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Benefits of Investing in Custom Software Development for Your Business in Dubai

The modern day businesses depends heavily on various software applications and digital tools. In fact the operation of today’s business is nearly impossible without utilizing technology. The software applications range from a simple accounts tool to a complex HRMS and a full-fledged complete Business OS (operating system). Different businesses have different needs, different industry sectors have different norms and standards, hence different levels of software complexity is required.

However, one thing is sure that all modern day business are using some sort of software to improve business efficiency. It could either be even a humble email client, like outlook, or MS Excel, these too are software tools. Or it could be a highly sophisticated ERP system or a performance management system to manage thousands of employees and huge business operations. Businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and all around the UAE tend to be early adopter of the modern technologies.

Furthermore businesses and companies from all around the world have presence in Dubai and all around the UAE which raise the competitiveness and diversity of the business landscape in the country. It is the strategic location of the country and its ports along with its highly business-friendly government policies which is and which will keep attracting more businesses, therefore it is important to make your business as much competitive as possible. In this blog we will discuss what are the benefits of investing in custom software development for your business.

Benefits of Investing in Custom Software Development for Your Business in Dubai
Benefits of Investing in Custom Software Development for Your Business in Dubai

The Importance of Technological Advancements in Business

The technology help businesses boost performance and productivity, it streamline internal processes, enhance customer experience, improve product/service quality and it offers better monitoring and tracking capabilities. That is why it is crucial to leverage technological advancements to remain ahead of your competition.

When it comes to the software solutions, there are two distinct ways to do that, the commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) solutions and custom software development. Both have their pros and cons, businesses are using various different types of software on different levels and with different complexity and sophistication. For example, if you need an email client, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you can use any off-the-shelf email client.

But if you need an ERP, HR System, or a document processing system or an intranet application, CRM, or other such tool, then you should seriously consider your requirements, goals and objectives and then decide which software solution type will serve you best. Every business evolved differently, and it is this difference which attracts your customers. This also means that every business have different goals and objectives with exclusive needs and requirements. Which can only be fulfilled with custom software development, the COTS are standardized applications and doesn’t offer much room for customization.

See Also: Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project

The Importance of Technological Advancements in Business
The Importance of Technological Advancements in Business

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development for Businesses in Dubai

When business owners, managers or decision makers go with the custom software development they are usually doubtful about the impact of this project. Most of the time businesses are reluctant to go with custom software development because it requires much more time, efforts and in some cases initial cost is also higher comparing to available commercial off-the-shelf solutions available in the market. Here are some key benefits of custom software development for business in Dubai, which will assure them higher success and greater impact than the counterpart COTS.

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Customization

One thing that businesses can never achieve from commercial off-the-shelf software solutions is the ability to perfectly align the software with their unique needs and ability to addressing to the very unique challenges they are facing. However the custom software development not only personalize the software solution as per your business needs but it also helps you to address the unique challenges you are facing and tend to deliver exclusive advantages which can gain you great competitive edge.

The custom software development project starts with intensive requirement gathering drive, which help the development team to understand all your needs and challenges. That is why the custom software development can deliver more effective software solutions. Furthermore when a software solution is built exclusively for your needs it will also allow you to choose the features, technologies and work flows as per your needs. This also help integrating custom software with your existing IT infrastructure in a nearly seamless manner.

See Also: Leveraging Big Data in Custom Software Development

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Customization
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Customization

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Cost-Effective

It is a common misconception that the custom software development is expensive, however, that is not true at all. It might seem that the initial cost of the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions is less and they can setup immediately, even within a day or two, however, the COTS have recurring cost, which diminishes with long-term cost-effectiveness and even it makes them much more expensive than the custom software solutions. The initial deployment cost of the custom software development is quit higher, it also require a lot of time and efforts to breathe life into an idea.

However, the customized software solutions offers better and cost-effective scalability, customization and very less maintenance cost. There is no recurring cost and you can always get them managed and customized from your internal IT team or any vendor of your choice, thus you are also not limited and stuck to a specific vendor. All these factors results in an exceptionally higher ROI and great future readiness.

See Also: The Impact of Cloud Computing on Custom Software Development [Full Guide]

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Cost-Effective
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Cost-Effective

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Security and Reliability

The security and reliability are few of the most important and crucial factors to consider while deploying a software solution for your business. One of the biggest advantage of custom software development is its ability to let you chose the features and technologies. With the custom software development businesses can chose the top-notch technologies and platforms to ensure highest level of security and reliability. Especially when you want to meet the highest industry standards and regulatory compliances, the custom software development is the best choice.

Businesses can not only customize the features but also the frameworks, platforms and hosting environments which assures highest level of data protection. Any security breach or leak of customers’ data can completely ruin your reputation. As the custom software development involves intensive requirement gathering and rigorous testing which makes your custom software apps more secure, reliable and less sensitive towards common technology challenges.

See Also: Top Trends in Custom Software Development: What’s Shaping the Industry?

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Security and Reliability
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Security and Reliability

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Flexibility and Scalability

In the modern fast-paced business landscape of Dubai, businesses needs are not fixed and businesses have to accommodate for the impact of ever-changing customer needs and technology advancements to remain competitive. The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions can provide a good quick fix to your current needs, but doesn’t offer the flexibility, development and customization that you might be needing in the coming years. On top of that the commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) are designed for masses hence lack the personalization and ability to customization to address your exclusive challenges.

However, the custom software development on the other hand can offer great flexibility and scalability. Whether you need to address your unique challenges, or you have sophisticated business needs, you can mold the customized software they way you want. As time pass and your requirements changes or your needs grow you can further add more features and increase the capacity of customized software.

See Also: Common Mistakes to Avoid in Custom Software Development Projects

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Flexibility and Scalability
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Flexibility and Scalability

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Seamless System Integration

In today’s modern world, the businesses and organizations have become more sophisticated and require a lot many different IT solutions and software tools. In order to effectively execute a task or to ensure seamless business processes for higher productivity and performance it is absolutely essential that all the different software, systems and solutions work in full harmony by enabling seamless communication between them. This communication means exchange of data, information and instructions.

This is what is called system integration, it also known as integration or third-party integration. The custom off-the-shelf software solutions only provide limited integration capabilities. However, custom software development will enable businesses to build the software to be more compatible with their existing systems, databases, and IT infrastructure which makes them more compatible and integration friendly. Furthermore businesses can also customize them to achieve their integration objectives.

See Also: How to Develop a Custom Software in Dubai?

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Seamless System Integration
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Seamless System Integration

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Higher Productivity

The custom software development help businesses to achieve higher efficiency and productivity. There are several factors that help improving performance and efficiency, such as:

  • Custom software development let businesses build the user-friendly software solutions
  • Intuitive user interfaces (UIs) can greatly enhance user experience (UX)
  • Ability to customize the UI and workflows help employees easily adopt the new system
  • Customized feature help employees get their tasks done with higher efficiency
  • Different user groups can have exclusive features which further enhance their efficiency
  • System integration allow minimizing repetitive work and enhance performance
  • Ability to integrate mobile applications can greatly increase accessibility and convenience
  • Customized features and functionalities help improving workflows and business processes
  • Ability to monitor and track performance offers higher visibility

Businesses can greatly improve employee performance by deploying customized software solutions. That is not all, the custom software development offers businesses full control over the working of all features and help them get the desired outcome which can greatly improve internal processes, workflows and help businesses gain higher productivity.

See Also: Guide to Custom Software Development

Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Higher Productivity
Key Benefits of Custom Software Development: Higher Productivity

Why Businesses in Dubai should Invest in Custom Software Development?

As I have mentioned above there are several benefits of custom software development which makes it superior from commercial off-the-shelf software solutions. The custom software development help businesses digitalize their internal processes and maximize their efficiency by leveraging the automation.

Furthermore when a software is exclusively designed for your business it will fully align with your needs, internal processes and strategic objectives. This makes it more impactful and productive comparing to commercial off-the-shelf solutions.  Here is why a business in Dubai should invest in custom software development:

  • The commercial off-the-shelf software only partially match your business needs, however, the custom software development enables you to design and develop an exclusive solution which fully aligns with your business needs, integrates with your existing IT infrastructure and it also offers long-term service and support.
  • The development process of a commercial off-the-shelf software solution is slow, it only offers upgrades when a large majority of the users need it. However the custom software grows with business needs, any need can be met immediately either by customization or by adding more features and so on.
  • The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions are provided by a vendor or service provider, which offers very less control over various important aspects of the software. However with the custom software development businesses not only have full control over their data, storage and software but businesses also have full ownership rights for their customized software.
  • The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions are designed for masses and the vendor doesn’t have much interest in your exclusive needs or challenges, in fact the vendor follow the industry standards and market trends. However, the for the customized software solutions you get in touch with the software developers, designers and IT specialists who are designing your software application, thus they have better understand of you needs, concerns and challenges.
  • Although the initial cost of the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions is relatively lower, however, there are several recurring expenses. The COTS offer very limited customization but it is very expensive, moreover the scalability too is very expensive. The custom software development of the other hand have slightly higher initial cost, but in long term have no recurring cost, in fact it offers full ownership rights to the businesses and offer more flexibility, customization and easy scalability.

As the market landscape in Dubai is very competitive and dynamic therefore businesses need higher productivity, lower operational cost and better tools to gain greater competitive advantage. And the custom software development can provide all of these.

See Also: Why Off-the-Shelf Solutions Fall Short: Advantages of Custom Software Development

Why Businesses in Dubai should Invest in Custom Software Development?
Why Businesses in Dubai should Invest in Custom Software Development?

Conclusion

In this modern and fast-paced market landscape in Dubai, where the customer needs are growing endlessly, rapid and sudden change are very common across all industry verticals, businesses need a proactive software development approach to mold and align their tools with the changing and growing needs. The custom software development is the way to design and develop software which are exclusively build according to the business needs and latest industry trends. Furthermore the businesses need to integrate various software and applications in order to improve their operational capabilities and to boost the employee performance. All this can only be achieved with a more flexible and controllable software development method which is only offered by the custom software development. The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions might offer lesser initial cost and are extremely easy to setup, however, in longer run neither they remain relevant nor cost-effective.

