Optimum growth supported by customized software

1. How the customized software helped us
2. Factor 1: Price
3. Factor 2: Centralization
4. Factor 3: Special cases
5. Disadvantages of customized software
6. Conclusion

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HOW CUSTOM SOFTWARE HAS HELPED US

In our last blog post, we introduced you to the basics of custom software. This time, we'd like to take a closer look at how our custom CRM-ERP-Time-Tracking-Sales-Project-Management solution (!) is helping us grow our business. At EXWE, we are passionate about digitalization and almost obsessed with automating and optimizing processes. That's why we've developed software to make our internal agency processes as lean as possible. Since our company was founded in 2016, EXWE has grown and the requirements for our business software have also changed over the years. We would like to help you optimize your business processes with individual software - please contact us for a consultation. Our software has grown with us step by step and has been expanded and optimized. Features of our individual software are e.g:

Time recording CRM Project budgeting Project management & controlling Resource planning Quotation planning and creation Vacation planning Sales pipeline G+V statistics Internal CMS Online store management

If we see a process that is taking up our time, we usually start by looking around for standard software and evaluating whether it makes sense for us. For example, we use Asana for task-based project management - click here for our blog post on the subject.Very often, however, we come to the conclusion that the advantages of standard software cannot keep up with the advantages of customized programming. We would like to explain why this is the case by looking at the various factors of price, centralization and special cases. FACTOR 1: PRICE Standard software can do a lot and is often relatively inexpensive in the entry-level tariff (example Hubspot Starter: €36.80 / month).If you want to map everything a company needs, you need a lot - Hubspot as a CRM tool, Asana for project management and TrackingTime for employee time recording.

• Time recording
• CRM TOOL
• Project budgeting
• project management
• Resource planning
• Quotation planning and creation
• Vacation planning
• Sales Pipeline
• Internal CMS
• Online store management
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If we see a process that is taking up our time, we usually look around for standard software first and evaluate whether it makes sense for us. For example, we use Asana for task-based project management - click here for our blog post on the topic of project management.Very often, however, we come to the conclusion that the advantages of standard software cannot keep up with the advantages of customized programming. We would like to explain why this is the case by looking at the various factors of price, centralization and special cases.

FACTOR 1: PRICE

Standard software can do a lot and is often relatively inexpensive in the entry-level tariff (example Hubspot Starter: €36.80 / month).If you want to map everything a company needs, you need a lot - Hubspot as a CRM tool, Asana for project management and TrackingTime for employee time recording.

Calculated over the year, without including the costs for setting up the individual services, expenses of € 17,232.00 are incurred. However, the financial burden grows linearly with the growth of a company - with more employees, the costs of a company's SaaS collection naturally also increase.

FACTOR 2: CENTRALIZATION

Integration between the individual systems is possible, but requires another platform (e.g. Zapier). Your employees have to navigate through different web applications to get all the information together.

FACTOR 3: SPECIAL CASES

Some organizational problems are so individual that there is no standard solution on the market that covers the problem properly. One example is resource planning - for many small support projects and small to large software projects. We can cite resource planning as an example - in our case, we have not found a solution with which we can reasonably map and plan or forecast our capacities in the mix for many small support projects and small to large software projects.

Alternatively, there are all-in-one solutions such as Salesforce / SAP. However, the costs here can quickly get out of hand. According to Google, initial customization costs between €10,000 and €100,000. Then there are the running costs - the Sales and Service Cloud alone cost a total of €300 per month in the Enterprise Edition, and that's per user! This solution would therefore only be worthwhile for medium-sized companies. For smaller companies or start-ups, all-in-one solutions are out of the question in terms of cost.

DISADVANTAGES OF INDIVIDUAL SOFTWARE

Of course, there are also disadvantages to customized software. Customized solutions generate other costs - due to the initial development, agile further development and bug fixes. In addition, you have to work out processes yourself and start from scratch during development. With standard software, on the other hand, you can follow ready-made processes. If custom software is developed unprofessionally or is poorly documented, there is a dependency on the service provider - they have to be consulted and correct errors every time there is a problem. In the worst case scenario, this results in additional costs.

CONCLUSION

For us, our custom solution is currently perfect for our growth phase. It saves working time and running costs that can be invested in other innovations.New processes or changes to processes can be implemented in the shortest possible time in order to remain flexible and always be able to react to changes in the business. Especially when your company is growing, it makes sense to think about the use and development of individual software, as optimal growth of a company can be supported by individual software. Calculate the costs that you will incur in the future and look for a service provider who can support you with the development and provide you with sufficient advice. If you would like more information on the subject of customized software and software development or have a general question, please feel free to contact us, we will be happy to help you and find the right software for you.