job. You have to discover what need, desire, or objective they hope to satisfy. 

Far too often, businesses will rush this fundamental research phase and dive right into applied research, the way McDonald’s did. They will identify and propose a problem statement, but without proper fundamental research the problem statement is filled with assumptions, and applied research (the expensive stuff) heads toward a likely dead-end road.

![A graphic of the "JTDB" acronym: Jobs To Be Done.](/uploads/mcdonaldsmilkshape-jtbd.jpg)

## Crafting the Right Problem Statements for Outcome-Driven Solutions

A team might form a problem statement such as:

> *There is no drop-down option to indicate the status of a task.*

This seems straightforward, but what is the real JTBD here? Is it to label tasks with their status? Or is it to move tasks forward to the next stage? A better problem statement could be:

> *We need an efficient way to communicate to the next person in our workflow that a task is ready for them.* 

The second problem statement is open to an array of possible solutions, whereas the first is extremely limited. 

Imagine working off of the first problem statement, spending the resources that it takes to develop and integrate a new feature into the system, only to discover that while a dropdown is convenient for the person finishing the initial phase, the next person in the workflow must login to a system that they don’t actually use just to see the status of a task. This is not a particularly efficient solution, and probably did nothing to address the actual JTBD, which is effective communication. 

To be truly outcome-driven, it is important to check for assumptions in your problem statements before talking to your stakeholders. They are eager to share their stories of pain and success, but what they actually tell you will depend entirely on how they are prompted. Forming robust problem statements will allow you to test solutions that address their actual needs and contribute to improvement across company systems. 

## Helping You Achieve Your Goals

Jobs that need to be done encompass everything from large organizational goals down to specific smaller tasks, with many other JTBDs in between. 

In light of those insights, at The Smyth Group, we pride ourselves on avoiding assumptions by asking the right questions. We build tools to help clients make achievements on the way to accomplishing their goals. We can help you assess the problem areas in your system, identify the JTBD, and develop a custom software solution for your business. 

If you would like to learn more about our process and how we can help, please contact us for a free consultation.

A McDonalds sign lit up early in the morning hours.

Understanding Jobs To Be Done along with customer needs, behavior, and intent will refine your software. 

Why a McDonalds Milkshake Story Should Reshape Your Software

Why a McDonalds Milkshake Story Should Reshape Your Custom Software

In 1940, an $11 million dollar bridge over the Puget River in Tacoma, Washington, buckled and twisted in 40mph winds before snapping and collapsing only 4 months after it was opened for public use. Its construction was supposed to endure strong winds, but it collapsed due to a fundamental engineering oversight.  “Galloping Gertie,” as she is known, became a famous example of the risks involved in pushing forward with a design that may save costs but has not been fully tested. 

Today, making good software is somewhat like constructing a strong bridge or building. If you build along the lines of Galloping Gertie without understanding the implications of untested designs, the building will not last. 

When it comes to software, businesses are often more concerned with meeting deadlines than building a stable, future-proof product. Launching versions of your software into production sooner than your technical team is comfortable with could result in costly retrofits and years of usability being shaved off down the road. 

So what does it take to keep your software secure, maintainable, and flexible over the long term? Let’s consider nine common strategies that you and your technical team should be aligned on to get the best possible value for your investment.

## 1.  Accurately Defining Business Requirements for Software Development

A good way to fail is by making the wrong product for your business. This seems intuitive, but software (even a simple system) is very complicated, and it needs to serve multiple stakeholders at a company. It is all too common for a high-level executive to request software with features that aren’t actually useful to the mid-level managers and end users. So, making software becomes an exercise in communication. 

The first step is to accurately describe the right product for all the business stakeholders. Often this can be done with a few well-timed conversations and emails. 

The next step is to describe the right product to the development team. You wouldn’t expect a construction crew to construct a building from an artist’s sketch. The crew would need highly detailed blueprints. But in the world of software, many businesses provide only a rough sketch to the development team, perhaps a powerpoint and some wireframes. This is a recipe for confusing, frustrating, unnecessary software. Programmers need precise, thoughtfully defined requirements with clear examples of what you are looking for.\[1]

## 2. Enhancing the Developer Experience 

We’ve all heard of user experience and why considering it is important. Developers are a subset of your users—they’re simply working under the hood. They need quality tools and methods that work well in order to yield faster, more stable results. (Help me help you.) 