The custom software solutions on the other hand has incredible ability to grow as business grows and offer great ROI in long run. In this blog we have covered key benefits of investing in custom software development for business in Dubai and all across the UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help with your next custom software development project, 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.


Custom Software Development for Healthcare Industry

Healthcare industry and organizations providing medical services are constantly seeking ways to enhance their internal processes, healthcare delivery, patient experience and management capabilities. In today’s digital era, where technology is transforming every aspect of our lives, the healthcare sector is increasingly dependent on digital solutions such as custom software development and various IT tools to achieve its goals and objectives. Given that the importance of patient satisfaction and well-being is paramount in every healthcare and medical facility, the global demand for healthcare software development is massive. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) stands at the forefront of modernization and digitalization in the Middle East, the healthcare industry is no exception.

Healthcare and Medical service providers in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and across the UAE are well-known for their world-class services and the highest quality standards. This reputation has been achieved through the integration of cutting-edge technologies and IT tools, with healthcare and medical software leading this revolutionary change. In this blog we will discuss how the custom software development is completely transforming the healthcare industry in the UAE, leading to a new era of efficiency, modernization, innovation and patient-centric business approach.

Custom Software Development for Healthcare Industry
Custom Software Development for Healthcare Industry

What is Custom Software Development?

Before we dive into our main topic, it is important to understand the custom software development. There are two types of software solutions. One is COTs or commercial off-the-shelf software and the other is bespoke or custom software solutions. The commercial off-the-shelf software are ready-made tools, which are designed as per the best industry practices. These software and apps are widely available and are designed for masses. Thus chances are your competitor or industry rival might also be using the same software application, offering no competitive advantage from technology stand point. However, the custom software development on the other hand is not just buzz-word but a complete game changer.

The custom software development is a process of customizing a software application as per your needs. This means the custom healthcare software will be designed exclusively by keeping your unique requirements in mind hence it would be able to address to the challenges you are facing while also helping you grab the opportunities no one else could get.  The custom software development ensures that your healthcare software solution is exclusive and meet all your needs, which could give you a great competitive advantage and it is also very helpful in integrating innovative features that are fully aligned with your goals.

See Also: Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project

What is Custom Software Development?
What is Custom Software Development?

Why Custom Software Development is Important for Healthcare Industry in UAE?

The UAE healthcare sector is a rapidly growing and evolving industry with its diverse and dynamic needs. The government emphasize on high-quality standards encouraging healthcare and medical establishments to adopt more patient-centric practices. The adaptation of the cutting-edge software solutions in the healthcare and medical sector is not just a trend but an absolute necessity. Organizations in healthcare sector want to improve their efficiency, clinical workflows, hospital information system, appointment booking system, pharmacy management, telehealth tools, patient flow management and several other crucial business functions.

Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and all other regions of UAE have diversified population with a large amount of expats coming from all around the world. This means the healthcare service demands are increasing exponentially. In such conditions, offering easy access, and personalized experience could greatly increase patient satisfaction. The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions are designed for masses, however, only the customized software development can help healthcare and medical facilities to deal with their unique and exclusive needs. The customized software allow organizations to build solutions that align with their needs and are more efficient in solving their unique problems.

See Also: Custom Software Development for Enhanced User Experience

Why Custom Software Development is Important for Healthcare Industry in UAE
Why Custom Software Development is Important for Healthcare Industry in UAE

Advantages of Custom Healthcare Software Development

There are several advantages of custom software development for the healthcare and medical industry which makes them far superior to commercial off-the-shelf solutions. Here are a few key advantages or custom healthcare software development:

  1. Tailored Solutions: Healthcare and medical facilities often have very unique needs due to their internal processes and business practices. With the passage of time hospitals, clinics, medical facilities and testing labs could develop quite unique workflows. It is very difficult achieve the highest possible efficiency with the commercial off-the-shelf solutions as they are made for general audience. However, the custom software development can solve this problem by delivering tailored solutions that 100% match with the unique and exclusive business needs.
  2. Improved Service Quality: The healthcare and medical facilities often had to deal with a variety of different levels of priority based on the medical service urgency and criticality. Hence dealing every customer in a same way is not practical. Therefore healthcare facilities, hospitals and clinics and other medical establishments make policies and develop workflows to facilitate every patient while maintaining an optimum level of service quality. A customized healthcare software application can fully align with existing processes, boosting performance by lifting up employee workload and optimizing internal processes. This results in significant improvement in service quality and patient satisfaction.
  3. Better Patient Experience: The healthcare and medical facilities often have to deal with a bulk of patient data which sometimes could make it difficult to provide information and communication in a timely manner. However, the custom healthcare software development enables organizations to integrate multiple communication channels such as online patient portals, mobile apps, WhatsApp, SMS, email and much more which can instantly provide patient with the updated information. These additional modules not only provide data and information but also help healthcare organizations to streamline several internal process, which can greatly improve patient interaction and journey, lifting up patient experience.
  4. Improved Compliance: The healthcare sector and medical facilities are often subjected to comply with complex regulations and government policies. Most of the time several penalties are also associated with these compliances and regulations. A commercial off-the-shelf software often failed to facilitate the compliance process. However, a custom software development ensures that all your needs and requirements are incorporated in your healthcare software solution which can greatly improve the compliance and your ability to cater to emerging compliance needs.
  5. Innovation and Automation: The innovation and automation are the two key aspects of digitalization. The custom healthcare software development help organizations to offer innovative features for both their patient and their employees which greatly improve patient experience and employee performance. The healthcare organizations and medical facilities can offer more control and freedom over healthcare plans, personalized services and much more by enabling patients to utilize self-service channels to perform various tasks by themselves. All such features enhance patient experience and also boost employee performance.
  6. Flexible Integration: The integration is one of the most crucial and absolutely essential factor to consider while implementing a new software or solution. The commercial off-the-shelf software application usually lack at their ability to integrate with other third-party tools. Often additional cost and efforts are associated with integration. However, the custom software development enable healthcare and medical facilities to customized their software in a way that they can seamlessly integrate with existing software, systems, patient databases and central information management system.
  7. Scalability and Adoptability: The healthcare industry and medical practices are constantly evolving. The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions fall short when it comes to scalability and adoptability. However, the customized healthcare software tools are very flexible towards scalability and adoptability. Businesses can easily incorporate more features or modify existing functions to scale them with their emerging business needs. The ability to add new features and customize the existing features as per the emerging needs can greatly enhance the adoptability and scalability, offering a great competitive advantage without raising the cost. Hence the custom healthcare software development offers much higher ROIs comparing to COTs.
  8. Enhanced Performance: Most of the time the employees working in healthcare industry have to perform repetitive routine tasks and manual work. The customized software development help healthcare and medical facilities to add productive features which can handle most of the routine tasks for the employees, and with the help of digitalization and automation many errors can be prevented which are normally associated to manual work. Furthermore custom healthcare software tools also offer customized reporting and analytical data collection which provide great visibility and monitoring over the entire operations hence resulting in improved human resource planning and better management which can greatly boost the operational performance.

The custom software development offers great advantages. The healthcare and medical facilities can leverage the custom software development to build their own unique brand image while boosting performance, productivity and efficiency of the entire organization.

See Also: 5 Advantages of Custom Software Development

Advantages of Custom Healthcare Software Development
Advantages of Custom Healthcare Software Development

Conclusion

The healthcare industry and medical services are rapidly evolving and transforming into more patient-centric organizations in the world. The global healthcare industry software industry is rapidly growing showing the importance and effectiveness of the software solutions in the industry. When it comes to software development, the healthcare organization have two way to go, either choose the commercial off-the-shelf software or the custom software development. The custom software development has proven itself to be far superior with its ability to cater to unique business needs while supporting scalability, customization, and growth. The commercial off-the-shelf solutions are generic however, the custom software development offers exclusive tailored solutions.

See Also: Customer Software Development: Why React JS is The Future of Frontend Development

That is why the businesses in healthcare and medical industry are embracing custom software development. Furthermore the customized healthcare software and tools tend to have long lifecycle with ability to quickly respond to emerging needs. In this blog we have discussed how customized healthcare software application can help organizations gain competitive advantage, patient satisfaction and operational excellence. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to develop a tailor-made software solution for your healthcare organization or medical facility. 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.

See Also: Best Web Development Practices for Healthcare Businesses in Dubai, UAE

See Also: What should be covered in a hospital website?


Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project

In the today’s technology driven world, the businesses are dependent on software solutions more than ever before. Especially in competitive markets like Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other cities of UAE where the customers are also very demanding and tech savvy the software solutions have become absolutely essential to ensure greater operational efficiency, productivity and performance of the entire business. Where the integration of technology become deeper and raise new needs for software solutions, the custom software development industry have also evolved in UAE. Once software tools thought to be meant for high-value and large-scale enterprises are now in the reach of a startup, thanks to the advancements in the software development tools and technologies, now a days, building a great software solution is not a luxury anymore. Every business can build software tools to drive performance and productivity which can gain them the much needed competitive advantage and help them stand out of the crowd. The commercial off-the-shelf software solutions more often doesn’t fulfill all the needs, hence businesses are turning to custom software development. The custom software development not only offer exclusive solutions and tools that perfectly aligns with business needs but it also tend to offer better ROI in longer run. In this blog we will go through a step-by-step guide to planning and executing your custom software development project which can drive efficiency, improve workflows and processes and enhance customer experience for your business.

Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project
Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project

Why do You Need a Custom Software Development Project Plan?

When it comes to deploy a new software solution your project goals could fall in any of the three, operational improvements, customer experience improvement or improved management process and workflows. When it comes to the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions is relatively easier to carry out market research, done a competitive analysis and chose the right tool or solution as per your needs. However, when it comes to developing a custom software, the businesses must have to do in-depth analysis, research and due diligence to ensure the final product will fulfill their needs. Since comparing two or more existing products is easier, you can simply signup for trials or have demos to compete COTS, however, in case of custom software development, there is no product hence your project plan will help transforming your software requirements into a fully functional software solutions. That is why a proper and comprehensive project plan is absolutely essential.

