February 2023 - RSI Concepts - Top IT Solution Provider Company in Dubai, UAE

February 17, 2023

Advantages of a Custom ERP Software Development

The ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning Software is an application which streamlines the entire operation and help both employees and the management in effectively performing their day to day tasks. The ERP software can greatly maximize the outcome of the business by enabling them to effectively manage their resources. We have witnessed that most of the businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE thinks that an ERP solution is for large enterprises and production industry, however that is not true at all. In the modern fast-paced digital era the businesses need to effectively manage their resources to maximize their efficiency, which can provide them with the much needed competitive advantage and help them grow over the time. Another strong argument that most of the business leader has is that they are already utilizing a bunch of business tools and software solution, their manual processes and excel spread sheets based management methods or their small size or industry they operates in doesn’t require a sophisticated and advanced ERP software solution. It is true that the implementation of an ERP software solution requires a lot of research, efforts, and also have a cost associated to it, but the benefits and value it offers in unmatched.

Why Businesses Need an ERP Software?

The ERP Software is offers a central information management framework which links will all other third-party tools and systems and have ability to provide real-time updates, analysis, reports, performance, stats and much more. The enterprise resource planning software drives efficiency and productivity with automation and innovation which help businesses enhance the quality and quantity of the outcome of their resources and maximize their operational capabilities. Here are the key reasons why business need an ERP Software solution:

Greatly increase performance and efficiency
Reduce operational cost and eliminate waste
Eliminate the inadequacy of the existing digital ecosystem
Get rid of time-taking manual data processing via spreadsheets
Significantly enhance functionality and help employees in day to day tasks
Eliminate errors and problems associated with manual processes
Get real-time updates, centralized information management system
Enable real-time data synchronization and sharing with all internal systems
Enhance and improve management by gaining more visibility into processes
Maximize the growth rate and increase overall profitability

The benefits and advantages of the ERP or enterprise resource planning software solution far outweighs the implementation efforts and cost. However, when it comes to implementing an ERP software solution, businesses leaders often find themselves confused between the off-the-shelf ERP and custom ERP software development.

What is the Difference between Off-the-shelf ERP and Custom ERP Software Development?

The COTS or commercial off-the-shelf software solution is ready-made software application designed for a larger targeted audience often for masses and it is used to solve complex business problem(s). Every software serves a purpose, the business need a software to perform certain tasks or to support certain processes. The custom software development on the other hand is designed exclusively for a particular business or user group at a business who wants to solve their very unique and exclusive problems or to aid very specific business processes. That doesn’t limit the scope of the custom software development, in fact in terms of efficiency and impact the custom software development is the more beneficial method for businesses. It is the ability to cater to very specific business needs of various business processes or even the entire business which makes custom ERP software development more effective and highly efficient. The COTS ERP have limited adoptability and often require businesses to make changes to their workflows and processes, it is due to the design of the COTS ERPs as they are designed to meet the generic needs of a specific industry. However, the custom ERP software are far superior as they are exclusively designed by keeping in mind the needs, existing workflows and processes of the business.

What are the Advantages of a Custom ERP Software?

The custom ERP software meets the needs more effectively and are designed to solve the very specific and unique business problems. That is what makes them superior and more effective in the long term. Here are the key benefits of the custom ERP software:

Business Have Full Control over the ERP Features and Functionalities

In case of ERP software the one-fits-all is not applicable at all. The enterprise resource planning software is a core application which can have direct or indirect impact on each and everything a business does. Businesses over the time evolves differently, every business culture is unique and different form the others, even the businesses who operates in similar industries could have completely different organizational culture and business practices. This is why the generic off-the-shelf ERP solution is not enough and businesses need a very specific set of features and functionalities which can meet their exclusive needs. The custom ERP software development gives businesses full control over all features and functionalities, they can design the system according to their internal workflows and business processes which means the system will do exactly what the business needs. Aligning the features and functionalities of a custom ERP software can greatly enhance the productivity and efficiency and also improve the adoptability and integration of the system.

Businesses can Significantly Improve their Management Processes

Although the management structure and framework could be similar but every business leader have different preferences, priorities and management methodologies. This is why the custom ERP software development is great to improve and enhance the management processes. As it offers exactly what the management and managers needs and help them with their tasks to improve their efficiency. The COTS or commercial off-the-shelf ERP software are designed for generic use that is why they missed this flavor of personalization and couldn’t meet all the needs of the management. The custom ERP software development on the contrary allow management to customize their administration dashboards and everything else. They can have customized features, customized data dashboards, and real-time updates according to their preference and priorities which significantly increase the visibility of the management and provide them a better framework to accomplish their desired objectives through the ERP system. Thus the businesses can apply their personalized methodologies and management structure which enhance their performance and improve the overall management process.

Flexible Scalability, Updates and Changes According to the Needs of the Business

For any software solution the scalability, future updates and upgrades and on-demand changes are the most important aspects to consider. The commercial off-the-shelf ERP software are designed for masses, there are always fees and charges attributed to scaling and customization. If a business needs some changes, they will have to bear hefty charges and even then the scope of the changes is very limited, as the structural changes, or customization in the application core are never possible, they COTS ERP software provider always limit such changes and customization. The custom ERP software development on the other hand offers more flexibility and control. Businesses can scale up or down whenever they want, they don’t have bear additional fees and in case they want to customize a feature or even the entire ERP software, they can do that. There is no restriction associated to changes and customization. Businesses can also update and upgrade the system whenever they need. That flexibility and control is extremely important for businesses growth and competitiveness.

Businesses will own their Customized ERP Software

The COTS or commercial off-the-shelf ERP software are always designed and developed by a vendor or service provider who holds the ownership rights to the software application. The businesses/users are always bound to an agreement, which in most cases favor the service provider. The service provider can change their policy anytime they want, they can increase the cost, they can drop certain features which you might be using and they might not introduce the features that you may need. This is what limits your control over your ERP system and have various other drawbacks. The custom ERP software development doesn’t have any such limitation or problem, the custom ERP software are exclusively designed for the business, either by an outsourcing partner, vendor or internal software development team. The business/user holds the full ownership rights to the final product, the vendor or outsourcing partner doesn’t own anything, they will have to deliver all the source codes, resources and everything utilized in the software. This also eliminate the dependency on a particular service provider, business can acquire custom software development services and then they can maintain the software in-house or they can acquire another business partner to do that for them. This also have cost benefits and help minimizing the operational and maintenance cost.

Custom ERP Software Development Offers Better Data Privacy and Protection

The commercial off-the-shelf ERP software are owned by the vendor or service provider hence they have more control over the data storage, protection, privacy, and recovery polices and the business who is using their software must have to comply with those policies. More importantly in case of an off-the-shelf or ready-made ERP software the business’s data will be stored in vendor’s data centers. The data that is stored in an ERP software is of great importance, any data breach or such compromise could permanently damage the business’s reputation and can have dire consequence. The custom ERP software development allow businesses more control over these policies and help them protect their data. Businesses can store their data in their local data centers or they can acquire a trusted cloud service to host their data from them. There is another important factor to consider is that the commercial off-the-shelf ERP software are available to tens of thousands of users all around the world, which means their structure and a lot of other aspects are well-known and this is what makes them more vulnerable. However, a customized ERP software is only available to the one user which means no one else is familiar with its structure which makes it more protected against common internet threats.