This includes a robust development mode for testing the software before deployment, a well-thought-out strategy to avoid “squirreling” (more on this later), and positive morale. 

If the developer experience is pleasant, your software will be made faster, and there will be more interest in creating quality versions of that software. Changes to the software can be made more efficiently, and new developers can be onboarded very quickly. 

Giving your developers tools and processes that improve their experience will streamline the entire process from beginning to end. 

## 3. Avoid Task Switching or Context Switching 

Extensive research shows that frequent task switching—at times referred to as squirreling—is detrimental to our productivity, increases the risk of error, and demands a high cognitive load. 

Frequently switching gears midstream will tank the velocity of any team, but this is especially true for programmers. When writing code, they can be working on a train of thought that spans several days. When this is interrupted with a request to make something else, it leaves loose ends in the code base that have to be finished later. A piece of code that was 8 hours away from completion may now be 24 hours away from completion when it is revisited if the original train of thought is lost or interrupted. 

It is a red flag if your requests for changes encounter resistance from your development team. Usually this is a sign of too many tasks in process and too few completed (which means the code has been deployed and in the hands of users). 

Having a clear product vision will prevent the interruption of a current workflow with a new/different/side workflow. \[2]

## 4. Implementing Infrastructure as Code 

Your staging, quality assurance, and production environments should all be identical. The only way to keep your servers truly identical is by writing a script that can be run by your cloud provider to automatically reprovision your server. This is called “infrastructure as code,” and it is manageable, scalable, and predictable. 

The parameters and settings of your system are written and provided to any platform as a complete package, not requiring any set up or manual adjustment. This methodology is like a series of rubber stamps that can be used over and over again, yielding the same results every time. This avoids the dreaded “pet” server that requires special handling and the manual expertise of a specific technician. It avoids the “snowflake” server that is unique and delicate, impossible to replicate later if your business needs to grow. 

Using infrastructure as code turns your servers into cattle rather than pets. They are all treated the same and offer consistency. Instead of manually setting up specific servers (treating them like pets), you can write a script and run it whenever you need to spin cloud services up or down (treating them like cattle). You can scale up in seconds, and if you find that you no longer require all the resources you formerly did, it takes only moments to scale down. 

All the most popular cloud service providers—Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and others—support all the automation tools necessary to provision your infrastructure as code. The flexibility offered by infrastructure as code is key to getting the best ROI out of your system.

## 5. Emphasizing Peer Code Review

Every newly constructed building goes through many inspection processes, not because the workers are unqualified or untrustworthy, but because there is always something to gain from the insight of other experts. 

Having new code reviewed by senior level developers before it’s checked into the master code repository will not only eliminate problems down the line but will create a more consistent code base and contribute to the training and sharing of knowledge with junior level developers. All of your developers will have a better understanding of the code as a whole, avoiding single experts in small areas. 

The reality is that programmers can and do transition in and out of companies. If one was working in a non-peer-reviewed vacuum and transitioned to another job, this could leave a question mark in the code that would require time and resources to figure out and integrate with the whole. 

Knowledge sharing makes for a healthy, productive company culture, and that in turn will produce a better product. 

![Two developers reviewing code side-by-side](/uploads/software15years-peercodereview.jpg)

## 6. Investing in Delivery Automation for Efficient Deployments

Newly launched software, regular updates, and new features all travel along an automated pipeline to the end user. 

We are all familiar with software updates to our smartphones. These updates are downloaded and installed automatically. Imagine, instead, if these updates were emailed to you from an employee at Apple or Google. Or if you had to make an appointment for a technician to come to your house and update your phone. 

This sounds ludicrous, but many companies struggle with the fragile process of delivering software manually rather than having it automatically deployed. Delivery automation allows developers to roll out needed code changes quickly and efficiently. 

It’s also very important that these code releases not be tied to feature releases. This is possible by building Feature Flags into your system, which will allow you to turn certain functionality on or off (or versions of each functionality) without deploying new code. This allows you to test new features in production and immediately rollback or kill any feature without deploying new code. 

Small patches may need to go out immediately, but if they are tied to an unfinished feature, you will have two bad options: delay an important update, or release a feature that may break everything. Automating the delivery can also allow new features to be released gradually, perhaps to a small number of users within the organization, before releasing them to everyone. 