See Also: Comparison between COTS and Custom Software Development

Your project plan will help you understand the following very basic questions that will help you effectively executing your custom software development project:

  1. What technology or tools you will be needing to develop your custom software?
  2. Which department is the project owner and who are the main stakeholders?
  3. Who will be managing the software and who will be the primary users of the software?
  4. What skillset and resources do you need in your team?
  5. What external resources you will be needing?
  6. What your success will look like? What are your success criterions?
  7. How much time is required to develop your custom software solution?
  8. What is your budget limitations? What is the estimated cost including all assumption (if any) you are making to estimate the cost of your custom software solution?

These are just a few questions that will help you align your project with your timelines and budgetary limitations. A project plan for your custom software development project will mainly cover, requirement analysis, ideation, concept, development process, testing and deployment, post-launch processes and obviously documentation. Everything has to be documented properly to ensure an effective and successful project execution.

See Also: Top Trends in Custom Software Development: What’s Shaping the Industry?

Why do You Need a Custom Software Development Project Plan?
Why do You Need a Custom Software Development Project Plan?

How to Setup a Successful Plan for your Custom Software Development Project?

A successful project plan is essential for a successful custom software development project. It is important to understand that a business have to invest a lot of resources, efforts and time to develop a custom software therefore the stakes are very high and businesses must have to make sure that the final product resonates perfectly with the set success factors. Businesses often doesn’t pay much attention to the planning phase, overlooking its importance, which lead to unsuccessful custom software development projects and result in loss of a lot of resources, time and money. Here is a step-by-step guide to planning your customer software development which will raise your success probability to 100% if the plan is properly executed.

See Also: Common Mistakes to Avoid in Custom Software Development Projects

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 1. Define High-Level Workflow

The high-level workflow of your custom software development project will help you segment the entire project and understand how each stage transitions to the next stage. It is a common misconception among the businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and in fact all around the UAE that only the launch is the most important stage of a project, however, a good high-level workflow for a custom software development project must look like the following:

Planning –> Designing and Development –> Launch –> Final Delivery –> Maintenance

Most of the time the key stakeholders emphasize much on the launch and delivery phase, while completely ignoring the importance of the previous stages. Which cause several problems and sometimes cause serious issues which require to make major changes in the software which also result in delays and increase the overall cost of your custom software development project. Therefore it is crucial to define a high-level workflow before starting your custom software development project.

See Also: Why custom software is more cost efficient in UAE?

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 1. Define High-Level Workflow
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 1. Define High-Level Workflow

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 2. Define the Scope of Your Project Plan

The scope of the project plan is a pretty vague term, however, it can easily be understood. A good way to define the scope of a project is to first determine the project timeline, importance, and sophistication. Any custom software development project which is meant to last longer than 2 weeks must require a proper upfront plan in order to ensure success. However, some custom software projects might last longer than 6 months, for such projects it is difficult to plan for the entire project, hence the planning could be done for 4 to 6 months chunks. Because in custom software development projects most of the time after six months due to external, internal or some unexpected circumstances will most likely render your estimation inaccurate, if not fully inaccurate there would be some off-set, which must be accounted for. Therefore it is a good practice to plan for maximum 6 months and not longer than that and after 5 or 6 months revisit your plan and set course accordingly as per the current circumstances to ensure success.

See Also: Step-by-step Guide to Develop Custom Enterprise Software

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 2. Define the Scope of Your Project Plan
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 2. Define the Scope of Your Project Plan

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 3. Define Success Factors and Project Outcome

This is one of the most part of a project plan. Every project has a purpose and a business ultimately want to achieve something with their custom software development project, for that they business must have a criteria or expectations which will define the success factors. It is important to clearly define what the success of the project will look like, it could be from functional point of view or from performance point of view or it should be the improvements the software could bring to existing processes and workflows, or customer experience, whatever it is, your success factors should be clearly defined and listed. All the stakeholders must be taken onboard at this stage and all the success factors should be discussed thoroughly with all stakeholders and approval should be taken if needed to ensure there won’t be any surprise at the end for any stakeholder or user group. This cannot be done without considering the custom software development process, and for that most of the time some assumptions are made, which should also be discussed thoroughly with the stakeholders with the possible outcomes to ensure all goals are met and the target is achieved.

See Also: Custom Software Development Progressive Web Apps – Beginner’s Guide

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 3. Define Success Factors and Project Outcome
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 3. Define Success Factors and Project Outcome

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 4. Estimate the Project Workload

This is the time when a proper blueprint of the project has to be written. For that the project manager should engage the development team whether it is in-house team or an outsourcing custom software development partner, the actual programmers, software developers and engineers should be onboard during this phase. As all the requirements are set, the final outcome is defined and the success factors are set, now is the time to estimate the actual workload of your custom software development project. This is the workload involving the software designing and development teams, who will be performing various different tasks. Furthermore the responsibilities of every team or team member can also be divided into individual tasks, and accordingly a timeline is set for each task which then should be accumulated to estimate the total project workload and estimate the time and effort required to deliver a successful project. It is important to take feedback from each individual team member on each individual task rather than asking only supervisor or team leads or managers to give an overall estimation. It is important to understand that the project workload estimation could have significant influence on the cost of the project that is why this stage is important.

See Also: The Key Elements of Efficient Software Development Project Management

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 4. Estimate the Project Workload
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 4. Estimate the Project Workload

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 5. Scrutinize the Estimation

The significance of the estimation of project workload is very crucial for a successful deliver of your custom software project. That is why it is absolutely necessary to scrutinize it thoroughly and repeat it many times if needed. But most of the time when project managers are repeating the estimation or cross-questioning the teams and team members their prime agenda is to minimize the timelines and encourage quicker deliver. However, that is not a correct approach. The project manager should provide full freedom to each individual team mate to let them express themselves freely, however, questioning their feedback will help refining the estimation and will also keep your team motivated to deliver good quality work. Here another important thing to consider is that the custom software development projects are often complex and sophisticated and a lot many assumptions are also made, which sometimes proven to be incorrect or slightly off-set. That is why it is important to keep some room for errors and mistakes and consider some gaps for the unforeseen circumstances and unexpected scenarios to ensure you don’t miss any milestone or even the overall deadline.

See Also: How to Choose the Right Software Development Vendor for Your Business

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 5. Scrutinize the Estimation
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 5. Scrutinize the Estimation

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 6. Setup and Define Milestones

Setting up milestone and clearly defining them is important, it will help the project manager and the development team to track the progress throughout the custom software development project. There could be a high-level milestones marking different stages or phases of the software development process such as design, development, MVP, completion, testing, delivery, etc. Or each of this milestone can further be divided into many more to improve the performance and progress. Some custom software development project teams follow a modular approach where the entire software application is developed in form of different module on a single platform. These kind of project management method ensure each module deliver all the needed features and fulfill all of customer’s expectation. Whatever approach you follow the important thing is that your custom software development project must be divided into several stages or phases with pre-set milestone marking different levels of progress to ensure the development process remains on track which is a key to successful project delivery.

See Also: Importance of Custom Software Development in Dubai

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 6. Setup and Define Milestones
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 6. Setup and Define Milestones

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 7. Resource Forecasting

After estimating the workload, setting up milestones, and defining the success factors now a project manager can easily forecast resources required to deliver the project. As the entire custom software development project is divided into several phases and milestones are set for each phase, now it is easier to accurately forecast which resource or technical team and personals would be needed at which stage. For example, the initially phase is the designing at this stage, the design team would have to lift the heavy load and later on during the development phase only the software developer, programmers and engineer would be working on the project, and very little input would be needed from other teams. Similarly at the testing phase and deployment phase different teams and different resources would be needed, hence there is no need to engage the entire skillset throughout the custom software development project execution. This also help improving the project management and speeding up the entire process. It is important thing to understand that adding more resources to the team or engaging more people at a time won’t guarantee a fast-paced project execution, in fact it will further complicate it and could even slow down the progress.

See Also: How to Develop a Custom Software in Dubai?

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 7. Resource Forecasting
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 7. Resource Forecasting

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 8. Consider Changes and Obstacles

It is extremely difficult to ensure a seamless custom software development project execution, one way or another something will eventually go wrong which could cause revisions, changes and delays. Your custom software development project plan must have room for changes. That is a very simple process, it can be done by holding up a meeting or discussion with all stakeholders from the management and development side and asking everyone of their pinion thus concluding the most obvious things which could go wrong and at the same time defining a strategy and plan of action for mitigation. This step usually referred as pre-mortem session, even if you do not conduct a pre-mortem you should account the changes and delays in order to ensure the project executes smoothly and the deadlines are met successfully. A great way to dealing with such risks is to make a proper list of all expected risks, delays and obstacles along with a realistic mitigation strategy. This list could be very helpful for both the development team and the management throughout your custom software development project execution process.

See Also: 5 Advantages of Custom Software Development

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 8. Consider Changes and Obstacles
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 8. Consider Changes and Obstacles

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 9. Conduct a Thorough Post-Project Review

Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or anywhere in UAE doesn’t usually conduct a post-mortem or post-project review of their custom software development project. One of the biggest reason of neglecting the post-mortem review or post-project review is that the project teams and resources are immediately dismantled and appointed to other tasks as soon as a project got completed or delivered. The post-project review consists of discussion and feedbacks. The discussions and feedbacks are aimed to answer the following few important questions:

  1. What lessons have we learned during this custom software development project?
  2. Was the project successful or not or how much of project goals are achieved?
  3. What actual value or benefits our business will get from this custom software development project?
  4. What went as per expectations, what went well, and how this can be done in future projects?
  5. What went wrong, why it went wrong and what can be done to avoid it in future projects?

These are some very simple open-ended questions and everyone should be able to share their opinion and thought freely. Which can be further processed and analyzed to make them a useable charter for future projects. If the post-mortem or post-project review is ignored your businesses will have to spend time and resources in learning this over and over again. That is why it is important to allocate resources for post-project review in the planning of your customer software development project.