Custom ERP Software Development Provides a Great Competitive Advantage

As the commercial off-the-shelf ERP software solutions are available for masses and if you are using a popular ERP system the chances are your competitor might also be using the same. If all the tools and features that you are utilizing are available to your competitors too then you can never gain any competitive advantage. For any business the business tools, methodologies, practices and processes determines the outcome, performance and quality of the work. If you are your competitor are using same tools, then the chances are you can never gain a significant competitive advantage over them. There is another important thing to consider is that the commercial off-the-shelf ERP software solutions can never fulfill the 100% needs of a business, in fact when acquiring an off-the-shelf solution businesses often seek 80% compatibility, this means they compromise on the 20% or slightly less of the functionalities and features. However, the custom ERP software development fully aligns with the business needs and offer 100% solution of all you problems. On top of that the features and functionalities you will be using are exclusive to you, no other competitor will have access to those features and tools, which will give you a great competitive advantage.

Conclusion

The ERP software solutions are a great tool for modern businesses, no matter who large or small you are or which industry you belongs too, every business needs to streamline their processes and workflows. The modern businesses will have to ready to adopt to the highly dynamic market and customer trends and abrupt changes. Businesses need to optimize their productivity, performance and efficiency in order to optimize resources and minimize the expensive without compromising on the outcome and quality of the work. When businesses need to implement an ERP software they have two possibilities, either they can go with a commercial off-the-shelf ERP software or they can take the route of custom ERP software development. The packaged off-the-shelf software are easy and quicker to implement but have limited compatibility which not only prevent businesses to reach to their full potential but could also cause problems down the road. The custom ERP solutions are exclusively designed for the needs and specifications of the business and help businesses achieve the maximum efficiency, performance and productivity.

The custom ERP software development offer great competitive advantage, superior performance, better adoptability, more future readiness, and increase adoptability. In this blog we have listed the key advantages of the custom ERP software solution, if you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design a customized ERP solution as per your needs, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: How Customer Experience Help Boosting Website Conversions?

February 16, 2023

The Beginner’s Guide to Queuing Theory

Most of the businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE faces problem with their queue management. It is common to sight long waiting lines and poorly managed queues at service centers, banks, telecom branches, government offices, and even in healthcare and educational institutions. In fact the queues are everywhere in our lives, some of them we might not consider as queues, and some we might address with other names. For example, let us suppose you woke up in the morning, while driving to your office at the road, the congestion and traffic is a queue, you went to a gas station and you stand in a queue to wait for your turn to fill the tank, you arrive at your work and you might see a line at the attendance register or biometrics attendance machine and so on. We usually don’t realize, but the queues are everywhere and everyone have to face them. Every business belongs to the service industry will have to deal with the queue management problems. When it comes to adopt a modern queue management system the business leaders and managers often get confused due to the sheer number of possibilities available in the market.

Why Learning about Queuing Theory is Important for Businesses?

The queuing is a process where human, information or even material could be the subject waiting in lines for their turn. For example, the cars on a congested road are waiting in queues to pass an intersection, the customer call waiting at a call center is also queue, and the baggage control at the airport is passing your luggage through the queuing lines. All these different scenarios are the examples of the queuing. In this world the time is the most precious commodity, it is irreversible, no one wants to waste it. Businesses don’t want to waste their customers’ time neither their own. Because wasting time can completely destroy the productivity and cause stressful situations for all concerned parties. Different queuing scenarios are the biggest cause of wasting our time whether it is at the road in traffic jam, or whether it is at a bank, office, service center, university, collage, hospital, hotel, restaurant, movie theater, or anywhere, it simply waste our time and it is very annoying. As queuing cause waste of time which directly impact the productivity that is why it is crucial for businesses to understand queuing theory.

The Queuing Theory

By definition the queuing theory or the queuing model is a study and knowledge of learning about the waiting lines, expected scenarios and queuing behavior based on discrete information,statistical/analytical data and practical assumptions. The purpose of a queuing theory is to measure the efficiency, effectiveness and overall performance of a queue management system. For example the queuing theory help you understand the long term behavior of the queue management system by estimating the average wait time, the probability of the customer flow at any given time period, the performance of the service agent, and service delivery time. This will help you determine the need of the servers and the wait and service delivery time, as per your demands or goals. For example you will have to make assumption such as inputs the distribution of arrival and service time and the count of the server to implement the formula of the queuing theory to estimate the performance and effectiveness of the queue management system. The queuing theory formula will help you to understand the long term behavior or commonly known as the steady state behavior of your queue management system. The queuing theory or queuing model will enable you to test different scenarios to achieve the perfect match as per you needs and goals.

The Steady State Queuing Behavior

The steady state queuing behavior is due to the assumption that the queue management system doesn’t change anymore and maintain a steady state. It means that the influx, the server performance and various other variables that are used in the mathematical derivations are constant now and give a more rational measurement of the performance. The performance of a queue management system is very difficult to estimate in real-time as in real-time and practical example, there are too many variables and moving parts, which could either improve or hinder the effectiveness of the queue management system and most of them are non-linear. That is the reason the steady state queuing behavior is used to compare two different queue management systems and to test various different scenarios and configurations. The steady state queuing behavior analysis will help businesses to find out the most perfect and effective queuing setup as per their demands and goals. That is why the queuing theory alone is not enough, hence businesses use simulation technique where they keep changing the state of the queue management system, measure the performance for each state and then take an average to understand the actual performance of a real-world application of the queuing theory.

The Importance of Queuing Discipline

Usually the notion of queuing discipline is first come first serve which is based on two factors, the performance and the fairness. However, that is not applicable all the time, in fact most of the time the businesses tend to utilize different queuing disciplines and more importantly is to understand that the performance of a queue management system can also be improved by utilizing more than one disciplines at a time. Here are the most commonly used queuing disciplines that are popular among the businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE:

First in first out (FIFO): This is the most ancient queuing discipline, whoever will come first should be served first to maximize the performance and fairness.
Last in first out (LIFO): This queuing discipline is most popular for the goods and materials, such as items that are placed in a delivery truck at the last should go out first.
Loop: The loop queuing discipline is popular for non-human queuing, it is being frequently used in the information systems and also in the production environments where every queuing subject needs constant service.
At once: That is also one of the most observed queuing discipline with limited application in the service industry. In ‘at once’ queuing configuration everyone wants to get served at the same time and the influx should be managed with a set of distributed server.
Priority Queues: The priority queues are the most frequently used queuing discipline in the service industry, where different customer groups have different level of priority and everyone is served on the bases of their priority not their arrival.

It is crucial for a business to learn and understand the different queuing disciplines. As this will help them to set up their queuing environment and the specifications of the queue management system will be varied based on the required queuing disciplines.

The Measurements of the Queuing Theory

It is extremely difficult to explain the queuing theory to people without any understanding of the operational science. One must have scientific knowledge and understanding of various formulas to estimate the performance of the queuing system.

