Competitive advantages of a custom-developed web application

You’re about to build your web application and wondering if custom development could be right for you. What are the differences between a pre-defined IT solution and custom development? How can you be sure that you’ll be well supported, especially when it comes to securing your data? We’re going to provide answers to these questions. And finally, we’ll explain how to further reduce your costs thanks to IT outsourcing in a foreign country.

In this digital world where almost everyone is connected to the Internet, running a business without an online presence is simply unrealistic. And the pandemic has only accentuated the phenomenon of the digitization of business.

According to Live Stats, which offers statistics on Internet and social network use, nearly 4.79 billion people worldwide had access to the Internet in 2020. Considering that there are currently 7.6 billion people on Earth, this means that in a decade, the number of Internet users has increased by 166%.

This means that not having an online presence means losing many business opportunities. But just having a website is not enough. Your website, web app or mobile app must be a lever for generating revenue. That is, your web app must be adapted to serve your business.

It’s for this reason that many companies have chosen to build their website using tailor-made development, better known as custom development.

So what is custom development?

Custom or tailor-made development refers to IT development according to technical and functional specifications that have been determined upstream. The custom development is then priced according to these detailed specifications. In short, the ordering party describes their unique and specific requests and the IT service provider specialized in IT development is responsible for building a web or mobile app that precisely matches the specific needs of the ordering party.

It’s clear that tailor-made development is often more expensive, but also of better quality – and carefully calibrated to the needs of the client. In the rest of this article, let’s discover the competitive advantages for a company using custom development for its website, web app, mobile app or software.

Competitive Advantage n° 1 – Stand out with an app that reflects you

Many companies offer ready-made themes to build your site. These offers are known as SaaS (Software as a Service) or CMS (Content Management System).

A SaaS solution is a platform that allows you to create your own web app. You don’t need to have technical skills to do this. The most famous SaaS publishers are: Wix, WooCommerce, Shopify, etc.

As for the CMS, this is a tool that provides modules, which when assembled together, constitute your website. These include software such as: Magento, WooCommerce, WordPress, etc.

The level of customization offered with these tools can be interesting and rich enough to achieve good results. But the themes remain predefined and limitations can be quickly reached.

This means that your website will probably look like a hundred other sites built using your chosen theme.

It is for this key reason that creating a custom web app will bring you the following benefits:

• Have your own website architecture – that is, a unique architecture.
• Provide a personalized user journey,
• Have a unique design,
• Benefit from functionality specific to your core business.

Competitive advantage n° 2 – Better support securing your web application

Website security is crucial and essential. This is especially the case when considering the explosion of attacks from hackers targeting businesses of all sizes – even the smallest.

Your web app’s security is a major issue that should be taken really seriously in your project. This is not only because your data is crucial, but also because it has an impact on a site’s ranking on Google. Following significant security breaches over the past two years, Internet and website security has become a major concern for search engines. Research shows that Google will rank sites not secured by SSL a lot less well than it does those that are secure.

Through the support of a team specialized in web development – and who are used to meeting these cybersecurity challenges – you can eliminate a lot of risks. When placed in the right hands, your site will be safe and secure. Application security will be one of the priorities of professional IT development service providers.

Competitive advantage n° 3 – Scalability and flexibility

As your business grows, your website traffic will increase with it. This means you’ll be acquiring more data, which your site will need to have the capacity to handle. It is therefore important that you have a system that is both scalable and flexible.

The goal is for you to be able to cleanly and easily add new features to your application. The maintenance and scalability of your web app will be one of the key success factors for your performance on the web.

Competitive advantage n° 4 – Lower costs and increase margins

One of the other benefits of custom development is that you’ll be more in control of your costs. With an application specially tailored to meet your business needs, you have the opportunity to automate some of your processes, increase productivity and therefore reduce your expenses.

And one of the levers that will allow you to further optimize your margins will be to develop your IT solution in a foreign country.

Develop your web application abroad

Develop your IT application in another country where development costs are lower than in Europe or North America. Many companies are already outsourcing their IT development and making huge savings.

Developers from countries such as Madagascar, Vietnam and Mauritius are just as efficient as European or American developers. And for a lower budget, they provide the same level of software or application quality.

At Bocasay, we support our clients with outsourced development projects. Discover our various development centers around the world.