See Also: Advantages of a Custom ERP Software Development

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 9. Conduct a Thorough Post-Project Review
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 9. Conduct a Thorough Post-Project Review

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 10. Service and Maintenance

Here in UAE it is common that large businesses have in-house teams who are developing custom software tools for their needs. However, acquiring services of a professional software development agency is also common for large-scale or sophisticated projects. Small and medium sized businesses usually outsource their software development projects as they usually don’t have sufficient in-house resources to be able to handle custom software development projects. Regardless of the size or industry of your business the either your will maintain the software in-house or you will outsource it to get the technical support and maintenance tasks done. When it comes to outsourcing businesses usually prefer to take AMCs (annual maintenance contracts) form the same software development agency who has developed the software or either they go for another vendor.

See Also: Trends in custom software development in 2022

It is extremely important to include a proper plan for support and maintenance in your custom software development project plan. If you are choosing a maintenance and support service provider other than the company who developed your custom software then you should consider the transition of service requirements to ensure a smoother handover and transition to the service provider whether it is a third-party vendor, outsourcing partner or in-house team. Because it requires a lot of resources and time to handover a complete software solution to a team for maintenance and if that is not done, it could not only cause serious issues but it will also hinder the performance and impact of your custom software application.

See Also: Why the Custom Software Development is Good for Your Business?

Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 10. Service and Maintenance
Custom Software Development Project Plan: Step 10. Service and Maintenance

Conclusion

Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or anywhere in UAE are turning away from commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) solutions and leveraging the remarkable potential of customized software solutions. This also empowered the software development industry in the country and further make tailored solutions more accessible all sizes and industries. Businesses are relying on custom software development to drive performance and operational efficiency which help them gaining competitive advantage and customer satisfaction. However, when it comes to developing a customized software solution most businesses overlooked the important of developing a proper project plan before starting the work. Businesses do have project plan but it is not as that comprehensive as it should have to be, which results in a complete failure or partial success. A well-crafted customer software development project plan is absolutely essential to ensure success, as it provides a complete roadmap to transform your unique business requirements into a fully functional software solution which can deliver performance and efficiency as per your goals and expectations.

See Also: Guide to Custom Software Development

This blog covers a complete step-by-step guide to planning your custom software development project and equally beneficial for small, medium or large custom software development projects. Regardless of the size, scope, duration or complexity of the project if you make a plan following the above mentioned steps you can easily execute a successful custom software development project. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you need our help with you custom software development project, 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.


Top Trends in Custom Software Development: What’s Shaping the Industry?

Any modern day business runs on a variety of different software and digital solutions. The software and digital ecosystem is considered to be the backbone of modern business landscape. Every business’s day-to-day operation depends on different kinds of software tools. That is true in some industries the software are more important than the others, but in modern day and age, no business can effectively and efficiently operate without leveraging any software tool, even the emails that you use daily are also through a software tool. That is why business invest a huge chunk of their profits in modernizing and digitalizing their various operational processes.

When it comes to acquiring a new software solutions there are two ways, either businesses can go for a commercial off-the-shelf software solution or they can go for custom software development. The questions arises which one is better? Well, in short the custom software development is much better than the commercial off-the-shelf solutions (COTS) as it can fulfill your 100% of needs, it offers excellent ROI and enable businesses to mold their software and applications as per their emerging needs. In this blog we will discuss the top trends that are reshaping the custom software development industry.

Top Trends in Custom Software Development: What's Shaping the Industry?
Top Trends in Custom Software Development: What’s Shaping the Industry?

What makes Custom Software Development the Ideal Solution for your Business?

The custom software development offers many benefits and advantages over commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) solutions. The COTS are ready-made software which are designed for masses, the custom software development is dedicated to cater to the needs of a single business. The initial cost of COTS is low, it can be deployed even within in a day. The custom software development on the other hand is a lengthy process. However, the custom software are exclusively designed for the business after doing rigorous research on the business needs, and are fully aligned with the business requirements. The COTS are designed as per industry standards, and mostly failed to fulfill all needs.

The custom software development allow businesses endless customization. Whereas the COTS doesn’t offer a flexible customization, in fact the COTS allow very limited but very expensive customization. Which is why businesses either end up using multiple software or they have to replace a software which is not ideal. The customized software are keep on evolving with emerging business needs and doesn’t have any restriction which makes them ideal for businesses. Similarly the customized software are more flexible with integration, upgrades and can evolve according to emerging business needs which make them much superior to the commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) solutions.

See Also: Why the Custom Software Development is Good for Your Business?

What makes Custom Software Development the Ideal Solution for your Business?
What makes Custom Software Development the Ideal Solution for your Business?

Top Custom Software Development Trends that are Reshaping the Industry

In today’s fast-paced markets businesses heavily rely on data and information flow, in fact the information and data is considered to be the lifeblood of the modern technology-oriented business operations. Therefore most of the time when a business needs a new software or application it has to be integrated within their existing digital and IT infrastructure, just like a jigsaw puzzle, every piece should align with each other to form the perfect picture. Businesses utilize a multitude of software, tools, and technologies to drive efficiency and performance in their operations, day-to-day work, and data management. This further complicates the digital ecosystem as multiple technologies, platforms and software types are work collaboratively and in harmony to ensure the desired performance.

For example, businesses tend to have ERP systems, performance management system, customer feedback systems, CRL or customer relationship management system, facility management system, inventory management system, accounting system and HRMS or human resource management systems are the few most commonly used software tools. Furthermore businesses use websites, mobile apps, and other digital channels for communication and even to deliver service and support.

See Also: Trends in custom software development in 2022

Top Custom Software Development Trends that are Reshaping the Industry
Top Custom Software Development Trends that are Reshaping the Industry

All different software types, tools, technologies and platforms evolve and transform on a different pace. For example, the ERP systems may evolve quickly comparing to asset management system, and so on. All different software and tools are built on different technologies, different programming tools and with different platforms. Although this might not sound a big problem, but for large enterprises and organizations this could be a very challenging task, however, startups and small businesses who might not have as much diverse digital eco-system doesn’t face much problems with their IT needs. That is why when it comes to a custom software development, businesses must have to seriously consider the technology barriers and integration limitations.

Therefore businesses who are planning to implement a new software solution or a business tools must have to consider these facts, or else they should be aware of the latest market trends. Because all top custom software development trends are influenced by all these technological advancements and all external factors which is why if you follow the top trends, you will get a perfect application which not only aligns with your business needs but also with the industry standards and your existing digital ecosystem and this will enable you to leverage your custom software at its full potential and maximize its ROI (return over investments). Here are some top trends in custom software development which dominated the year 2023 and are going to dominate the software development market for many coming years.

See Also: Step-by-step Guide to Develop Custom Enterprise Software

Businesses utilize a multitude of software, tools, and technologies to drive efficiency and performance in their operations
Businesses utilize a multitude of software, tools, and technologies to drive efficiency and performance in their operations

Top Custom Software Development Trends: Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

A progressive web apps or PWAs are developed using modern web platforms in a way that user can have a user experience like a native or platform-specific apps. Another great advantage of progressive web apps is that a PWA can run seamlessly on multiple platforms/devices, same like a modern websites while having only a single codebase. Thus the progressive web apps or PWAs enables the developers to utilize the native features and security of multiple compatible platforms while having only one codebase. Traditionally the software and apps are developed exclusively for the platform or are platform-specific.

This means that if a business have users who are utilizing multiple platforms then they have to develop it separately for all these platforms, each platform will have its native codebase which is not usable on other platforms. This results in developing a similar app for multiple time which undermine the user experience, as each platform could have slightly different user experience, furthermore the business will have to pay for each individual platform which increase the cost too. With the progressive web app (PWA) the users can have a similar experience on all platforms, the business can get them in very less cost, the maintenance, upgrades, customization and updates are very easy and cost-efficient. That is why more and more businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are embracing PWAs.

See Also: Custom Software Development Progressive Web Apps – Beginner’s Guide

Top Custom Software Development Trends: Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
Top Custom Software Development Trends: Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

Top Custom Software Development Trends: Web 3.0 and Blockchain

The Web 3.0 or Web 3 is the third era of internet, it could be as disruptive as the first-age internet was and it could have great potential to completely transform the internet, software and web industry. The Blockchain is a Web 3.0 or Web 3 technology and it is currently in its infancy but businesses all around the world are exploring different ways to integrate it within their existing digital ecosystem. The primary different between the Web 3.0 and the Web 2.0 or what form of internet we are currently using is that the Web 3.0/Web 3 would be open-source, decentralized, and would offer highest level of network security.

This means that the fraud and theft would be closer to none, as all the transactions, information and data will be distributed and open to all. The Blockchain is the perfect example of Web 3.0, although it may take it a few more years or a decade to gain significant market share, but it is evolving rapidly and tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Meta and other key players are already involved in it. The Web 3.0 not only have potential to integrate smart technologies, but it will streamline data flow and communication between people, devices and services which will help developers to overcome several security related problems and will also help businesses to boost automation and efficiency.

See Also: Common Mistakes to Avoid in Custom Software Development Projects

Top Custom Software Development Trends: Web 3.0 and Blockchain
Top Custom Software Development Trends: Web 3.0 and Blockchain

Top Custom Software Development Trends: IoB and IoT

The IoB is the internet of behavior and the IoT is the internet of things. The IoB or internet of behavior is the technology to connect physical objects/devices to the internet and monitor human behavior or how human interact with the environment around them. The IoB is majorly based on behavioral science, IoT or internet of things and edge analytics. The IoB platforms are designed to gather huge amount of statistical and analytical data from multiple sources and leveraging this data to enhance customer experience. The IoT or internet of things connect digital devices via internet and let them interact with each other and based on this interaction or human intervention, the connected devices behaves according to pre-programmed instructions or direct instructions from the human user.