Keeping code releases separate from feature releases and automating both create stability while simultaneously speeding up the responsiveness of your development team.

## 7. Adopting Test Automation for QA

Testing your code before every deployment mitigates risk and increases quality control, so it’s a matter of course that you would want to do so. Rather than hiring people to simply test it manually, smaller pieces of software can be run alongside the main software, testing as it is built and deployed automatically. 

Imagine if the plumber working on your house had little robots following him around, jumping down the pipes and checking for leaks as he worked the whole time. Not only would he be alerted to issues long before they could bother you, but he would also be able to move more quickly through his work with greater confidence. 

Automated tests being run in a pipeline allow quality metrics in the code to be visible to your entire team, and quality control becomes part of your assembly line. Having rock solid testing requires building a strategy with your development team from the beginning. 

Healthy code is easy to test. But if the tests seem fragile, if they break all the time or are often ignored, this is a red flag that the tests are not high value and are not testing the right things. The better the code, the easier it is to test. 

Having test automation keeps the entire team alert and accountable for writing good healthy code—not just the developers.

## 8. Ensuring Regular Maintenance and Upgrades

Software is **always** changing. All programs ride on the shoulders of other programs, making it possible to build incredibly sophisticated systems. Parts within the system are constantly being updated, defended against malware, and improved. 

To keep your software running properly, it has to keep up with the larger ecosystem. It has to be maintained. 

If you made the investment of building a house, you wouldn’t later refuse to clean the gutters or treat for termites simply because the house was finished. In the same way that treating your house for termites is cheaper than having your woodwork replaced, keeping your software current will defray costs down the road. The cost of staying current is lower than the cost of updating infrequently after several generations. 

If you hear that the updates are too costly or take too much time, this is a red flag. This is tech debt that needs to be paid off. 

All code needs to be patched and kept up to date. Operating systems need to be kept up to date. Delivery platforms such as the App Store have guidelines that require consistent updating to the degree that they will remove an app from the store if it is not kept up to date. 

Proactively maintaining your software is safer and more cost efficient for you and your users.

## 9. Incorporating Built-in Security Measures

You build trust with your users. If you violate that trust, you may have legal repercussions, loss of brand trust, and financial implications. Since security is such a high priority, it should be built directly into your software as part of the development process. 

Make sure your developers are familiar with secure coding practices. Have the code evaluated from a security standpoint. Building in security from the ground up will make your software stronger and therefore last longer. 

Imagine you finished constructing your home, only to realize that the electrical wires pose a fire hazard. To be safe, you would need to rip them out and start over, which would obviously be extremely costly. It is always better to design with security in mind from the very beginning.

## Creating Software that Stands the Test of Time

Each of these topics easily merits an entire article of its own, but if you can talk about them with some fluency to your team, your product will end up being relevant and useful. Being on the lookout for traits and habits that could harm or hamper your system as it develops over the years will keep it robust and stable. And finally, giving your developers the tools they need and the time to follow these healthy practices will keep your system fresh and innovative. 

While these approaches require time, commitment, and effort, the result will be software that can easily last for fifteen years and will yield a significant return on your investment.

If you’re committed to building enduring software, we’d love to hear from you. Schedule a consultation to discuss how our strategic approach can ensure that your software doesn’t just launch—it thrives for years to come.

**\[1]**  BDD or Behavior Driven Development is an approach to software development that encourages a strong focus on the behavior of the system as perceived by its users. For more on this, see [Domain Driven Design with BDD](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju50D11EIoE) by Dave Farley

**\[2]**  For more on developing a strategy for starting less and completing more see "Why Limit WIP? We're Drowning in Work" by Jim Benson [Why Limit WIP: We are Drowning in Work (MemeMachine Series): Benson, Jim: 9780989081238: Amazon.com](https://www.amazon.com/Why-Limit-WIP-Drowning-MemeMachine/dp/0989081230)

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse in Washington State

How do you create custom software that stands the test of time? Learn about 9 key strategies that work.

How to Make Your Software Last for 15 Years

How to Make Your Software Last 15 Years

A software development agency is a team of designers, developers, and project managers who work with clients to research, design, build, test, and deploy new custom software. 

