Can Customised Software Beat Off-the-Shelf Software?

Using customised software can improve business efficiency compared to using software that's straight off the shelf, but only once the off-the-shelf software you have stops fitting how your business works. Until then, your efficient choice is to use it as intended. When it no longer fits, Zoosh Digital's view is that you configure first, extend next, and build bespoke software only when your requirement sits outside what the product can do.

There are many ways to customise professional software these days, and some options are affordable, fast and simple. If you're trying to get an additional edge over your competitors, customising your business software could be the best way forward, as long as you know which way you are paying for.

What off-the-shelf software is, and when it is the efficient choice

Off-the-shelf software is a commercially available product sold to many buyers, and it is your efficient choice when it meets most of your needs and you use it as it was designed. The UK government's guidance for its own technology buyers warns that “Even small modifications to OTS software can remove most of the benefits of using it”.

Where off-the-shelf software starts to cost you efficiency

Off-the-shelf software starts to cost you efficiency when your people work around it, because the cost moves out of your licence and into their hours. As Zoosh Digital's Business Central explainer puts it, the cost of software that does not talk to itself “is usually much higher than people realise, because it is hidden in hours, not invoices.”

Changing the product to stop the workarounds has its own price. The UK guidance warns its own buyers that changes, customisations and workarounds can “reduce the ability to scale and adapt the product for future use” and “restrict you from upgrading or removing them in future”. So your question is not whether a gap exists, but whether the hours it costs you justify a change, and which kind.

Configure, extend or build: three routes beyond off-the-shelf

You have three routes beyond plain off-the-shelf use: configure it, extend it with code beside it, or build bespoke software for what it cannot do. Zoosh Digital's rule is short: “The goal is the least customisation that solves the real problem.”

Configure: change settings, not code

Customised software is existing software that your business customises to its own needs. You could add additional applications to an existing suite of software or create specific workflows that match your business processes. Zoosh Digital defines configuration, the no-code route, as “Changing settings, workflows, approval hierarchies, and permissions using the platform's own tools, with no development”, and its guide to configuring and extending Business Central without touching its core shows you where that line sits.

Extend: add code beside the product, not inside it

An extension is code built for you that sits beside the product. For Business Central, Microsoft's guidance on the AL development environment says the best approach is “to work with Extensions only”, which means “you can extend the existing code by adding new functionality” but, within that model, “you can't change the existing code”.

Zoosh Digital's view is that “extending a platform is usually cheaper and lower-risk than replacing or duplicating it”, and Gábor Tolnai, Zoosh Digital's CTO, gives you the reason: “By extending ERP systems with apps and connected services instead of embedding custom code into the core, businesses can achieve flexibility without sacrificing stability.” The guide to when off-the-shelf ERP genuinely fails, and when it does not covers the full spectrum.

Build: bespoke, when the requirement sits outside the product

Bespoke software is a software solution that's built just for your business. Businesses work with software development teams or technology partners to create bespoke applications and software solutions that meet the individual needs of a business in every way. Zoosh Digital's position is that “A separate custom system makes sense only when the requirement sits genuinely outside what Business Central and its extensions can do.” If you are there, read bespoke software development for Irish and UK businesses.

How does customised software improve business efficiency?

Customised software can improve business efficiency by allowing businesses to expand at their own pace and operate in a way that's both efficient and sustainable, and in practice it does so by removing the manual steps your off-the-shelf product forced on your people. Some of the benefits of using custom software in your business include:

• Streamlining your business workflows
• Integrating new software solutions with other software and technology
• Managing business data more effectively
• Speeding up reporting and analysis
• Keeping your vendor's security updates valid when your custom code sits beside the product, as Gábor Tolnai puts it: “By keeping the ERP core untouched, security updates remain valid.”

What four bespoke builds recorded

Zoosh Digital worked with OptaHaul from concept to market on a bespoke milk collection route optimisation product. The OptaHaul case study reports “20% transport cost savings achieved when customers switch to the OptaHaul solution”, a result for OptaHaul's customers, not one you should expect from bespoke software in general.

For the hop supplier Charles Faram, Zoosh Digital built a B2B eCommerce platform that lets its sales team order on behalf of customers, “significantly reducing the processing time of the orders previously received by emails or over the phone”. If your team still keys in orders from email, you have the same pattern.