This is why it is very useful in IoB as the internet of behavior platforms utilize the data from digital devices, wearable tech, and user behavior on internet via mobile phones or laptop and then utilize this data to enhance user experience and help businesses to improve their communication and solutions according to customers’ needs. The major application of IoB is in customer experience management, e-Commerce, communication, self-service solutions, and SEO (search engine optimization).

See Also: Why Laravel Framework is gaining popularity in Software Development?

Top Custom Software Development Trends: IoB and IoT
Top Custom Software Development Trends: IoB and IoT

Top Custom Software Development Trends: Microservices Architecture

The Microservices Architecture is a custom software development methodology where an application is developed in smaller modules or a collection of multiple smaller services. The Microservices Architecture is also referred as only Microservices. A Microservices software application can call on multiple microservices to perform the task as per user’s instructions. Another important thing to understand is that all the microservices that are used in a single software application are usually loosely coupled and can independently deployed too. This means that these services can be developed by different teams as well.

The Microservices Architecture is very popular in custom software development as it allow developers and software engineers to utilize many pre-built or ready-made services and build their software application above these microservices, which speed up the development and delivery process and also allow businesses to get innovative features at a comparatively less cost. Another great advantage of microservices architecture over monolithic software is that businesses can independently upgrade or customize individual component of the software or individual microservice which also help optimizing the maintenance and customization cost and results in more stable product.

See Also: Which Software Development Trends Yield Success in 2023?

Top Custom Software Development Trends: Microservices Architecture
Top Custom Software Development Trends: Microservices Architecture

Top Custom Software Development Trends: DevSecOps

The DevSecOps is a short form of Development, Security and Operations. This method is majorly adopted in custom software development to improve security and performance of the customized applications. The DevSecOps is a method of custom software development where the security features are introduced and implemented at all phases throughout the software development lifecycle. Traditionally the security features are implemented at the end of the software development and usually by a different team who is specialized in software security. However, with the DevSecOps method, the security features are implemented from designing up till software delivery phase including from designing, development, integration and testing phases of the software development lifecycle.

This method enables multiple security layers in your custom software applications while prioritizing the security as the primary goal of custom software development. The DevSecOps help businesses leverage the security features of the application and infrastructure while ensuring maximum performance and seamless operation of their custom software application. The DevSecOps method not only ensures ultimate performance but also ensures highest level of security while keeping the cost at the minimum and instead of slowing down the development process, it tends to speed it up.

See Also: How to Develop a Custom Software in Dubai?

Top Custom Software Development Trends: DevSecOps
Top Custom Software Development Trends: DevSecOps

Top Custom Software Development Trends: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The Artificial Intelligence or AI is the buzz word in today’s world where the ChatGPT, Microsoft Bing Chat, Google Bard, Proplexity, MidJourney and countless others have become internet sensation over the night. Everyone is talking about these tools, especially the ChatGPT have taken the world like a storm. But what does this means for the businesses and how does businesses can leverage the power of artificial intelligence to boost their productivity, performance and quality of the work? Normally the artificial intelligence or AI is referred to a software tool or application which can perform tasks which are normally not performed by ordinary computer programs or which are normally performed by humans.

Just imagine you can have a computer software which is capable of analyzing data and information, monitoring a situation and taking decision like a human in real-time, working non-stop and 24/7 with extraordinary ability of processing huge data and numbers which no human can does! This is what artificial intelligence is capable of, it is not just limited to chat bots or automated customer call center, the artificial intelligence or AI can do much more than we can imagine. Although it is still in its infancy, but sooner it will be everywhere, it will become an integral part of software development and its scope and ability to operate will be greatly enhanced.

See Also: Why custom software is more cost efficient in UAE?

Top Custom Software Development Trends: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Top Custom Software Development Trends: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

How Top Trends in Custom Software Development can Help your Business Grow?

Businesses often are not familiar with the custom software development trends, which results in using technologies and platforms that are fading away or losing the edge they might have had a few years back. That is why it is important to know the latest software development trends as well as emerging trends so your bespoke software remains relevant for many coming years and yield you the best ROI. Mostly software trends comes and goes, but only a few stay, for example, the world is slowly adopting to AI and moving toward cloud computing, and it seems that in coming years these two technologies will grow exponentially, that is the reason major giant technology companies are investing huge in these two sectors and for the matter of fact many more such trends are here to stay for long.

All the technological advancements in custom software development and enterprise solutions are aimed to streamline data and communication, drive automation and to boost performance. Businesses can gain a great competitive advantage by leveraging the latest trends and technologies in software development. Therefore it is important to follow the right trend and develop such applications which can evolve with your emerging and upcoming needs. Choosing technologies and trends that are fading away will limit your software’s ability down the road and will compel you to a point where you will have to replace it with more modern and efficient technology. That is why it is crucial for businesses to follow the popular trends in custom software development.

See Also: Importance of Custom Software Development in Dubai

How Top Trends in Custom Software Development can Help your Business Grow?
How Top Trends in Custom Software Development can Help your Business Grow?

Conclusion

Businesses need customized software tools to boost their operational performance and capabilities. A good software tool can provide a great competitive advantage, however, it is important to understand that deploying a software is not the only part, in fact you should consider the future needs, customization and the technology you are using. It is important that the software you are implementing will remain relevant for coming years too, the technology and platform it is based on should also grow so it can support your future needs and it can support your growth.

For that businesses should follow the latest custom software development trends. A custom software development requires a lot of time and resources, which means repeating the same after a year or two is not good at all. Therefore if the software you will develop based on latest and emerging trends can remain relevant for many years and offers you a great ROI over a longer period of time. In this blog we have listed top emerging custom software development trends which are not only emerging but gaining huge popularity and are meant to stay for many coming years.

If you want to learn more about the top trends in custom software development or if you need any help with your upcoming custom software development project, 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.

See Also: Guide to Custom Software Development


Why Off-the-Shelf Solutions Fall Short: Advantages of Custom Software Development

The customer demands are rising, the competition is getting tougher day by day. Businesses are seeking tools and ways to gain competitive advantage to stay relevant in the market. UAE in particular is a highly advanced nation, with almost 99% of the population having access to internet. Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other parts of UAE are well-aware of the importance of the digital experience. Whether it is your customers or employees, the digital interaction and platforms are dominating the modern day business landscape. Businesses wants to grow continuously and they want to optimize their operations and expenses to maximize the performance. High performing businesses not only grow rapidly but also achieve higher profitability. With the rise of technology the software have become an essential part of a business’s day-to-day operations. It is hard to comprehend if a business can survive on manual paperwork and management practices in this modern day and age. Typically any business tool or a software requires updates or upgrades after a few years, in some cases some software applications are entirely replaced with new more robust and innovative solutions. This is an ongoing ordeal, businesses regularly have to face situations where they need a new software application.

See Also: Custom Software Development Trends

Why Off-the-Shelf Solutions Fall Short Advantages of Custom Software Development?
Why Off-the-Shelf Solutions Fall Short Advantages of Custom Software Development?

What is the Difference between Custom Software and Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software (COTS)?

When a business needs a new software they have two options, either they chose a ready-made commercial off-the-shelf solution or they get a custom software exclusively developed for their business needs. The custom software are the software that are developed for a particular user group or for a particular business, these tools and apps are developed to meet the design and functionality requirements of the business. However, the COTS or commercial off-the-shelf software are designed for a broader user-base, typically these software are general purpose or designed for a specific industry only. This is why when it comes to aligning the business needs with the features of the COTS, the ideal scenario is to choose a software that matches your 80% of the needs. The COTS can be purchased as a one-time charge or on a subscription based plan. The off-the-shelf software have comparatively less initial cost, and they are can easily deployed. A business can have a commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) solution running within a day or two. However the custom software solutions are difficult to build, require research, have longer development time and could require months to test and deploy for the end-users.

See Also: Why the Custom Software Development is Good for Your Business?

What is the Difference between Custom Software and Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software (COTS)?
What is the Difference between Custom Software and Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software (COTS)?

What are the Advantages of Customer Software Development?

Now the question arises why the custom software development is gaining popularity and why businesses are preferring bespoke solutions over the commercial off-the-shelf solutions? Here are the key advantages of the custom software development which make them superior from off-the-shelf solutions.

Advantages of Customer Software: Unlimited Customization

One of the biggest advantage of a custom software development is that it offers unlimited customization. The COTS offer limited functionalities and in some cases there are different packages and plans with a different set of functionalities. Sometimes for just one or two additional functionalities a business might have to purchase a higher tier which also comes with a lot many other features which are not required or never utilized, but still the business will have to pay for them. The custom software development on the other hand is very flexible and offers unlimited customization, a business can have any features they want and as many features they need. There is no limit or restriction with custom software development, which enables businesses to build innovative features and align their software applications with their needs. The entire solution is built around the very specific business needs and requirements. Hence there is no gape left and the business can leverage the full potential of their software application. Adding a new features, or customizing an existing feature is not a problem at all. Businesses have full control over customization and they can also make the GUI aligned with their needs which also increase effectiveness and performance of the custom software.

See Also: Why custom software is more cost efficient in UAE?

One of the biggest advantage of a custom software development is that it offers unlimited customization.
One of the biggest advantage of a custom software development is that it offers unlimited customization.

Advantages of Customer Software: Flexible Upgrade and Scalability

The commercial off-the-shelf solutions are owned by the vendor or service provider, they only update them when they want. If your business grows and you needs increases you will either have to pay additional cost for scaling your software up or in some cases you might have to switch to an entirely different solution. This could be very expensive and problematic. However, the custom software development offers a great advantage, the entire software is built exclusively for your business hence you are the one who owns it, the entire software, and source code belongs to you. So, a business can have full control over it, they can customize it, scale it up, expand features, and upgrade the software whenever they need or want. You don’t have to bear hefty fees or you don’t have to switch to entirely different solutions in order to meet the increasing demands. The COTS are designed for a large user-base and they are designed as per industry standards, hence unless there is a large demand from most of their customers, they usually don’t make huge changes in their software. That is why sometimes when businesses are growing their needs are expanding and they need certain features they will have to migrate to entirely new software. Which is very time and effort consuming and also have huge cost.