After project completion, that client has a new software system—such as a web or mobile app, enterprise business application, or website—that *they own* and operate independently, which increases their value and helps them scale toward their strategic business goals.

But how can a company know when they should look externally to build custom software?

This article will outline the 5 ways to know when you need to hire a software development agency.

## 1. When Business Needs are Growing Too Fast to Handle

If your company’s demands are expanding faster than your in-house development team can keep up, a digital agency can build custom, scalable software to meet your business goals—shrinking the gap between your growing business demands and your system’s capacity to meet them.

Perhaps your company wants to add new employees and users without crashing or risking productivity, or you want to sell a service to new market segments around the world. You may have an expanding backlog of requests, expanding customer demands, and a developing pattern of unmet deadlines—suggesting your company is growing faster than your system has the means to support. Meanwhile, your in-house team is overwhelmed and overworked. 

Perhaps you only need temporary developer support and don’t have time to vet a qualified new team member. 

In these cases, an agency can plug into your mission and routines, working with your existing team to build a usable, scalable, performative system to move you toward your business goals.

![Woman CEO busily handling multiple tasks, several people asking for her input at once. ](/uploads/growingyourbusiness-toofasttohandle.jpg)

Software developers and designers in digital agencies like ours collaborate in-person or remotely with clients and stakeholders at each step of the development process, beginning by meeting with stakeholders to understand the business goals for their system. Next, we interview real-world users to learn how things have been done up to that point. Finally, we design the new program’s interface and architecture along with a plan and timeline to implement that system.

Throughout the development process, automated release updates keep you informed about real-time development progress, so you can monitor the project and make decisions along the way.

## 2. To Add Something New

If your development team doesn’t have the expertise to build the system your business needs, a digital agency accomplishes two major tasks at once—*building* the system while *cross-training* your team to use, maintain, and build projects like it in the future.

For example, some of our clients already have a web development team, APIs, and a database—but they don’t have the expertise to create a *mobile* app. During the weeks and months of the project, our developers work closely with the client's team. Sometimes the client's team develops the API and our team develops the mobile application that it needs. Sometimes we develop the CI/CD integration pipeline and train the client's team on how to use it. 

## 3. When You Need Something Better

When you need something *better*—a better-functioning team, more efficient workflows and production systems, or new ideas for your company’s software—a development agency provides a fresh perspective to improve what you already have.

### Better Ideas

Many teams go years—or even decades—maintaining outdated systems. This can happen for a variety of reasons: years of not asking good questions to end users, too much time and energy focused on maintaining existing systems, the habit of frequently starting new projects without fully finishing and implementing any of them, or a siloed team that struggles to organize for innovation.

Regardless of the precise reason, companies reach a point where they realize they *need new system ideas.*

A software development agency’s team remains up to date on the latest technological platforms, languages, design patterns, and cloud services—which helps the agency’s strategic designers and engineers identify waste, inefficiencies, and antipatterns during the process of meeting with the client’s departments and teams. 

Identifying these issues helps the development agency design a new or updated system that ameliorates them.

![Company meeting where a man is suggesting an idea while his colleagues listen intently.](/uploads/growingyourbusiness-betterideas.jpg)

For example, our agency worked with a large auto manufacturer whose sales-team training materials were spread across multiple websites and apps. This disorganized system forced new employees to create multiple login accounts and track emails and deadlines from multiple sources—which led to confused employees and high turnover.

We shadowed and conducted interviews with the client’s staff at headquarters as well as salespeople at the dealerships, asking questions to understand how sales employees got trained and where pain points existed. With this holistic view of their internal processes, our team offered new suggestions, perspectives, and resource ideas about how the company could unify training resources and design a smoother new-employee process.

### Better Team

The technological landscape develops quickly, and it’s easy for teams to fall into outdated practices without realizing it.

When a company has retained the same internal team for years, there comes a time when—despite success—leadership decides they want to take steps forward and improve their team’s technological skills in some way.

Digital agencies can mentor internal client teams by putting on workshops, auditing infrastructure or security, or performing code reviews or strategic product design sessions. These processes demonstrate new competencies, technologies, and tools that upgrade the client team’s toolbox and know-how.

For example, some of our clients are eCommerce sites or municipal agencies missing out on critical modern methods: CI/CD pipelines, code quality analysis, continuous integrations, continuous testing frameworks, or automated deployment tools that ensure frequent deployment with the goal of fewer errors. 