Here is the formula to calculate the performance of the queue management system:

L = λW

Where

L = Average Number of the Customers

λ = Average Arrival Rate of the Customer

W = Average Service Time for the Customers

This formula was proposed by Mr. John Little which is used to understand the relationship between the distribution rate of the customers and the time required by them to get served. However, the queuing process includes other important factors which can impact its performance:

Customer Arrival: The arrival rate of the customers who are positioned first in the waiting lines
System Capacity: It is the maximum capacity of the queue management system to handle the customers
Service Points: These are the service points where the service is delivered, it could be a single point service or a multi-step service which require arrival at one server and departure from a different server
Output: The output is the customers who are departing from the system after getting the service

There are several other more complex theoretical and mathematical models that are commonly used in by the operation researches in the queuing theory, such as David George Kendall’s queuing model, Hall’s Queuing Rule of Thumb, etc. but those would be too complex to discuss here. However, the important thing to understand is that applying queuing theory along with adequate mathematical models and simulations can greatly help improving your queue management system.

Conclusion

The queue management system is an integral part of a modern day service centers. Whether you are a small or large business your customer facing staff and channels should be equipped with the adequate technology and tools in order to make sure your customers have a satisfactory experience. The customer satisfaction is a key to long term success as it drives customer loyalty and help businesses sustain growth. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are using digital queue management systems to improve their queuing processes. The modern day queue management systems are powered by AI (artificial intelligence) based algorithms which can dramatically improve the efficiency and performance of the queuing process. However, when it comes to implement a queue management system businesses often don’t have a clue of what type of queuing process they need and what features could help them achieve their desired goals. The purpose of this blog was to introduce our audience with the queuing theory, explaining the queuing theory without the mathematical models and calculation is a herculean task for the operation researches or experts.

In this blog we have tried to simplify the queuing theory to make it digestible for ordinary audience and help them leverage it to design or chose the right queue management system for their needs. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design a highly effective tailor-made queue management system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: Why the Custom Software Development is Good for Your Business?

February 15, 2023

Why Web Development is Crucial for Startups?

In Dubai and all around the UAE new businesses are starting on daily bases. This is due to the favorable government policies and highly stable market conditions. This also means that if you are a startup, your competition will be increasing day by day. In such circumstances, a business needs to establish a strong brand identity and they need to do it very quickly. For startups and small businesses the resources are always limited, whether it is financial resource or human resource. No matter if you are a sole proprietorship or a medium/large enterprise the corporate website is absolutely essential for your business to establish a strong brand identity. The present day markets are heavily relying on internet and information technology, here in UAE the internet penetration is 99% and almost same amount of population uses mobile phones. Another very important customer behavioral trend is that a majority of the customers use internet as their primary source of information and whatever they find over there can greatly influence their decision. That is why customers tend to look up for the products/service and businesses in the internet before even contacting a sales rep.

It is very important to capture your targeted audience’s attentions, for example, if you are selling computers, routers and other stuff or if you are an art & craft selling store, people might be searching for you over the internet, if they find a good website and relevant information they will most likely to send you an enquiry or visit your store. If you don’t have any website then you are completely out of the game. In this blog we will list some most important benefits of a business website which will help our audience to understand why the web development is so crucial for startups and even for established businesses.

Web Development for Startups: Low-Cost Marketing

A business website for a startup can be very beneficial in terms of marketing. A business website is basically the foundation of all your digital efforts, you build your online brand identity and marketing campaigns around your website. Al other digital marketing channels and adverts can converge your audience to your website, which can provide your audience required information and website also help communicating the brand message and value proposition which is essential for conversions. Whether you need lead data or you want to make online sale via your website, it is crucial to develop a website capable of performing the desired tasks. Businesses also use landing pages for their different paid advertisement campaigns, and in order to convert you must have to have an intuitive and appealing website. The startups can create dedicated landing pages for different audience groups which help increasing the conversion rate.Apart from that a startup can transform their website into a very powerful and cost-effective marketing tool by working on the SEO.

The SEO or search engine optimization is a technique to align your website with the standards and regulations of the search engine such as Google this includes almost everything, from user experience to content, and responsiveness of the website, etc. The SEO help startup get huge number of people to their website which definitely raise the chances of conversion.There are several search engines, however, the Google is considered to be the market leader as it dominates all other search engines with more than 96% of the search market share. The SEO is a great source of generating organic traffic for your business website, the organic traffic is absolutely free which help you minimize your digital marketing expense. According to several studies the organic traffic accounts for almost 70% of the total website traffic for an established business who is also actively utilizing other digital channels. This means that by just a little effort or small investment in the SEO you can generate huge amount of traffic for your business website and the website traffic is directly proportion to conversion and sales.

Web Development for Startups: Unique Brand Identity

A unique logo design is not enough to provide you a unique brand identity. The unique brand identity is much more than that. It is the consistency in communication, your appearance, and your entire personality. A website is very much capable of providing you the tools to establish a unique brand identity which is vital for competitive advantage and it can greatly help you stand out of the crowd. Your brand identity should communicate what your business stands for and what are your values, it should be able to convey a message instead of a highly decorative emblem or monogram. Your website would be the first interaction for a larger chunk of your audience, it has to set up a long lasting positive first impression. Your website can help you establish a unique brand identity by communicating your brand message, value proposition and your mission. Your website can tell your audience what you stands for, who you are, what you are offering and how your products/services are unique.

Your website will tell customers that what you are offering them no one else can offer and that is what makes you unique. The mission statement, the about section, the content on your homepage, your product/service pages and the overall look and feel of your website will build your unique brand identity. The human brain works in a very peculiar way, we perceive colors and patterns fairly quickly than reading text. The visuals always have quicker effect on our perception. This is where your corporate website can help you setup a unique and lasting first impression. It includes the way you design your homepage, the first section, hero image, the taglines, the menu and other design elements all plays an important role in building a unique brand image. The features and functionalities you are offering will have great impact on your customer journey and customer experience. That is why it is important to have consistency in everything, especially your brand’s look and feel and its communication tone. A unique brand identity will give your audience a sense of superiority and familiarity at the same time and help you capture their attentions.

Web Development for Startups:A Great Competitive Advantage

The growth and success of a business pretty much depends on its ability to sustain a competitive advantage. Your unique brand identity and a well-developed business website can provide you a great competitive advantage. The startups in particular need that much more to sustain and grow in the market. You should ask yourself, why a customer should purchase your product or acquire your services when there are hundreds of other businesses who are also offering the similar products and services? The answer is your uniqueness and ability to differentiate your products and services from the rest of the crowd. The startups will have to compete with other startups and already established businesses with strong brand recognition. It is important to gain your audience’s trust with your branding and communication. Your business website can help you communicate your brand message, value proposition and vision in a way no one other is doing.