See Also: How to Choose the Right Software Development Vendor for Your Business

The commercial off-the-shelf solutions are owned by the vendor or service provider, they only update them when they want.
The commercial off-the-shelf solutions are owned by the vendor or service provider, they only update them when they want.

Advantages of Customer Software: Easy Integration

One of the biggest challenge in implementing any new software application is the integration. The modern businesses rely on a highly integrated IT infrastructure and digital eco-system where information and data can flow seamlessly and made available for all users when then need it. The integration allow different software applications to communicate with each other in real-time and ensure all the users have the information they need and whenever they need. This is why the integration is usually one of the most crucial aspect of software development. When a business goes for a commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) solution the integration options are always limited. This is why businesses sometime have to migrate and synch data manually which slow down several internal processes and it can interrupt various work-flows. However, with the custom software development the entire source code is in your control, you can mold it in any way you want and you can customize it to align with your integration needs. The capability of easy integration makes custom software far more superior than the COTS. Furthermore businesses can also customize their software whenever they are adding a new tool or software to their digital eco system which increase the compatibility and lifecycle of your custom software application.

See Also: How to Develop a Custom Software in Dubai?

One of the biggest challenge in implementing any new software application is the integration.
One of the biggest challenge in implementing any new software application is the integration.

Advantages of Customer Software: Data Privacy and Security

In today’s modern world the data privacy and security is one of the most important aspect of any software application. Any data leak could completely destroy a business, and we have witnessed huge enterprises falling and bankrupting after serious data breaches. From the customer standpoint if a business is unable to secure their data and is vulnerable to security breaches, they will immediately lose trust. Which could be devastating for your business growth and even it could jeopardize your business’s survival as well. When we think about the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions, we know that these solutions are offered by large and multinational service providers, who have top-notch security experts and tools at their disposal. However, the history has proven this wrong, we have witnessed mega security breaches and attacks on large enterprises in past. This is not due to negligence or any wrong doing at their end, usually the biggest reason of such breaches is that these large software are available for masses all over the world, which somewhat exposes their structure and make them more vulnerable. However, the level of exclusivity offered by custom software makes them unique, which means no one outside your team will have access to the important sections of your software. Above all your data will be stored with you and will not be hosted on a remote server which might be located on the other side of the world. This is what makes custom software more secure and offer higher levels of data privacy and protection.

See Also: Common Mistakes to Avoid in Custom Software Development Projects

In today’s modern world the data privacy and security is one of the most important aspect of any software application.
In today’s modern world the data privacy and security is one of the most important aspect of any software application.

Conclusion

Software are an essential part of modern day business operations. No matter which industry you belongs to or what is your business model, you must be using some kind of software applications to boost efficiency and productivity. Even the Microsoft Office we used on daily bases is a commercial off-the-shelf solution. The modern day businesses need to be proactive in order to meet the rapidly changing markets and ever-increasing customer needs. For that businesses needs a lot of different software applications and digital solutions. With the passage of time the businesses grow, hence they need highly scalable solutions to support their growth. Furthermore every business have different needs, different preferences and unique culture which requires unique solutions. When a business decides to implement a new software, they have two routes either they can chose a commercial off-the-shelf software solution or commonly known as COTS, or the business can acquire the services of a software development agency in Dubai, and go for the custom software development project. The custom software development offers many advantages such as the software is fully aligned with the business needs, it is exclusively built for the business keeping the user-preferences in mind, and furthermore the custom software offers flexible integration, scalability and unlimited customization which makes them ideal for the modern businesses.

In this blog we have discussed a few advantages of the custom software development and why the off-the-shelf solutions fall short on certain aspects. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to build a custom software application 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.

See Also: Guide to Custom Software Development


Building a Successful Email Marketing Funnel with Email Marketing System

Businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and all across UAE have witnessed huge rise in conversion by implementing successful email marketing funnels with advanced email marketing system. There is a common misconception about the email marketing and email marketing systems, that there is a universal or standard framework which every business can follow to get the desired results. However, that mindset is the biggest cause of failure of email marketing strategies. According to several global studies, the CTR (click through rate), Open Rate and the conversion are consistently increasing since past 5 years.

Here it is also important to understand that not all emails are intended to make a sale, most of the email that businesses send to their customers are to build and nurture relationships or for communication. When we talk specifically about the email marketing, it is considered the most cost-efficient marketing channel with almost $40 USD generated against every $1 USD spent on email marketing. That is staggering, but for different industries the benchmarks are different. Furthermore each business have a different personality, a different audience and a completely different preferences and goals. That is why an email marketing system is essential for managing building modern email marketing funnels.

Building a Successful Email Marketing Funnel with Email Marketing System
Building a Successful Email Marketing Funnel with Email Marketing System

What is an Email Marketing Funnel?

The email marketing funnel is basically an email campaign consists of a series of different emails designed specifically to mature a lead into conversion by nurturing it and communication the right message according to the targeted audience throughout the entire customer journey. In fact it is a tactics to effectively manage customer journey. The funnels are designed not only to convert but to retain and make them loyal customers. That is why it is a long-term strategy consisting of following stages:

  1. Brand Awareness – Present your products/services and the value you offer
  2. Consideration/Engagement – Identify the problems and position your products/services as the right solution
  3. Conversion – Nurturing relationship and facilitating onboarding
  4. Loyalty – Ensuring your customers are satisfied with your brand
  5. Retention/Advocacy – Strengthen relationship, make improvements, offer new solutions

The email marketing funnel is not a standard framework with a set of rules and standard practices. It is in fact different from each business, based on the targeted audience, business type, and even brand personality, the email marketing funnel could be built to maximize the outcome. Every business need to set their goals and acquire insight to understand their targeted audience before setting up their email marketing funnel. Furthermore there is always a room for the improvements.

That is why an exclusive email marketing system is essential for designing a successful email marketing funnel. The email marketing system will help businesses quickly set up and execute their campaigns, it also help automating several repetitive tasks and can automatically handle different audience segments. The email marketing system is a great tool to quickly tweak and fine-tune your email marketing funnel to maximize the results.

See Also: 5 Tricks to Best Utilize Digital Marketing Campaigns

What is an Email Marketing Funnel?
What is an Email Marketing Funnel?

How to Build a Successful Email Marketing Funnel with Email Marketing System?

The email marketing funnels can be built easily with an effective email marketing system. The email marketing software help businesses to easily laydown and execute their plans and derive strategies which returns maximum ROI. Furthermore the email marketing systems are based on a powerful software which can be integrated with various internal systems and process.

The integration allow management to easily execute their strategies and measure the effects. Without a proper email marketing system it is extremely difficult to build an effective email marketing funnel. Here are a few simple steps to build a successful email marketing funnel while using an effective email marketing software:

Email Marketing Funnel: Research and Planning

For any successful strategy the planning is a must, and for planning you need proper research. For email marketing funnel the very first step is acquiring insights, doing research and understanding your needs. The research and planning should include:

  • Acquiring Insight: Starting with acquiring insight, gathering data and understanding customer needs and expectations. It is important to build a comprehensive record of changing customer preferences over the time and then plan your communication accordingly.
  • Customer Segmentation: You cannot simply send a single email to all of your customers. You should segment them on the bases of their demographics, product/service preferences and also geographical data. Segmentation will help you catering to the needs of your targeted audience.
  • Customer Journey Mapping: The customer journey mapping is extremely important. Usually businesses doesn’t pay much attention on building customer journey maps. The customer journey map is simply a visual and simplified representation of the steps that your customers had to take form the very first interaction or brand awareness stage to converting into a sale. Different customer segments usually have different needs and also take different route to convert.
  • Building Email Lists: For any successful email marketing campaign the absolute essential is the right email list. Every business should build an email list. For that you can build opt-in forms, subscription forms, and lead capturing forms. This will help you with segmentation too.
  • Setting up Goals: It is extremely important that your goals align with the high-level organizational goals and objectives. If your goal is to generate more sales your emails should communicate the value proposition, if you want to build loyalty, your email marketing funnel should be able to engage with customers to increase their satisfaction and gain trust.

Building a successful email marketing funnel requires targeting different customer segments and catering them a variety of different products, services and communication materials as per their needs. Which is only possible if you have an effective email marketing system in place.

See Also: Email Marketing Automation: Simplifying Campaign Management and Results

How to Build a Successful Email Marketing Funnel with Email Marketing System?
How to Build a Successful Email Marketing Funnel with Email Marketing System?

Email Marketing Funnel: Chose the Right Email Marketing Tool

The success of any email marketing funnel depends on how you target the audience, what message you send to them and the right message at the right time is the key to success. This is nearly impossible without using a fully or semi-automated email marketing system. When it comes to email marketing tools there are tons of options available in UAE. Businesses often rely on cloud based services as well, however, there are several factors that you should consider while choosing a right email marketing tool for your business.

It is extremely important that you use a very effective email marketing tool to build you email marketing funnel. Here are the most important factors that you should consider while choosing a right email marketing tool for your marketing funnel:

  • Features
  • Price (Initial and Operational Cost)
  • Integration
  • Customization
  • Security and Privacy

When it comes to the features of an email marketing tool, the most important features are the tools to create the email template and the automation tools. Usually all email marketing systems comes with two basic content creation tools, a text editor, and an HTML customizer. Some email marketing tools also comes with a drag-and-drop type content customizer. It all depends on your needs, the HTML editor is the most preferred and commonly used template creation tool.

See Also: How to Create Effective Email Marketing Campaigns

The success of any email marketing funnel depends on how you target the audience
The success of any email marketing funnel depends on how you target the audience

The integration is one of the most important features, which could have different challenges with different off-the-shelf email marketing tools. The integration helps automating the email campaigns. For example if you are planning to send post-sale emails with follow up surveys or any content, you can integrate your email marketing system with your ERP, or customer database and sales management system which will send a trigger when a new sales is made and the email marketing tool will automatically sends a pre-set email template to the customer.

