Custom software is only better when it solves the problem better.
Custom software can support a process exactly, connect systems and create new digital capabilities.
It can also be special-case logic that has become expensive. That is why O/S does not start with what we could program. We start with the problem that actually justifies software of your own.
With Lens · takes about 3 minutes
Check standard software first
Building your own is an option, not the starting point.
Build the smallest useful scope
Only the part that creates real extra value becomes custom.
Think about operations too
A solution of your own has to be built, and it has to be operable in a sensible way.
When standard software and the real need diverge
Typical situations
Custom only where being custom actually creates value.
When does a problem justify software of your own?
The problem is relevant enough
The workaround regularly creates measurable effort, risk or constraint. This is not a rare inconvenience.
- It recurs
- Effort is visible
- The problem matters
With Lens · takes about 3 minutes
Remove → simplify → use standard software → connect → only then build custom.
Software of your own makes sense when being custom creates real value, and the responsibility for it is commercially bearable.
How O/S decides on custom software
Problem
Which concrete problem should disappear, or become clearly smaller?
Fit with standard software
Which existing solutions have been examined, and where do they genuinely fall short?
Value
What changes commercially or operationally if the gap is closed?
Operations
Is the benefit large enough to justify development, operations and further development?
Der Ablauf zuerst
We do not start with the interface. We start with the case for software of your own.
Every line of custom code is also a custom responsibility.
What changes withcustom software that fits
Focus
Custom only where extra value appears.
Software of your own is limited to the part that standard software, configuration or integration cannot cover cleanly, in commercial terms.
Fitting
The way people work stays at the centre.
The solution follows the actual working flow, rather than a generic product logic that the process then has to bend around.
Connected
Existing systems stay in play.
Software you already have is extended and integrated on purpose, instead of being replaced by reflex.
Operations
Go-live is not the end of the decision.
Operations, failure paths, ownership and further development are thought through before anything is built.
Calculate workaround effort
- How many minutes does the manual workaround cost each time it is used?
- How often is it needed each week?
- How much effort does that create over a year, before development cost is even considered?
10Minutes per workaround
30Uses per week
46Working weeks per year
- ≈ 29 workdaysat 8 hours per workday
- ≈ 5.8 work weeksat 5 workdays per week
230 hours · 29 workdays
This workaround ties up, per year
8,740.00 €
The calculator only quantifies today's manual effort. Development cost, operating cost, and strategic cost or advantage are not assumed as a flat figure.
Is this effort large enough to justify a solution of your own?
Lens helps you weigh standard software, integration and custom development against each other.
Common questions
- When is custom software worth it?
- Does it have to be a large application?
- What does MVP mean at O/S?
- When is DISCOVERY needed?
- Can PORTAL be part of the custom solution?
- What happens after go-live?
When a relevant problem happens often enough, standard solutions do not cover the need well enough, and the benefit justifies development as well as ongoing operations.
CONTACT
Which problem justifies software of your own?
Describe the flow today, the limits of the tools you have, and the state you want. You get a first view of whether standard software, integration or custom development looks more sensible.