For Edac, Zoosh Digital co-created a bespoke compliance SaaS platform, delivered on Microsoft Azure, and a facility using it says it “has reduced the amount of time we historically spent on collating all our regulatory documents and reports.” In Zoosh Digital's reading, “it was the product Edac would take to market”, and that is the edge worth building for.

For Xtract, Zoosh Digital designed and developed a bespoke claims solution built on telematics crash data, and Brent Hoffman, AXA XL Chief Claims Officer, says it is “vastly speeding up our decision-making process”.

None of these four is an ERP or Business Central project, and none is your model if a commercially available product would do the job.

When customising is the wrong answer

Customising is the wrong answer when configuration already covers your need, when your request recreates an old process, or when you are not ready to own the upkeep. Zoosh Digital's Business Central explainer calls the second one “Too much customisation, too early” and tells you “The better approach is to go live on well-configured standard functionality, then add bespoke extensions as the team gains confidence in the system.” Overdo it and, in Zoosh Digital's words, you get “a fragile system in which every vendor update risks breaking custom code”.

Even a well-built extension needs keeping current. Business Central has “two major update cycles per year, with major releases every April and October”, and for Business Central online, Microsoft's guidance on maintaining apps and per-tenant extensions is plain: “As a partner, keeping your apps and per-tenant extensions (PTEs) up to date is your responsibility.” In Business Central online, if an incompatible app or extension is preventing the deployment of a critical security update, “it might be uninstalled within 14 days of the critical security update first becoming available”. Before you approve code, know who carries that for you.

Three questions to ask before you customise

1. Is the cost of your gap measurable in hours today? If nobody can tell you, you are not ready to pay for code.
2. Can a setting do it, or does it need code? Ask why configuration will not do before you accept an extension.
3. If it needs code, can it sit beside your product, and who keeps it current at every major update? If your answer is no, read the bespoke build page.

Where Zoosh Digital fits

Zoosh Digital is a Business Central and technology partner working with organisations across the UK, Ireland and Europe, and it “delivers all three layers: Business Central configuration, Business Central extensions, and full bespoke development”. It has no single route it needs to sell you. You get bespoke and custom software development where nothing else fits, extensions to Business Central where Business Central is nearly right, and training so your team can run the result. The case for local delivery is in custom software development in Ireland. And if the product you have meets most of your needs, you will be told to use it as intended.

FAQ

What is off-the-shelf software?

Off-the-shelf software is a commercially available product built for many buyers, which you license and use largely as supplied. The UK government's guidance for its own technology buyers says it might be better to buy where “there is a commercially available way to meet most of your user needs”.

What are the advantages of off-the-shelf software?

The advantages of off-the-shelf software are that it already exists, it can meet most of your needs without a build, your supplier can configure it, and its vendor keeps it current, as Microsoft does with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

What are the disadvantages of off-the-shelf software?

The main disadvantage of off-the-shelf software is that the parts of your work it does not fit get worked around, at a cost that shows up in your people's hours. Changing it has costs too: the UK government's guidance warns that changes, customisations and workarounds can increase costs, make maintenance harder and restrict you from upgrading in future.

When does off-the-shelf software stop being efficient?

Off-the-shelf software stops being efficient when your people spend measurable hours working around it and configuration cannot close the gap. Zoosh Digital's view is that you then extend it with code that sits beside it, and build bespoke software only when your requirement sits outside what the product and its extensions can do.

Does customising off-the-shelf software make upgrades harder?

It can: the UK government's guidance says customisations can “restrict you from upgrading or removing them in future”. In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Microsoft describes extensions as the best approach: they add functionality without changing the existing code. You still need them kept current through the major updates, and in Business Central online, Microsoft says an incompatible one that prevents a critical security update might be uninstalled within 14 days of that update first becoming available.

Closing thought

Your most efficient software is often the product you already pay for, used the way it was built to be used, with code only where your lost hours justify it and a bespoke build only where nothing else fits. If you want to test a gap against that order, Zoosh Digital's team is happy to talk it through with you, including the version where the answer is to keep the product you have and use it as intended.

Referenced sources

• GOV.UK. Define your purchasing strategy (Technology Code of Practice). www.gov.uk/guidance/define-your-purchasing-strategy.
• Microsoft Learn. Differences in the development environments. learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/devenv-differences.
• Microsoft Learn. Maintain Marketplace apps and Per-Tenant extensions in Business Central online. learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/app-maintain.
• Microsoft Learn. Update cycles. learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/administration/update-rollout-timeline.