Types of software development

What are Enterprise Software Development Services?

The good old days of managing an organisation using pen and paper are long gone. Nowadays, organisations can digitise and automate just about every business process thanks to enterprise software applications, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, marketing tools, and business intelligence systems. In fact, digital business solutions are so popular that the UK enterprise software market is currently worth £27.09 billion.

The main goal of enterprise software solutions is to help organisations streamline their workflows by improving operational speed and efficiency, optimising productivity, cutting costs, and minimising erroneous manual processes. Furthermore, enterprise software tools provide valuable insights that help to inform critical business decisions.

Every organisation — whether a commercial corporation, learning institution, government agency, or non-profit firm — has a unique operational structure. That means every company requires a suite of business software applications fitting its particular workflow models and digital needs. This is where enterprise software development services come in.

Enterprise software development means building software solutions that meet the needs of a specific organisation. The development process involves gathering requirements, translating the requirements into digital functions, modelling the functions into a user interface, coding the software, and finally implementing the finished product.

Read on to learn more about enterprise software development and how it can benefit your business.

Types of Enterprise Software

Before diving into enterprise software development services, let’s take a step back and look at the software options available to enterprises. There are generally two types of enterprise software applications: custom and off-the-shelf options. Here’s a comparison of the two, highlighting each type’s pros and cons:

1. Off-the-Shelf Enterprise Software

This is a software product sold by a vendor or developer to be used as is. Off-the-shelf software is a generic solution designed for the mass market. It comes with standardised features that fit a wide range of use cases. Examples of off-the-shelf enterprise software applications include Microsoft Dynamics, QuickBooks, and SAP ERP.

The Pros:

Low-cost (you pay a license fee to use the software)
Easy and quick installation
Proven reliability, security, and performance
Available community support and reviews
Regular patches and updates

The Cons:

Can be expensive in the long run, especially when paying for multiuser licences
Rigid and barely customisable
May have too many annoying and unnecessary features rather than the features you actually need
Prone to compatibility issues
Susceptible to large-scale cyberattacks, such as zero-day vulnerability exploits
Does not provide any unique competitive advantages

2. Custom Enterprise Software

Custom enterprise software is tailored to your organisation. In this case, you pay an independent developer to build the software from scratch based on your organisation’s unique technical requirements. Unlike off-the-shelf products, custom business software adapts to your company, not the other way around.

The Pros:

Fully customisable to your business
No license fees
Total ownership and control of the software
Scales with the organisation
Exclusive software support
Low risk of intrusion
Gives your company a competitive edge

The Cons:

High initial cost
Takes time to develop and implement
Choosing the wrong developer can lead to costly and potentially devastating outcomes

Enterprise Software Development Process

Custom software development is a collaborative effort between the client and the developer. Although the developer does all the heavy lifting, both parties work together to ensure the end product fits the purpose. The software is built systematically through a multistage process called the software development life cycle (SDLC). There are several SDLC models, each describing a unique software development methodology. But enterprise software development follows a more or less standardised SDLC approach with six main stages:

Step 1: Discovery

The first and arguably most important step involves understanding the software’s purpose. At this preliminary stage, the developer meets with department heads, stakeholders, and other decision-makers (depending on the scope of the software) to discuss the underlying goals, requirements, or issues the new solutions ought to address. The discovery phase seeks answers to the following questions:

What are the limitations and capabilities of the existing solutions?
What are the main high-level functional and technical requirements for the new software?
Who will be using the software, where, and for what purpose?
What are the project’s constraints (budget, timeframe, deliverables, etc.)?
How will the new software tie in with other IT systems and the overarching business plan?

The answers to these questions form the basal template for building the enterprise software. They also help the developer team to visualise the task at hand.

Step 2: Planning

This is another collaborative stage, where both parties try to make sense of the data gathered during the discovery phase. The goal here is to draw up a project roadmap based on the proposed system requirements and constraints. After evaluating the feasibility of the project, the developer drafts a plan of action detailing the project’s scheduling, deliverables, estimated costs, and operational requirements. This plan may also include the developer’s expert recommendations on the way forward.

As the client, you can adjust the plans to fit your goals. However, you and the developer must agree on a practical software development plan that clearly describes each party’s responsibilities and expectations before any work can commence. This mutual understanding forms the basis of the software development contract.

Step 3: UI/UX Design

Work on the custom software begins with designing the system’s look and feel. The user interface and user experience designers incorporate system functions into a front-facing interface that caters to the users’ needs and operating environments. UI/UX design involves merging visual elements, interactive features, and functional operations to make an intuitive and easy-to-use software application.

These designs may undergo several prototypes and iterations as the designers try out various navigation trees, aesthetics, and ergonomics.

Step 4: Development

Development is the most technical phase of the software life cycle. This is where the design frameworks and system requirements come together to form a functional and usable software application. Front-end and back-end developers work hand in hand to integrate the various features and elements into a complete system.

Step 5: Testing

Once the software is built, it is tested exhaustively to check for bugs and whether it meets the functional, performance, compatibility, and security expectations. The product goes through several rounds of rigorous tests in order to evaluate every aspect of the software. Developers can then tweak the application accordingly based on the test results.

Software testing is a big part of quality assurance since it gauges the final product against predefined expectations.

Step 6: Deployment

This is the final stage in building an enterprise software application. During deployment, the software product is launched and integrated with your business and IT operations. The deployment tasks will depend on the software’s operating environment, dependencies, and impact on the organisation’s workflows. Typical software deployment activities include bringing systems online, importing data, signing up users, and linking any associated third-party systems.