A lack of knowledge about how to utilize these principles, processes, and tools holds companies back from rolling out new software or improving the software they already have, leading to missed opportunities for business acceleration and better service.

We create these clients’ pipelines for them, then collaborate and train their staff over months how to use the pipelines and carry out automated testing. After deployment and data migration, clients have more skilled internal teams and a system that minimizes manual testing, saving time and reducing errors.

### Better Systems

In their early days, growth-stage companies often rush to create software systems without a clear vision of the company’s long-term service goals. While this allows quick development and service rollout, over time it can accumulate technical debt—issues like poorly written code and the inability to scale to meet ever-expanding customer demands. 

These rushed and sloppy processes lead to an overloaded system, with frequent downtime or software outages that ruin customer experience and hinder company operations. Often, a company’s outdated software simply breaks down as it fails to support new business needs, leading to massively downgraded functionality.

A digital agency can clear this technical debt and update a client’s software—with services like code remediation, breaking service features into chunks for smoother integration, and managing the software backlog—establishing agile principles so the client can move forward smoothly.

In the event of a software hack, these remediation processes play a critical role in helping your company recover quickly.

## 4. To Become More Profitable

Many custom software clients are growth-stage companies or startups seeking to get acquired for the highest possible valuation.

As a company approaches the opportunity for acquisition, its valuation may be limited by the fact that it is running on inefficient software, relying on third-party systems, or carrying tech debt.

**The following metrics play a critical role in a software asset’s valuation:**

* Ownership of intellectual property (IP)
* Source code
* Ease-of-use
* Efficiency
* Ease of updates and if the language is up to date
* Cost of replacement
* Adaptability, scalability, and integration capabilities 
* Costs involved with running systems

In other words, a company using its *own system and technology*—that runs smoothly and efficiently with up-to-date code—will earn a higher valuation in the eyes of companies seeking to acquire it.

At the same time, a company may hesitate to hire an external party to create custom IP and software because they fear that after deployment, their in-house team may lack the expertise to operate the new system or tool, forcing them to rely on the digital agency in the future and reducing their standalone valuation.

This is why it’s so important to work with a *collaborative* software development agency that will train your in-house team during the project, helping you transition to independent maintenance and operation. Self-sustainment is a huge positive in the eyes of companies seeking to acquire your company, who want to know you can operate your own technology moving forward.

## 5. To Save Costs

Upfront expenses often present a major concern for companies considering a software development agency. 

These companies may continue using third-party software that requires monthly licenses and subscriptions. As these subscriptions begin to pile up, companies begin to think about *buying*—instead of renting—their software.

Over a multi-year timeframe, the upfront investment in building custom software saves clients a lot of money, increasing ROI in multiple ways.

Ways that custom software generates a favorable long-term ROI:

### Fewer subscriptions and licenses

Running and maintaining your own software–rather than paying a third party for their solution–saves you thousands of dollars each month in subscription and licensing costs.

### Reduced IT, development, and maintenance staff

An inefficient or outdated system can lead to outages and downtime, plus the extra time required for setup and training. This taxes your IT and development teams and may force you to hire extra employees compared to an easier-maintenance option.

### Improved customer experience

Investing in well-running, fast, user-friendly software improves your customers’ experience, making them more likely to remain long-term customers.

### Reduced training costs

Outdated and clunky software systems can be difficult for new employees to learn. Many frustrated new employees will quickly seek employment elsewhere, meaning a high turnover rate and extra training expenses for companies that don’t invest in new, user-friendly systems.

### Easier scaling

Outdated and inefficient software can prevent your company from expanding your customer base, costing business opportunities and returns. New custom software can generate massive ROI by helping you scale towards business goals faster, adding new team members without racking up subscription fees.

### Error reduction

Software development agencies build a pipeline for the ongoing automated testing and integration of new code. Without streamlined testing and deployment automation, the risk of future error increases exponentially. This could result in costly security issues, future bugs that require staff resources to fix, and downtime.

To learn more about how a digital agency can help your company scale, take on new challenges, improve your systems, build new services and tools, and save costs—get in touch with us.

A growing business needs a big building—this is a big building.

Struggling to meet your business's tech demands? Discover when a software development agency could help.

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