It will help you present your products and services in a way which focus on the value you are offering that no one else is offering. Your product features, your pricing modern, your service plans and many more could be unique, but it will be your website which will help you to effectively present that uniqueness to your targeted audience which will help you generate more leads and sales. A website can help in gaining many competitive advantages, such as you can improve customer journey by offering interactive tools at your website, you can offer a great customer service using your website, you can gather customer data insight using your website and you can collect lead data or improve your email data base with your website. A website is a great tool for instant communication which also help improving customer engagements. A startup can integrate social media and publish social proofs to gain the trust of the audience. All these features and several other features like that will help you increase your competitiveness and uniqueness and will help you building a unique personality of your brand.

Web Development for Startups: Reputation and Trust

Whether it is a startup or a well-established enterprise, building a great reputation and gaining customer trust is always the top priority objectives. Businesses need to build a positive brand reputation which help them gain customers’ trust. Startups in Dubai or anywhere in the UAE usually doesn’t focus much on their websites, either they don’t develop websites, or even if they build a business website, they don’t focus much on its performance. The success of a startup heavily depends on their marketing efforts, and the marketing is dominated by the digital. In fact the digital marketing have already surpassed the conventional marketing. Just imagine if you are a customer, you found out about a brand, you are excited, you looked it up in the internet/Google, you don’t found it there, what would be your reaction? You will suddenly lose interest in the brand. Now consider this that you found a website, but it is not as that appealing, the same reaction will happen.

That is why for startups a business website is essential to gain customers’ trust and to build a positive reputation.No one trust the businesses who don’t have their corporate website. We also witnessed that most of the startups focus more on the smartphone applications rather developing a brilliant business website. If you think from a customer’s point of view, what do you think how many customers will try to search in their phone’s play store or app store to look up for a business? The answer is no one. Have you ever though why all social media platforms and various different digital advertisement campaigns always have an option to link your business website or landing page with the advert? That is because your website is the single most important factor that will help you build a positive reputation and gain trust of your targeted audience. Furthermore there are tons of other factors that contributes to gaining users’ trust such as your social endorsements on your website, your portfolio, blogs, product pages, company bio, mission statement, user experience and much more. That is what makes a website essential for a startup.

Web Development for Startups: Customer Data

A business website is a very powerful communication tool that can be used to increase customer engagement and raise your conversion rate. Businesses all around the world uses their websites to generate more genuine leads. A lead is basically your website visitor who have potential to make a purchase. In order to align your communication with your audience, it is crucial to have an insight to their behavior, needs and purchase pattern. A website can provide a wealth of business intelligence data to startups. You can get valuable behavioral, demographical and analytical data from absolutely free website analytical tools. This data will help you understand who is coming on your website, where your users are leaving and why they are leaving, and who are the users generating the most value for your business. This will help you understand who your targeted audience is and it will also help you identify the flaws and weaknesses of your website. Furthermore the businesses can collect a valuable email database from their websites, using lead magnet techniques, contact forms, lead forms, and they can also get direct sales via online by integrating online payment mechanisms.

Another most valuable business intelligence data is the customer feedback. The customer feedback is crucial for businesses, especially in the fast-moving markets like Dubai and in fact all across the UAE. The customer feedback will provide you a new prospective of understanding your customers and audience. It will help you understand what your customers need, and how they perceive of what you are offering them. Startups can utilize the customer feedback data to improve their product development processes. Moreover the collecting customer feedback is also very beneficial in building a strong relationship with your customers. When the customers know that a business is seriously interested in listening to their opinion and they will take actions to address their problems and to fulfill their desires, they become more loyal. The customer feedback data, analytical data, lead data and email data are very valuable for startups. Especially building an email database can have long-term positive effect and could be a great help in your digital marketing campaigns in future.

Conclusion

In the modern fast-paced and highly competitive marketplaces a startup need more focused efforts on crucial aspects to sustain and grow. For a startup the website is one of the most important factor in their success. A website provides you a face which help you build your online identity. A startup can leverage the potential of having a website to step up their marketing efforts and to gain a great competitive advantage. These days for a majority of your targeted audience your website would be the first touch point, it is important to develop a great website which can setup a great first impression. A website can also offer a tons of functionalities that can be used to enhance customer experience and to improve customer journey. Without developing a great business website a startup can loss a large chunk of their targeted audience by limiting their reach and exposure. In this blog we have listed the key benefits of developing an attractive and intuitive website for startups. Regardless of being a startup or a well-established enterprise your business website is an integral part of your modern marketing and communication strategy. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to develop a great business oriented website for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: The Benefits of Electronic Queuing System

February 14, 2023

Queue Management System Features you Need for Modern Queuing

The customer behavior, their needs and demands and the market conditions are always changing, businesses need to be more adoptive and pro-active in order to keep themselves up-to-date and competitive. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the markets are more competitive, the customers are also very savvy, and their demands are skyrocketing. The economy is continuously growing, the competition is rising day by day, and customers have a lot of options available to them. One bad experience and your customers will leave you for good. It is extremely crucial to maintain a healthy, strong and satisfactory relationship with your customers. The customer loyalty is one of the most precious asset for a business. This is why businesses are very eager to align themselves with their customers’ needs and demands. When it comes to a queue management system, the business leaders or CX (customer experience) managers can easily get overwhelmed with the sheer number of options available in the local market.

The effectiveness and impact of a queue management system depends on the system’s features and your needs. One doesn’t always fits all, but there are some universal features that can be very beneficial for all types and sizes of the businesses in the service sector.In this blog we will explore such features that can help all types and sizes of business to greatly improve customer experience and their queuing process.

What is Modern Queuing?

The queuing has come long way, traditionally the clipboard and pen based queuing was the way to manage the large footfall and crowded waiting areas. Later on businesses started realizing that they need to do more, this is when the technology starts coming in to the play and that was the time of inception of the modern queuing. The modern queuing methods that businesses are following in Dubai and all across the UAE are have evolved a lot. The technology itself have transformed a lot, now a days, the technology is widely available, the digital ecosystem and IT infrastructure of an average business is enough to support the modern queuing methods and practices. By definition the modern queuing is a queue management system based on the digital technology and software-based solutions. It helps automating several queuing steps and it can automatically manage customer routes and other major queuing tasks. With the help of digitalization and automation the business processes become very efficient and cost-effective too.

Features of a Modern Queue Management System

A modern queue management system is a software based application aided with several hardware devices. Usually there is a sign-up kiosk which allow customers to interact with the system, chose their required service, input data if needed, and dispense the ticket number. There are digital signage and large screens used to display the queuing information and audio announcement system is also considered to be an essential component of the modern queuing. Apart from that there are several administrative dashboards which let managers, head office and service agent interact with the system. The modern queuing system can also integrate with third-party tools, customer database, central information system and any other software to improve functionality and performance of the system. There are many benefits of a modern queue management system, some are more beneficial for some businesses than the others and so on. Here are the most useful features of a modern queue management system which are equally beneficial for all businesses.

Queue Management System Features: Digitalization and Automation

A modern queue management system converts the traditional manual queuing process into a more effective and efficient digital business process by leveraging the technology and AI (artificial intelligence) based software. The digitalization greatly improve the process and also capture valuable data which can be later utilized in various other processes. The digitalization also help automating several customer journey steps and improve customer flow. Due to digitalization and automation the human efforts are significantly reduced which means the business need much less resources to manage their queuing process. The modern queue management system works on smart algorithms which are capable to capturing data in from all touchpoints and various other details and enable queue management system to take real-time decisions to improve the queuing. Furthermore the modern queue management systems also provide self-service sing-up channels to the customers. Usually there is an interactive touch-screen self-service kiosk to sign-up the customer and dispense the tickets. But there are several other methods that can also be offered to customers to improve their experience, such as remote sign-up, mobile apps, online appointment booking, etc.