Additionally, the developer may offer helpdesk support, user training, software maintenance, and other post-deployment services as per the contractual agreement

Benefits of Enterprise Software Development Services

According to a 2022 survey, these are the top five reasons companies implement enterprise software systems:

Support growth
Extend functionality
Increase efficiency
Replace legacy processes
Consolidate systems

With that in mind, here’s how using software development services benefits your business:

Improved Operational Efficiency

A bespoke enterprise software solution enhances your organisation’s efficiency in many ways. Most notably, enterprise software speeds up and automates various business processes, minimising costly and slow manual work. This results in highly streamlined workflows, fewer errors, and substantial cost savings.

Increased Productivity

Enterprise software applications take over mundane and repetitive tasks such as organising data, running calculations, and taking customer orders. In doing so, the digital systems let employees focus on more important tasks. Also, a tailored software solution directly improves productivity by creating communications and collaboration pathways throughout the organisation while supplementing manual labour with digital capabilities.

Sharper Competitive Edge

As the business world grows more tech and data-reliant, IT is becoming an increasingly weighty key performance indicator in all commercial industries. Your digital prowess can easily determine your speed to market, cost and pricing figures, and overall brand dominance. But in order to elevate your brand and stand out through digital capabilities, you’ll need a lot more than generic off-the-shelf software.

Better Data Management and Analysis

An enterprise software system not only organises your information but also opens the exciting possibilities of intelligent data analysis. Today’s world is data-driven, and businesses collect vast amounts of data from countless customer touchpoints. Unfortunately, most of this data goes unutilised. But with the right tools, you can draw actionable market and business insights from every byte of raw information.

Analysing information is no longer an option but a necessity in modern commerce. For instance, nearly all Fortune 1000 companies have invested in data initiatives, and many are seeing measurable returns on their investments.

Increased Customer Satisfaction

An enterprise software solution can help your business improve customer service by enhancing service/product delivery. Furthermore, it can promote stronger customer relationships by creating closer and more meaningful engagements. A custom CRM system, for example, is specially built to drive and track customer satisfaction.

Choosing the Right Enterprise Software Development Services

Remember, any custom-built enterprise software is only as good as its developer. So, it’s essential to outsource the project to a competent team. On that note, here are ten key factors to consider when choosing enterprise software development services:

Technical skills. Ensure the developer firm has the necessary coding, designing, and IT integration skills to build your bespoke enterprise software.
Portfolio. Check whether the company develops the kind of software product you’re looking for or even serves organisations like yours (in terms of size, industry, and line of work).
Team size. You want an enterprise software development service with a large and diverse-enough team to handle all aspects of the project.
Experience. Besides skills, experience matters a great deal in IT professions.
Reputation. Find out what past clients say about the development company in online reviews, case studies, and testimonials.
Costs. Get quotes from multiple developers and consider the ones closest to your budget. But keep in mind that the cheapest option is not always the best.
Timeframe. Ask the developer how long they would need to work on your project and how committed they are to meeting deadlines.
The process. Every developer has a unique way of engaging clients. Know what to expect from the developer when it comes to customer service.
Communication and availability. The developer should make time to communicate with you, whether it’s through scheduled meetings, periodic progress reports, or helpdesk support after the software is deployed.
Security. A good software developer must show a strong commitment towards data privacy and safety and high-standards cybersecurity.

A custom enterprise software is a huge and critical IT investment with the potential to transform your business. Such a high-stakes job calls for an undoubtedly capable, trustworthy, and dependable team of experts. So, do your due diligence when hiring an enterprise software developer. Conduct thorough research on the development services available and vet each candidate exhaustively before making your pick. Here’s a list of the general questions you should ask during the vetting process to guide your research:

Have you worked on similar projects before?
Do you have any references from previous clients?
How long have you been in the software development business?
How many developers do you have?
What technical expertise do you have on your team?
What’s your project management style?
Will there be a specific contact person, and how will we communicate?
How will I be involved in the software development process?
How much will the software cost, what influences the price, and what are your payment terms?
How do you deal with intellectual property rights and data security issues?
What will happen after the application is launched?

Cost of Enterprise Software Development Services

How much do software development services cost? Well, it’s difficult to say a definitive price for developing a business software solution, given the several pricing elements that come into play. Every custom development project has a unique price tag based on the following factors:

Size. A larger system with more features and functions will cost more to develop.
Complexity. The more complex the design or back-end engine, the higher the development cost.
Supported platforms and third-party systems. More work, time, resources, and expenses go towards supporting multiple platforms (operating systems, browsers, devices, runtime environments, user classes, etc.) and third-party integration APIs.
Technology. Different types of software development technologies — such as programming languages, databases, and development frameworks — have different prices.
Development time. The longer the project takes to develop, the higher its cost, especially if the developer charges hourly rates. But in some cases, you pay more to fast-track a project.
The team’s location. Software development service costs can vary significantly depending on the developers’ geographical locations.
The developer’s pricing model. The developer can charge either an hourly rate or a fixed price for the entire project; the choice of pricing model directly influences the final cost.
Support tasks. Most enterprise software development services charge extra for additional support, such as user training, systems integration, and software maintenance.

Ensure you have a clear budget and timeline before outsourcing custom software development. That way, you’ll avoid any surprises along the way that could stall or derail the project.

The Takeaway

To recap, enterprise software development services enable you to create digital solutions tailor-made to your organisation. Working with the right developer team guarantees a bespoke software product that boosts operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, competitiveness, productivity, and the bottom line.

A custom business software solution is hands down superior to any off-the-shelf alternative. Developing a custom-built system may cost a lot upfront, but it more than pays for itself in the long run through the immense and unparalleled value it brings to your business.

If you are in the market for a robust enterprise software application that meets all your company’s technical demands, look for enterprise software development services to build a bespoke digital solution.