You can personalize emails for customers and automate the entire funnel, you can send occasional greetings, newsletters and follow up emails, automatically. The customization is another important factor which allow you to keep up with the market trends and enables you to adopt to new practices and add features that suits your needs down the road. Most of the off-the-shelf solutions doesn’t allow any customization and the ones who allow it, offer very little and very expensive customization. If you are using a third-party email marketing tool or a cloud-based solution your data and content is hosted with service provider, you will have limited control and authority over it.

See Also: What are the Different Types of Queue Management System?

The integration is one of the most important features, which could have different challenges with different off-the-shelf email marketing tools
The integration is one of the most important features, which could have different challenges with different off-the-shelf email marketing tools

However, if you are using a customized email marketing system you can avoid all these problems, you can customize is as per you needs, you don’t have to pay hefty fees for upgrades or customization. You are not bound to a single service provider, you can host your data and content with yourself and as you may please. The custom email marketing system is a software which is exclusively designed for your business needs. You can acquire the services of a custom software development agency in Dubai like RSI Concepts or you can have in-house team to develop the custom email marketing tool as per your needs. The ownership rights belongs to you your business, you are not bound to service provider for anything, you can have another team to maintain, manage and customize your bespoke email marketing system.

The final and most important thing is the cost. The cost of a ready-made email marketing system is usually higher, as they are providing you the platform and also the email server which you are using to send email. If you are a small business, you might not require a separate email server. If you are a mid-sized or large enterprise you can easily acquire a third-party email server to utilize with your custom email marketing tool. Altogether the ROI of a custom email marketing system is much higher than a commercial off-the-shelf or cloud-based email marketing tool.

See Also: The Risk of Poor Performance Management and How to identify it?

A custom email marketing system is a software which is exclusively designed for your business needs
A custom email marketing system is a software which is exclusively designed for your business needs

Email Marketing Funnel: Brand Awareness and Building Lists

Now that you have a clear goal and right tech in place, it is time to start implementing your strategy and plans. The very first step of any email marketing funnel starts with brand awareness stage. At this stage you communicate your brand message, acquire subscribers and build lists. The prime objective of brand awareness campaign is to get as much contacts of your prospects as possible. If you communicate your brand values and produce enough appeal in your content, you will get higher conversion rate at this stage.

There are different tools and channels which can be used for brand awareness campaign. You can embed email subscription in your website and mobile apps. You can set up pop-up forms to collect lead data and you can run adverts on digital platforms to collect as many leads as possible. Because on later stages you will be nurturing these leads to generate sales. You should use lead magnets in your digital campaigns, whether it is a landing page, YouTube display ad, Google search ad, Facebook Ad or Instagram Reel, the lead magnet strategy will help you to collect more leads.

A lead magnet is simple an incentive or appeal to attract prospects and to compel them to take time to fill in the lead form or to provide you their email address. Once you got that start with the welcome series emails where you introduce your brand, different solutions you are offering and present the value your products and services can provide.

See Also: 10 Impacts of Website Design on Digital Marketing Strategies

The very first step of any email marketing funnel starts with brand awareness stage
The very first step of any email marketing funnel starts with brand awareness stage

Email Marketing Funnel: Consideration – Nurturing Your Leads

With a successful brand awareness campaign now is the time when your prospects are seriously considering your brand and comparing it with their existing brands and any other available solutions they can avail. This is a very crucial stage. At this stage you should build trust by positioning your products, services and solutions as the ideal solution for your prospects’ problems and needs. This is the time when your emails will tell your prospects the true value of your products, services and solutions and what made your brand and your solutions unique and better from other competitors. Your emails should communicate your value proposition, unique selling point and ROI of your solutions.

At this stage your communication should build a sense of urgency to encourage your leads to quickly convert, and also address the most obvious concerns they could have. Ensure your prospects you will provide them good support and service. Studies have revealed that more than 80% of the prospects genuinely consider the rating and reviews of the other customers and this can greatly influence their decision. That is why it is important to include user-generated content, testimonials, customer rating, case-studies and even some free resources which will help you building gaining their trust. You should also include comparisons of your products and services with your leading competitors to give confidence to your prospects.

See Also: Which one is better Standalone VS Integrated Software?

At this stage you should build trust by positioning your products, services and solutions as the ideal solution for your prospects’ problems and needs
At this stage you should build trust by positioning your products, services and solutions as the ideal solution for your prospects’ problems and needs

Email Marketing Funnel: Conversion and Onboarding

The most important stage in customer journey is the conversion and onboarding, because that can also be counted as the first comprehensive experience your customers will have with your brand. This is where you should be able to utilize the advance customization and template creation tools of your email marketing system. It is extremely important to make your onboarding simpler and quicker. You should also design a series of emails which share promotions, offers and you can bundle them with freebies and special discounts to encourage your prospects to convert. Here an important thing to consider is that if your emails are too much pushy then it will repel your customers.

It is better to use professional language, eye-catchy graphics with an adequate topping of urgency. Creating urgency is crucial, it will help you keeping your customers focused and not leaving them enough room to do comprehensive research which might change their mind. The onboarding process should be simpler, do not include long forms and complex steps in the onboarding process. Your email should be able to provide a clear and easy-to-follow path to conversion with adequate information and resources which can help your customers to convert conveniently. Any obstacle or complication at this stage will cost you a potential customer.

See Also: 5 Challenges in implementing Performance Management System

It is extremely important to make your onboarding simpler and quicker
It is extremely important to make your onboarding simpler and quicker

Email Marketing Funnel: Building Loyalty

The customer journey doesn’t end at conversion, in fact a marketing funnel must include a comprehensive series of emails which are designed to keep your customers engaged. It is important to have a proper loyalty program in place. Your email marketing funnel will help you to achieve more customer loyalty with your loyalty program. You can share regular promotions, exclusive offers for customers, personalized communication, and loyalty rewards to obtain your customers’ loyalty.

At this stage your communication should keep your customers engaged for example, you can create and share content which help your customers to effectively utilize the features of your products, services or solutions. At this stage collecting customer feedback, encouraging them to participate in polls contests and draws will increase their engagement. The customer engagement drives customer loyalty and help strengthening the relationship between a brand and its customers.

Your emails should convey the message that you value your customers and how important they are for your business, you can do so by appreciating their loyalty, offering discounts or special deals, etc. An email marketing system will help you set-up scheduled campaigns and it will also help you personalizing your emails which are more effective than generic emails.

See Also: The Beginner’s Guide to Queuing Theory

You can share regular promotions, exclusive offers for customers, personalized communication, and loyalty rewards to obtain your customers’ loyalty
You can share regular promotions, exclusive offers for customers, personalized communication, and loyalty rewards to obtain your customers’ loyalty

Email Marketing Funnel: Increasing Retention

Customer retention is somewhat similar to building loyalty. However, the core difference between the two is that in your customer retention campaigns you include both your new customers and existing customers as well. The customer loyalty is an ongoing process, you will have to keep nurturing your relationship with your customers in order to retain them and get repeated business from them. The customer retention is not only important for getting repeated business, but it will also help you establish a strong and positive brand identity.

The customer retention campaigns will help you maximizing the customer lifecycle which will maximize your ROI. The customer retention campaign is also more targeted, you must segment your customers on the bases of their purchases/subscription, their preferences, interests and demographic data. A good email marketing tool will help you setup multiple email templates for multiple customer segments. You should also focus on the active customers rather than each and every contact is your list. When you will focus only on active customers the chances to get another sale are very high.

The customer feedback also plays very important role in customer retention. You can integrate your email marketing system with a customer feedback system and execute a closed-loop customer feedback campaign which will further help you strengthening the relationship with your customers. When you increase customer engagement, share useful information, offer them personalized and exclusive deals/discounts, and keep them up to date your customer retention increases.

See Also: How to Avoid Long Queues at Your Events

The customer retention campaigns will help you maximizing the customer lifecycle which will maximize your ROI
The customer retention campaigns will help you maximizing the customer lifecycle which will maximize your ROI

Conclusion

The email marketing is one of the oldest digital marketing method and still it is one of the best digital marketing method. According to studies a business can generate up to $40 USD on each $1 USD spend on email marketing. However, simply just sending emails to your customers or prospects is not enough. The business operating in Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi or anywhere in UAE are actively utilizing emails to communicate with their customers. However, most of the businesses are unaware of the impact of a successful email marketing funnel.

In this blog we have discussed what an email marketing funnel is and how businesses can easily build a successful email marketing funnel with the help of an effective email marketing system. The email marketing system is a very powerful software tool, which is used to streamline email communication and marketing for a business.

The email marketing tools help automating email campaigns and also enable businesses to send hyper-personalized emails to maximize the impact and ROI. There are two types of email marketing tools, the commercial off-the-shelf tools and the customized email marketing systems. The custom email marketing tools is much superior as it will be designed exclusively for your business and according to your needs.

You can also start with a cloud-based system and build your email marketing funnel. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and develop a customized email marketing 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.

See Also: Read this before starting Digital Marketing Campaign in Dubai


How to Develop Custom Performance Appraisal System in UAE?

The custom performance appraisal system in UAE are not very common. Usually businesses rely on cloud-based or commercial off-the-shelf solutions. The biggest problem with ready-made or stock performance appraisal system is that they are standardized for a particular industry, hence they are not as that flexible. However, every business is different and unique, and all businesses develop a completely unique culture and have different goals, needs and preferences for the performance management. Using a stock or commercial off-the-shelf solution can never fulfill such needs.

Therefore businesses start looking into the possibilities to develop a custom performance appraisal system. For that businesses have two choices either they get it done by the internal software development team, which is very less obvious, and most of the time businesses doesn’t have IT teams who can deliver that kind of sophisticated application. The other choice is to acquire the services of a professional software development agency in Dubai or anywhere else in UAE who is experienced in HR solutions and performance management systems.

However, even if a business acquires a professional service provider or vendor, they must still have adequate understand of the performance appraisal system. In this blog we will discuss the important factors which will help businesses to get a high-performance and impactful performance appraisal system in UAE.

How to Develop Custom Performance Appraisal System in UAE?
How to Develop Custom Performance Appraisal System in UAE?