Queue Management System Features: Significant Reduction in Wait Time

The customer wait time is the single most impactful factor that can completely ruin your all efforts to attain customer satisfaction. According to several studies on an average a customer can wait for up to 5 to 9 minutes, this time limit is different for different industries, after that threshold the customer will start getting stressed and frustrated which will ruin their experience. That is why no matter what type of queue management system you use, the wait time should be minimized as much as possible. The digital queue management system used modern technology and AI based algorithms which enable them to minimize the customer wait time. When the customers sign-up for a queue, they are given a ticket number, the customer flow and movement of queues is fully autonomous, which eliminate any staff involvement in it. Furthermore the customers are allowed to wait comfortably in the designated spaces, hence not much management is required. The automation and no human involvement can significantly reduce the wait time. It also let the service agent focus on their primary tasks, which improve service delivery and make it quicker.

Furthermore the modern queue management system also help service agents in their tasks, which reduce their efforts and improve their focus on service delivery and other crucial tasks. A modern queuing need digitalization and automation, the electronic queue management systems help managing various other tasks for the staff which greatly improve the service quality and help reducing the service delivery time which eventually reduce the customer wait time. The electronic queue management system also capture valuable performance insight which help businesses further enhance the employee performance and reduce the customer wait time. The queue management system have capabilities to monitor the entire queuing process in real-time which enables it to take real-time decision and improve customer flow. For example, if a service counter is slow due to any reason, the queue management system can automatically redistribute the workload to ensure all counters work under a balanced workload, this also help reducing wait time and when employee work under balanced workload their efficiency also improves.

Queue Management System Features: Support for Virtual Queuing

Virtual queuing is not a new phenomenon. However, since the 2020 we have witnessed a huge rise in the adaptation of virtual queuing all across the country. The virtual queuing isthe most modern form of digital or electronic queue management systems. It takes the waiting time management to the next level, the methods and practices adopt by virtual queuing can literally reduce the wait time to none. Basically the virtual queuing offers more freedom and flexibility to the customers, it allow them to remotely sign-up for the queue by interacting with queue management system using digital media such as SMS, Email, WhatsApp, Mobile Apps, Website, Customer Portals, Appointment Booking Portals, QR Codes, etc. These channels allow the customer and visitors to remotely sign-up for the queue and receive queuing updates through the most convenient channel. This means they don’t have to be physically present at the premises, they will be singed-up in a virtual queue. This allow them freedom to wait anywhere they want to do whatever they want to do during that time. Furthermore they can also plan their visit in a way that they arrive at business only when their number is called. The virtual queuing minimize the wait time and improve customer experience by offering them more control, flexibility and freedom.

Queue Management System Features: Centralized Management

A digital or electronic queue management system is based on a queuing server application which is hosted online, in cloud or at a local in-premises datacenter. Which allow it to capture all the information and data in a centralized repository. This also help solving many management related problems and also offer more innovative features to improve the queuing process and to drive the efficiency. Usually business have multiple branches, regional offices, outlets, or customer service centers, and a single main location or head office. The head office is where the senior management resides, who want to monitor and control all connected branches. The queue management system offers a centralized management mechanisms where it provides head office staff full control over all the branches and share live queuing updates with the head office to improve the monitoring. The queue management system also allow businesses to configure desirable workflows and managerial hierarches to align the queuing process with their existing management structure. The head office and the managers with access can have full control and real-time information about the queuing which enable them to take quick actions to improve the customer flow and to solve the problems or handle the disruptions.

Queue Management System Features: Data Collection

The modern day businesses and marketplaces are heavily relying on information technology and the data is the lifeblood of information technology. A digital queue management system provides a great insight on your queuing process and performance. It can accurately capture footfall insight which help management identify various trends, such as peak hours, days, occasions, popular services, customer churn, etc. The electronic queue management system can also capture employee performance data and various KPIs, such as the average number of served customers in a shift, the active/inactive time, the time spend on a service delivery, etc. The queue management system can also capture customer feedback data either from on-site touchscreens or tablets, or from other channels such as WhatsaApp, Mobile Applications, SMS, email, etc. Any good digital queue management system also have in-built data analytical tools, which help managers to performance various analysis within seconds, and produce actionable reports. The queue management system can also integrate its data with the central information system or any other third-party tool and it also offer data sharing features which improve the control and monitoring capabilities of the management.

Conclusion

The customer happiness and customer satisfaction are the most crucial factor for the modern businesses, the market have already started transitioning from business oriented to customer oriented and that is because of rising competition and more demanding customer behavior. The queuing process is extremely important for the service sector. Businesses who failed to organize and manage their queues will loss the customers and eventually their reputation as well. That is why leveraging modern technologies to adopt to modern queuing has become an essential. A digital or electronic queue management system is a technology based solution for your queuing process. It streamlines customer flow and leverage the automation to improve the process and performance of the employees and customer service reps. The digital queue management system also provide a wealth of valuable business intelligence data which help businesses understand the customer experience and help them identify the areas of improvement to further increase customer satisfaction. In this blog we have listed the key features of a modern electronic queue management system, if you want to learn more or if you want our help to implement a custom-made highly cost-efficient digital queue management system for your business. Please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: The Benefits of Electronic Queuing System

February 13, 2023

Benefits of Implementing a Modern Performance Management System

Every employee wants to grow, develop and praised by the management, everyone wants to achieve their goal and everyone wants to perform well at their workplace. However, there are certain factors in organizational culture, work environment or even external factors which demotivate an employee and cause them to fail. Most of the time employees are way too capable but due to these factors they can’t reach to their true potential. It is the job of HR department and business leadership to provide employees a culture and environment where they not only perform well but also pursue their personal development and become more useful for the business over the time. The performance management system is the ultimate tool to do that. The performance management system is not like any other tool, in fact it is an integral process of the regular business operations. However, the problem with the traditional performance management system is that it is manual, which means it requires hundreds upon hundreds of work ours of your employees, HR team, and managers to complete this process.

Furthermore, the quality of the performance data is poor, the organizational and individual impact of the process is very limited, the reviews are once or twice in a year and on top of that both management and employees don’t trust it much. That is why business have started adopting to modern performance management systems.

What is a Modern Performance Management System?

A modern performance management system is a technological solution based on software and online platforms which help businesses and organizations to monitor, evaluate and improve the performance of their employees and help them align their available resources with their high-level goals and objectives. The modern performance management system help businesses implement modern performance management practices and enable them to adopt and implement more innovative and impactful strategies by introducing digital components and automation to the process. By implementing a modern performance management system businesses can significantly reduce the time, efforts and expense on the performance management process and above all the modern performance management system also have huge impact on individual level and organizational level. The efficiency and convenience enable businesses to focus on continuous performance management instead of once or twice in a year.

