How do I know if I need a custom solution?

When you hear the term ‘custom development’ you probably have a knee-jerk reaction to reach and protect your wallet. I certainly did before coming to work here. After all, there’s already an app for everything, right? Custom is for the ‘big guys’ with an army of IT staff and millions of dollars to spend on research & development.

It’s hard to believe Apple’s ‘There’s an app for that’ campaign was 10 years ago, especially given how many new apps are out there. You can find apps that help you discover who sings a certain song or reminds you to take your medication, even something like locking your doors and windows at home. However, when it comes to your business, there isn’t always an app when you want or need one.

Sure, you’ve got your basic office functions covered – email, word processing, accounting, no problem. However, as your business grows there are more and more things that aren’t covered by an app. It doesn’t matter what business you are in, or how large your business is, eventually someone in your organization will say ‘what if we could do this’? That’s where custom programming enters the picture.

I was fortunate that my first project I got to work on here at Rokusek was a custom solution. We went to the client who wanted an app to help their marketing team get the right documents in the hands of the sales team. They had an experienced, world-wide sales team who knew their way around the products and was comfortable with the materials they were familiar with. As materials were updated, the sales team weren’t necessarily taking the most recent version of things with them. Finding documents on their internal servers took practice, and they often found that they either didn’t have everything they needed on a call or they had to pack a library with them to cover all possibilities.

We created a document distribution system for them to ensure the most recent files were all the sales teams had access to. Because this system was cloud-based, when a new version became available the old version was archived and replaced with the updated materials. Documents were able to be sorted by product, by category, and by type. We even put in controls to ensure that they only had the appropriate files for their region, language, etc.

Through our conversations we also created an ability for the sales team to favorite documents and put together custom presentations to ensure they had everything they needed when they went on a call. All the materials were available via tablet, which gave them the opportunity to have everything they needed even when an internet connection didn’t exist, and would sync when they connected again. Staff could even order hard copies of files right from the app.

There were several other bells and whistles from calendars to notifications that went into creating this solution, and the end result is a solution that changed the way this company handled their materials and made their sales team more effective by giving them everything they need at their fingertips. It also saved their marketing team a lot of time and energy trying to track down files, manage orders, and ensure everyone is working off the current information.

This is just one example of how a custom solution can help a business by eliminating problems or helping to make staff more efficient. Rokusek has been helping create custom solutions for clients for years. From Message Express systems to Logistics app, apps to websites, we’ve become experts in helping our clients overcome obstacles to reach their goals.

The truth is, custom doesn’t have to mean costly. More importantly, you need to weigh the cost of not creating a solution. How much staff time is spent on work-arounds, or revenue lost to not having the right tool for the job?

You may not know what the right solution is, and that’s alright. If you have a problem, or even think you could be operating leaner, let’s have a conversation. We love getting to know businesses and discovering how we can partner with them to create amazing solutions for businesses. Call us and see how we can help you today!