Today, companies of all shapes and sizes are under increasing pressure to differentiate themselves. Small and mid-sized businesses in particular, especially those in service-based industries, need to set themselves apart from the competition. One powerful tool to do just that is by developing and using proprietary, or closed-source, software.
Custom-built software streamlines operations, improves customer service and positions you as a leader in your market. Here’s how I put this into practice in my company and achieved outsized results — and how you can too.
4 Reasons SMBs Should Use Proprietary Software
- Developing your own software helps you cover all your bases in a way off-the-shelf solutions can’t.
- It can help you prevent costly mistakes.
- It centralizes information, so all teams are always in the loop.
- It’s customizable to your needs.
Niche Businesses Need Niche Software
Off-the-shelf software can absolutely serve a purpose, but SMB businesses in niche industries require specificity that such solutions rarely have. This is how proprietary software can offer a significant competitive advantage. Whether you develop it in-house or use a third-party developer, software built expressly to meet your business’ needs takes you to the next level of optimizing your processes.
This is why I decided to commission proprietary software within my own business. As the owner of a luxury moving, warehousing and storage company, none of the systems I’d tried covered all of our bases. We needed help with inventory tracking, complex customer data management, project management and handling specialized service requests. In other words, very specific workflows that general software couldn’t support.
So, I sought help building a seamless, integrated system that would address all of these challenges for us in one solution. This boosted my company’s operational efficiency and helped us significantly improve our customer experience: a critical piece of the puzzle, since our customers’ expectations are incredibly high.
Proactive Problem-Solving Through Data Capture
One major win with proprietary software is its ability to identify potential problems before they become customer-facing issues.
Here’s an example from my industry: Let’s say an interior designer ordered an upholstered chair for their client in brown, but it arrived at my company’s warehouse in a light khaki color.
With our internal software, our team could instantly catch the discrepancy, snap a photo and log it into the system. The software would then notify the designer and the vendor before the item got delivered to the customer, giving them a chance to rectify the situation and prevent embarrassment and costly delays.
Whatever industry you’re in, there’s almost certainly an applicable scenario that fits. Catching problems before they get to the customer can save you both a lot of unnecessary pain. It can also strengthen your relationships with your clients if they’re not the end user (like in our case).
By saving yourself from costly errors, you ensure your customers don’t see you in a poor light and switch to a competitor. When attention to detail is everything, software that identifies and addresses mistakes before they escalate is priceless.
Enhanced Communication Across Teams
Multiple teams work together in many industries to deliver a product or service. While this has many benefits, it can also make communication difficult.
When you have proprietary software in place, you can centralize information across as many teams as needed. For example, once we have a piece of furniture or a unique piece of art in our warehouse, everyone in-house — and, more importantly, our client, the interior designer — knows exactly where that piece is in our warehouse.
This way, everyone is in the loop and you save time by not having to patch details out to one group or person at a time. The automation and centralization of these processes can help your business minimize errors, reduce administrative overhead and focus on providing value to your clients.
Custom Software Considerations
If you hadn’t already before reading this, you probably think the idea of using proprietary software built specifically for your business’ needs sounds almost too good to be true.
The only downside? Cost. But while this might sound expensive, the truth is that it’s more accessible than you might think — even to SMBs, with smaller budgets and fewer in-house resources.
One approach is to partner with a third-party developer to build a minimum viable product. This is, as it sounds, a basic version of the software that addresses your company’s most pressing needs. Once this is functional, you and your developer can gradually improve upon it, adding features and scaling it up as you grow. This is the route that I took within my own company.
Another option you have is to use open-source tools and platforms to build custom applications that integrate with existing systems. For example, you can customize many popular tools (like customer relationship management or project management systems) to meet your unique needs through plugins or additional features. Going this route can keep your development costs low while still giving you the flexibility you need to create the right proprietary software for your needs.
If you’ve been thinking of developing proprietary software for your business, take time to evaluate the idea from all angles. This should be a strategic decision that factors in needs and costs along with short-term and long-term benefit. For many companies, the advantages you stand to gain far outweigh the initial investment.