The modern performance management system help businesses develop a culture of higher collaboration, continuous learning and coaching, highly engaging, transparent and continuous feedback which help business and organizations to maximize their performance and increase employee satisfaction.

Benefits of Implementing a Modern Performance Management System

A modern performance management system provides a highly structured and efficient framework which help businesses to improve the overall performance, efficiency, productivity and profitability of the entire organization by improving the performance of the individual employees, teams and even managers. The performance management system has become an integral and very crucial business process, it help businesses keep improving their workforce and help building strong relationship between the employees and the employer which reduce employee turnover and strengthen the workforce. There are many benefits of the performance management, in this blog we will list a few most important and impactful benefits of the performance management system.

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Frequent Feedbacks

The performance management system provides a highly structured and well-organized framework to enable businesses to collect more frequent feedbacks. Whether it is quarterly reviews, monthly discussion, project-based reviews, frequent goal setting, one-on-one check-ins or just open-discussions, the performance management system provides a systematic approach with added benefits of automation and digitalization. All the data, surveys, feedback forms, or any other inputs is digitally stored in a centralized data repository and information system which allow managers to access and compare historic data and understand improvement patterns and behavioral insights. The easy access to such data help managers prepare more effective and impactful feedback for the employees and help them take actions and steps to maximize the performance. It really doesn’t make any sense to set course and get guidance for a year in just single meeting that is why the more frequent feedbacks are a pillar of a modern performance management system and can greatly boost the performance.

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Multi-Source Feedbacks

Another great feature of a modern performance management system is that it doesn’t only increase the frequency of the feedbacks but it also allow businesses to collect feedback from multiple sources. Such as the 360 degree and 720 degree feedback strategies. Where the users can submit feedback for their peers, upward, downward, cross-departmental feedback, and any stakeholder can share their feedback. Furthermore it also account for the feedback from external sources such as customers, suppliers, business partners, contractors, etc. Which further help broadening the scope of the feedback and enable businesses to collect more in-depth insight. All these feedbacks are stored in a common data repository and allow managers to perform various different analysis on the data using the in-built analytical tools. The data is already available for all relevant users, and the data, reports or analysis can be shared to specific users (employees or managers) and it can be downloaded as printable formats as well. All these features help preparing actionable reports and driving meaningful outcomes to achieve higher performance and productivity.

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System:Increased Productivity

The modern performance management system offer a multitude of features which help HR and business leaders to set shared or common goals, align individual goals with the high-level organizational goals, empower communication and enable both parties to understand the objectives and the relevant outcome which help motivating employees and set clear expectations. Moreover the real-time monitoring, continuous feedback and multi-channel communication help maximizing the productivity. When employees gets guidance whenever they need and wherever they need, and when their problems and concerns are addressed in timely manners, the efficiency and performance automatically increased. Furthermore each business have different objectives and different standards to measure the success. For each business there are different challenges and problems to address. The modern performance management system doesn’t only streamline reviews, but it provides a very effective problem-solving tool which help businesses to customize their performance management strategies as per their goals, for example, some businesses might be interested in improving the training programs, some might need to focus on accountability, and some might be seeking a way to align employee performance with the high-level goals, all these features help significantly boost the productivity of the employees and teams.

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Transparency & Trust

When it comes to performance management system the biggest concerns of most of the HR and the business leader is that their employees and even managers also don’t trust the system. The employees have a lot of transparency concerns and even the managers are unable to fully justify their judgments based on the incomplete or poor performance data. This is one of the major cause of the failure of a performance management systems. Usually with the annual performance reviews the managers often forget about the a few months old events, that is why the annual performance reviews are majorly based on the very recent few months’ events, interactions and incidents, which is totally unfair and couldn’t justify the entire year’s performance. Furthermore due to manual process the human factor is also considerable, majorly the manager’s bias and favoritism cause the most damage, and due to lack of a comprehensive framework in place, most of the time the managers start applying their own ideas and strategies which can derail the process. A performance management system on the other hand, provide a complete historic data, it didn’t even miss a single bit, the managers can access the past data, both managers and employees knows the expectations, there is no room for micro-management and everything is streamlined, well-organized and in a systematic order which help building trust and make the performance management process highly transparent.

Benefits of a Modern Performance Management System: Digitalization

The digitalization have many benefits, when business implement a modern performance management system it help them make the process more cost-effective, efficient and impactful. The digitalization help bringing automation which reduce the human efforts and make process more convenient. That is the reason businesses who implement performance management system can easily adopt to most modern performance management practices which help them maximizing the employee engagement and satisfaction and also provide highly accurate performance and business intelligence data. Moreover the HR data is considered to be the most critical for any organization, businesses always have protective measure in place to protect it. The performance management system beef up the security and privacy of the data with the help of password protection, administrative access control, data encryption and multiple firewalls and other security measures. The digitalization also make the performance management system more impactful by enabling simple and easy integration with other business tools, databases, and communication channels. This is what makes a modern performance management system far superior and beneficial than an ordinary traditional performance management system.

Conclusion

The performance management is absolutely vital for business who want to compete and grow in the modern fast-paced technology driven marketplaces. Businesses in Dubai and anywhere else in UAE are rapidly adopting to modern performance management practices and solutions. The traditional once or twice a year performance reviews are not enough, employees need more continuous guidance and the management need more frequent feedback to deal with the disruptions and unexpected challengesof the modern day marketplaces. The modern performance management system allow business leaders and the HR to improve the organizational culture and work environment. It help managers to get timely information and updates, and it help employees to get timely guidance and support. The innovative features of a modern performance management system can be a game-changer for the business. In this blog we have listed the key benefits of implanting a software-based modern performance management system, if you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and implement a highly cost-effective tailor-made performance management system solution for your business. Please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: The Benefits of Electronic Queuing System

February 11, 2023March 29, 2023

Performance Management System: Best Practices

The HR and business leaders in Dubai and all around the UAE are largely agree that the traditional performance management methods are outdated and unable to meet the needs of a modern fast-paced, digitally connected, and data driven workplaces. This is because two major factors, first the conventional performance management process is manual which makes it very expensive and time-consuming, the second problem is the poor quality of performance data which also raise transparency concerns. The modern performance management systems are based on AI (artificial intelligence) powered smart software engine and autonomous algorithms which can produce far more superior qualitative and quantitative performance data. The traditional performance management methods have failed to enable businesses leverage the true potential of their employees. In the modern highly competitive and dynamic market landscape the flawed performance management practices could harm your performance and can have negative effects instead of improving employees’ engagement and productivity.

What is a Modern Performance Management System?

Well the definition of the performance management system is still the same, no matter if it is a traditional or modern performance management system. The performance management system provides a structured framework which help businesses monitor and improve the performance of their employees and align them with the strategic goals to help business increase its effectiveness and operational capabilities and drive progress and growth towards the high-level organizational goals and in long terms, excel towards the mission and vision of the business. However, the modern performance management system is a software based solution which help streamlining several processes, introduce automation to the system and maximize the efficiency of the process. The modern performance management systems are so effective and efficient that a business can easily convert the traditional once-a-year performance management process into a round-the-clock process enabling businesses to leverage the benefits of agile and continuous performance management practices.

Modern Performance Management System Strategies and Best Practices

The primary goal of implementing a performance management system is to maximize employee engagement, satisfaction and provide them a culture and environment where they can unlock their true potential and help business achieve its high-level goals. In the last two decades we have witnessed a huge evolution in the markets all around the world. The major cause is massive adaptation of the technology and IT solutions. Furthermore the technology penetration in an average person’s daily life has also been causing paradigm shifts in market trends and customer behavior. This have changed the way businesses were operating in the past. Especially in Dubai and all around the UAE where the technology has deeply penetrated the entire society and markets are very dynamic the businesses need to adopt to modern methods, practices and technologies in order attract and retain customers. The performance management was one of the most overlooked process, and still to this day a lot of businesses in the country are following the traditional methods.

However, this is changing rapidly and we will see within a couple of years the conventional performance management will become obsolete.When it comes to modern performance management systems, there is no one solution that fits all. Every business develops and evolves differently and every business is unique, two businesses can never be same even if they operate in same market and industry. However, there are some common strategies and best practices that can be equally beneficial for all. In this blog we will compile these best performance management practices which can be a real game changer for everyone, regardless of industry, size or type of the business.

Performance Management System: 1. Continuous 360 Degree Reviews and Feedbacks

The 360 degree reviews were and still are one of the most important part of performance management system. The 360 degree performance reviews are feedback from multiple sources including managers, supervisors, peers, team leads, cross-department teams/management, stakeholders, and even external sources such as customers and suppliers, etc. The modern performance management systems are very robust, intuitive and make it very simple to conduct continuous 360 degree feedback campaigns. The continuous feedback from manager will help them understand their performance and progress, it is also very helpful in aligning the employees with the most important strategic goals. The annual reviews and feedbacks are outdated, both employees and the managers have concerns about this practice. The continuous feedback on the other hand help employees perform well, in fact businesses have witnessed 3 to 4 time better performance by enabling continuous performance feedbacks and reviews. The intuitive performance management system can greatly help in improving the process and making it easier and convenient for all participants.

Performance Management System:2. Agile Goals and OKRs

Setting up goals, building strategies and making plans are the foundation of any performance management system. The goals are the ultimate guideline for the entire process, however, most of the time business leaders and HR don’t emphasize much on the process of setting up goals. The long-term and high-level organizational goals and objectives are hard to swallow by an ordinary employee, however, when the same goals are broken down into smaller goals, it immediately start making more sense. When the high-level goals are segmented into smaller attainable steps or key results, it become easier for an employee to understand them and achieve them. The OKR stands for objectives and key results, usually the goals are set at the beginning of the performance cycle, however, there could be interim reviews to revise the goals according to the circumstances. The performance management system provides a dedicated dashboard for the 360 degree reviews and feedbacks along with innovative features to further simplify the process which help increasing employee engagement and improve the outcome.

Performance Management System:3. Increased Employee Engagement

The employee engagement is one of the pillar of any performance management process. Businesses who do not listen to their employee’s or doesn’t include them in the planning and strategy building stages of the performance management process are tend to have lesser performance and productivity. No matter how strong and frequent the communication is between the employee and the managers, there are certain things that might be hidden form the sight of the manager. Especially during the goal setting processes, building strategies and making plans to execute those strategies, the employee involvement can boost performance to several times. Involving employees in those processes not only help management increase the success rate but it also motivate employees to put more efforts which definitely boost the performance. When employees are heard by the management and their say is included in the decision making processes, they feel more connected and responsible, which raise their morale and encourage them to perform better.

Performance Management System:4. Public and Social Recognition

With the integration of the Gen. Z and a monumental shifts in the market trends and overall behavior, the monitory compensations which were the strongest motivator just about two decades ago have lost its power. Now a days the monitory compensations and social recognitions works side by side, in fact many market researches and surveys have proven that the employees value public praises and social recognition more than the monitory rewards. According to these surveys the Public Recognition or Social Recognition was the most memorable recognition according to the majority of the participants. The performance management system offers a variety of tools and features to enhance your reward and recognition process. It provides dedicated dashboards and employee community hub where employees and the management can share their remarks and appreciations. These public and social recognitions are visible to each and every employee, hence when the employees are publically praised for their achievements, they feel more proud of their accomplishments which help to boost their morale and performance.

Performance Management System:5. Continuous Development Discussions

The more frequent and regular discussions help management to understand the performance and progress of the employees and give employees a chance to discuss their problems/obstacles or to seek guideline and help from the managers which can significantly increase their success rate. The continuous development discussions and check-ins help employees achieve their goals and give management a chance to course-correct and align employees with high-level goals to keep them on track. The collaborative conversations are always empowering, it help employees express their concerns and understand the management’s expectations. The performance management system offers great features such as scheduling continuous development discussions and check-ins on a pre-set time frame and frequency to align the employees with the goals and to help them with their professional and personal development needs. The employee development discussions are very helpful in improving employee engagement and strengthening their relationship with the management.

Conclusion

The HR and business leaders in Dubai and all around the UAE are agreed that the traditional performance management system has lost its value and flawed performance management practices can bring harm instead of benefiting the business. Therefore almost all categories and industry sectors are rapidly adopting to a more technology-based modern performance management system. The modern performance management system is a software based highly integrated application which not only greatly increase the data quality and quantity but also help businesses to implement the modern strategies and adopt to market-proven performance management practices. The HR and business leaders should also understand that every employee wants to succeed, they want to grow and develop both professionally and intellectually, and the employees want to achieve their goals and like to be praised and admired. In this blog we have listed the best modern performance management system practices which will help you make your performance management process beneficial and appealing for both employees and the management. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to implement a highly effective and tailor-made performance management system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: The Benefits of Electronic Queuing System

February 10, 2023

Why the Custom Software Development is Good for Your Business?

The software, information technology and digital tools have become an integral part of a modern day workplace. These days’ businesses can’t function without the help of modern technology. Think of a smartphone, before them everything was going fine, but now a days, one can’t even imagine their life without their mobile phone. The same happens with the businesses as well, the modern marketplaces are very competitive. Especially in Dubai and all around the UAE where the customers are very demanding and they have tons of choices, the businesses had to compete a lot in order to stay out of the crowd. Businesses need software solutions to deliver their services to the customers, to improve their internal processed for production and supply chain management, for customer relationship management, for internal processes management and for almost each and every task the employee perform on day-to-day bases. That is why without software solutions and information technology is the lifeblood of the present day workplace.

There are two major classifications of the software solutions, one is the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions or COTS and the other is bespoke or custom software solutions. The COTS are designed for masses and hundreds or even thousands of businesses can use the same software solution. This means that the software is a generic application designed as per the industry standards and popular trends. When a business decide to acquire a commercial off-the-shelf software solutions they prefer a software which satisfy their maximum needs, usually it is 80/20 ratio where 80% of needs are met the software is considered to be a good choice. There are two drawbacks, one the software can never meet the 100% of the needs and its structure, workflow and mechanisms are usually less customizable, hence businesses will have to adjust their operation, processes and workflows to integrate the software. The second disadvantage is that most of the time the chances are your competitors would also be using the same application hence you will get no competitive advantage. However the custom software development solve all these problems and it fully aligns with your need and offer a great competitive advantage.

What is Custom Software Development?

The custom software development is a process of developing an exclusive software for a particular business or set of users. This means that the custom software development offers a 100% compliance with business’s needs. The businesses who are designing the custom software doesn’t have to make any changes in their existing processes or business practices as the custom software will offer great flexibility and control over the application you are developing. Hence businesses can have a software which not only meet their 100% needs, but also help them boost the efficiency of the relevant processes and the employees. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE usually outsource custom software development project to a vendor who starts the process with an intense requirement gathering phase, which helps them align the software with the business needs. As the software is designed according to the needs, hence the business doesn’t have to make changes in their processes or practices, and business get the full ownership rights to the application, hence there is no recurring or rental cost.

Why Custom Software Development is Better than COTS?

The COTS or commercial off-the-shelf software solutions are better in many ways, but have many drawbacks, the biggest problem is that they will never be able to meet your 100% requirements you will always have to make compromises over price or features. The scalability and operational cost is also high with several recurring fees and charges, the customization is limited and expensive. Moreover the adoption is difficult and integration is also limited. All these problems might not seem much at the start but as time passes, eventually businesses will have to switch to the customized software solutions. Every business is unique, over the time this uniqueness grows, and it is this uniqueness that help businesses establish a brand identity in the market. A custom software development provides more flexibility and easy scalability which help businesses support their growth and enhance their uniqueness. There are several benefits of custom software development which makes it superior from COTS, in this blog we will list the key advantages of the custom software development which are crucial for performance and growth.

Custom Software Development Advantages: 1. Exclusivity

One of the biggest advantage of the custom software development is the 100% fulfillment of your business needs. The COTS solutions are designed for the masses, they are designed to be generic and according to the popular industry trends. However, each business is unique and different form the other, even if they operate in the same industry sector and doing the same stuff, their internal culture and environment would be developed differently. This is what makes a business unique and give them a much needed competitive advantage. However, the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions deprive a business from it. The custom software development on the other hand allow businesses to retain their uniqueness and it help them to further drive innovation to enhance their performance, productivity and unique business identity. The custom software development offers exclusivity, complete ownership rights and it fully complieswith your unique needs which increase your business’s strength and support your growth.

Custom Software Development Advantages: 2. Personalization

Personalization is something that is always associated with good outcome, whether you offer a personalized experience to your customers or employees you will always get a positive outcome. The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions doesn’t offer any personalization at all. In case if you want some personalization you will have to pay additional cost for that and even then the level and scope of personalization would be very limited. However, the custom software development is very flexible and offers full personalization. Whether it is the features of the software you want to design in your own way, whether the workflows, or even the UI (user interface), you can personalize each and every bit of the software application with the custom software development process. You can personalize even the minute level of functions and even the title or color of the buttons on your customized software. Furthermore you can define the software behavior and align it according to your internal processes, business practices and the ways your employees are familiar with. The personalization make adoption and integration more convenient and it maximizes the efficiency of the customized software.

Custom Software Development Advantages: 3. Cost-Effective

The commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) solutions have less initial cost, they can be deployed very quickly, in fact within days, however, they have recurring cost, rental or subscription charges, then there is scalability, customization and integration cost which is separate from all that. All these different expenses make the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions much more expensive in the long run and above all the business doesn’t even have the ownership rights, in case if the vendor doesn’t allow them, they can’t even migrate their data to other applications, and there are several other drawbacks. However, the custom software development might seem expensive and more time taking at first, but it is mostly a one-time cost, the business completely owns the software application and they don’t have any dependency on the vendor. Since the software is fully owned by the business it is designed for, so the customization, integration and scalability is also not a problem. Business can customize the software whenever they want, same is application for the upgrades, updates and up-scaling. This is what makes custom software development much more cost-effective than COTS.

Custom Software Development Advantages: 4. Security and Privacy

The data security and privacy protection is not a technical matter, in fact we have witnessed in past years that a well-established business can go bankrupt within months after a data breach or security problem. Customers are very concerned about their data privacy and protection. Businesses who failed to secure the data of their customers and for the matter of fact their internal data will loss reputation and public’s trust on them. The commercial off-the-shelf software are always owned by the vendor or service provider and your data is stored on the servers which are not managed or maintained by you. This is what make it’s a bigger security risk. Furthermore the structure of the COTS is very familiar to the internet pirates, as they are globally available for millions of users. However, the custom software development on the contrary can offer the best security measures. Your data is hosted with you, and your trusted team have full control over the data server and the security of the environment. Furthermore you can also make your customized software aligned with your existing digital ecosystem which makes it more secure and offer great reliability.

Custom Software Development Advantages: 5. Scalability

Scalability is one of the most overlooked aspect of software development. Businesses usually doesn’t consider it a big issue at first. This is the case with the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions, they can align with your present day needs, but you don’t know in future whether they will still remain compatible or not. A business keep evolving and growing which means its needs keep changing and growing, and on top of that the IT technology and digital world is subjected to rapid changes unexpected situations. The custom software development is the solution to all those problems. During the custom software development process, businesses and vendor does intensive research and they also consider multiple expected scenarios during the prototyping stage. This will make them more ready for future and scalability. Furthermore the customized software are fully owned by the businesses hence adding new features or upgrading them or adding more users is not a problem. In fact most of the time there is very less or literally no cost associated with up-scaling. That is why the custom software development is more flexible towards scalability and increase the future readiness of your applications.

Custom Software Development Advantages: 5. Adoptability

The adaptation and integration are some of the most crucial aspects of implementing a new software solution. The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions have already established UI (user interface), internal information structure, workflows and development framework. Which limits their ability to harmonize with your existing digital ecosystem and also with the employees who will be using the application. Most of the time the integration cause serious troubles and the businesses also have to arrange training programs for their employees to make them able to efficiently use the new application. A business always have to rely on multiple enterprise tools and software solutions and system. In order to maximize the efficiency the information sharing and integration is a necessity. The custom software development ensures that the software will be fully compatible with the existing digital ecosystem. It offer more flexibility and control which maximizes its ability to integrate with other software, tools and databases. Moreover the UI (user interface) and workflows are fully personalized as per the users’ requirements, hence the adoptability is quicker and convenient.

Conclusion

Any modern business in Dubai or anywhere else in UAE knows the importance of IT, digital tools and software solutions. No business in the present time can properly function without adopting to various different types of business tools and software solutions. In order to compete in the market and establish a unique brand identity a business needs excellent quality information network and digital ecosystem. That is why the software needs keep coming and business are on a continuous quest to achieve higher efficiency in their internal and external endeavors. When it comes to implement a new software solution a manager or business leader can easily get confused and overwhelmed due to sheer number and multitude of software solutions available in the market. That is why we discussed custom software development in this blog and listed some key advantages of customized software solution which will help our audience to choose the best solution for their needs. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and develop a highly cost-effective customized software solution for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

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