What is a Custom Employee Performance Appraisal System?

An employee performance system is a set of methods, techniques, tools and framework used to evaluate employee performance and progress against a pre-defined objective and it helps identifying the weaknesses, strengths and areas of improvement. The prime purpose of the employee appraisal system is to ensure that all the available resources are progressing in the right direction and their efforts are fully aligned with the high-level organizational goals and strategic objectives.

The performance appraisal system is a foundation stone for growth and stability. Only by leveraging the full potential of the employees, a business can sustain and grow in the highly competitive and fast-paced markets like UAE. The employee performance appraisal system provides a comprehensive framework to collect employee performance data and feedback and transform this into actionable insight which helps management and HR department to take informed decisions and progress towards their high-level organizational goals and vision.

When we say custom employee performance appraisal system the only difference is how the system is developed. A custom employee performance appraisal system is developed exclusively for a particular business as per their exclusive and very unique business needs. That is why it is called a custom employee performance appraisal system.

See Also: What are the Features of a Best Performance Management System?

What is a Custom Employee Performance Appraisal System?
What is a Custom Employee Performance Appraisal System?

What are the Benefits of Using a Custom Performance Appraisal System?

An effective performance appraisal system help businesses drive the productivity, it helps them minimize the problems caused by the lack of technical or behavioral competencies. The employee performance appraisal systems are not a tool to scrutinize the employees, but it is a comprehensive framework which lifts up the performance of the employee, increases employee engagements, and over the time strengthen their technical and behavioral competencies.

A good employee performance appraisal system can have massive impact on a business’s growth and success. That is why it is important that the employee performance appraisal system you use is fully aligned with your business needs and resonate with your unique organizational culture and priorities. Here are the key benefits of using a custom performance appraisal system:

Elevating and Enhancing Communication:

The communication is the backbone of our modern business ecosystems. All business functions should have a fraction-less and instant communication enabled in order to boost the operational efficiency. The lack of communication between employees and managers could devastate the performance and efficiency. It frustrate employees, fuel hopelessness and it kills productivity. The performance appraisal system help managers communicate the goals and objectives, and help employee understand the success criteria. Hence the employee are more motivated to progress in the right direction.

See Also: 5 Challenges to face if Performance Appraisal is not customized as per Organization’s Policies

Appreciate High Performance and Improvements:

One of the biggest concern of employees and managers is with the outdated appraisal practices is their efficacy and accuracy. A modern custom performance appraisal system help building trust and ensures the high performance is well appreciated while the areas of improvements are also noted accurately. Rightful incentive and appreciation not only boost employee morale but also encourage others to do well in the coming performance cycle. The reviews, feedbacks, and evaluation are done with a systematic framework which help employees and managers to understand what has to be improved and how, which also help raising the morale of low-performing employees.

See Also: Appraisal Methods in Performance Management System

Impactful Training and Development:

Businesses who are actively offering training and development programs tend to perform well in UAE. A custom performance appraisal system does the heavy lifting and help the HR in many processes, which also enables them to design high-impact employee training and development programs. A well-organized performance data and intuitive reporting provide a better insight and help the HR to identify the training needs. The employee performance data can be analyzed by multiple angles and can be plugged-in into various other systems to ensure the maximum impact of training and development activities. The same can also be used to convince employee to participate in those programs and help businesses make the most impact of their efforts.

See Also: The Future of Performance Appraisals: 6 Innovations and Changes [Quick Guide]

Guiding the Right Path:

Studies have shown that the biggest reason of employee quitting form a jobs in UAE is the lack of clarity of their career path. A custom performance appraisal system provides you a wealth of performance data, when this data is coupled with employee data the HR can easily identify the suitable path for the employees and guide them with their long-term goals and career path. Such guidance is crucial, it help employees boosting their morale and confidence and it gives them a sense of importance and valued. When employees are guided to a right career path with a better scope and success in future, they become more loyal and satisfied. Happy and satisfied employees always tend to give their best.

See Also: Characteristics of a Good Employee Appraisal System

Raise Employee Satisfaction:

A modern custom performance appraisal system is a great tool to maximize the employee engagements. The employee appraisal system provides a systematic approach to engage employees at various levels and decision making processes. The digital aspect increase their trust, successful training and development programs raise their loyalty and satisfaction. With transparent evaluation practices, reward and recognition programs and frequent feedbacks and interactions the employees gain more confidence and become more satisfied with their job, knowing they are important and their concerns are addressed and their voice is heard. The employee engagements can greatly reduce the employee turnover too.

See Also: Performance Appraisal System for the HR Department

Help Under-Performers:

Here in UAE business leaders and HR specialists are agreed that the under-performers are the employees who can seriously undermine the organization’s overall performance. A custom performance appraisal system helps HR to accurately identify the under-performers, closely monitor their performance and the impact of coaching and training and give them a fair chance to improve. The performance appraisal system is very much capable of identifying the reasons of poor performance which greatly help HR to address the real issues. It also help managers to provide right guidance, coaching and mentorship to encourage under-performers and to boost their morale.

See Also: Why Organizations need Performance Appraisal System in UAE

A good performance appraisal system not only align employees with the organization goals and objectives, but it also help developing and nurturing a highly productive organizational culture where the employees can improve and grow over the time.

What are the Benefits of Using a Custom Performance Appraisal System?
What are the Benefits of Using a Custom Performance Appraisal System?

How do I design a custom performance appraisal system?

Most of the time when businesses decide to adopt a custom performance management system they think it is a very sophisticated and time-consuming task. However, designing a custom performance appraisal system is not difficult at all. It is a very simple process, all you need is to consider following important aspects of performance appraisal and you can design a high-impact custom performance appraisal system:

See Also: Performance Management System: Best Practices

Understand Modern Performance Appraisal System:

The modern performance management is way too different than the traditional/annual appraisals. More than 80% of the employee, business leaders and HR experts have shown distrust form the annual appraisals, as they majorly focused on the most recent events, and progress. However, the modern performance appraisal system facilitates more frequent and even continuous performance monitoring. Another drawback of traditional appraisals is that it is very time consuming. However, the modern performance appraisal systems leverage digital technologies and software based tools. Which ensures continuous monitoring, more contextual and comprehensive data, and highly accurate reports.

See Also: The Impact of Performance Management on Organizational Culture

Set Your Goals and Objectives:

Whenever a business is acquiring a new system or implementing a solution they have clear goals and objectives, what they want to achieve with that system. Same is applicable here too, if you are designing a custom performance appraisal system you should set goals and objectives for that, it would be simply what you would want to achieve by implementing that system, such as getting better and deeper insight to employee performance, communicating the expectations, increase employee performance, driving efficiency and reducing redundant work, reducing the time, effort and cost of the appraisal process and so on. Setting up clear objectives for the system will help you maximizing the ROI as well.

See Also: 5 Performance Management Problems and How to Solve Them

Define Benchmarks and Setting up Standards:

It is important to do some research on industry standards and define benchmarks and set up your standards accordingly. It is very important to include the most effective elements and features in your custom performance appraisal system. In order to understand the impact of different strategies and features the market research is the key. Furthermore the case studies can help you understand different features of the performance appraisal system and accordingly you can vision your custom performance appraisal system. Studying market trends is equally important. That is why it is crucial to do some research and consult experts to define the scope of your system.

See Also: Linking Performance Management to Business Outcomes

Develop Metrics and Establish Success Measures:

Since you already have a clear understanding of what you would want to accomplish with your custom performance appraisal system, it is absolutely essential to setup metrics and establish clear success measures. So, you can gauge your performance against your objectives. Furthermore establishing success measure will also help you to evaluate the efficacy and impact of your custom performance appraisal system. It is not as that complicated as it may sound, let us take an example of a goal which is ‘improving employee performance’ for that your custom performance appraisal system should be able to communicate what is expected from the employees, it should have tools to measure employee performance against pre-set goals and it should have features to ensure employee alignment with goals.

See Also: How to Customize Performance Management System

Evaluate Your Current Appraisal Processes:

It is important to scrutinize your existing performance management and appraisal processes and practices. This will help you identify the areas of improvements and missing tools or features which you can include in your new custom performance appraisal system. It is also important to collect user feedback, in this case the employees, supervisors and managers are your audience. You should conduct interviews with a sample from different audience/user pools and consider their recommendation as well. The next step is to analyze that data and revisit your success measures and ensure your success measures and goals are fully aligned with the benchmarks you are planning to achieve with your new custom performance appraisal system. We are still in the planning phase so any step can be revised and adjustments can be made if needed.

See Also: The Role of Performance Management in Employee Engagement

Establish the Scope of the Project:

Above all steps are mostly part of the planning. Forming a clear scope of the project is what you will hand over to the development team and get the system done accordingly. It is important to understand that the scope of the project is a high-level technical guideline or in fact a blueprint of your custom performance appraisal system. Make sure you add enough details and also expected outcomes. This will help the development team to build the features and functionalities in your custom performance appraisal system. At this stage you can also engage IT/Technical teams to make this charter more contextual, descriptive and technically understandable for the development team.

See Also: How to Design a Modern Performance Management System?

How do I design a custom performance appraisal system?
How do I design a custom performance appraisal system?

How to Implement a Custom Performance Appraisal System?

Once you have a completed the planning phase and prepare a detailed scope of the project with all the features you need. Now is the time to appoint a custom software development team to execute the project. Remember the employee appraisal system and performance management is not just a method or strategy, but it is actually a very powerful software application which lifts the heavy load and enable the HR to effectively implement their employee appraisal and performance management strategies.

This requires a powerful software engine which can collect performance data, analyze it as per your needs, and produce intuitive reports to let the management understand the performance status and provide them administrative dashboard with required features to acquire insight and take informed decisions and then effectively implement their decisions and action plans to course correct and take measures to ensure the set-goals are achieved at the end of the performance cycle.

The software development team will follow the scope of the project document, and build that software engine for you. You can hire in-house team to build custom appraisal system for your business or you can outsource it to a well-reputed and experienced vendor who can further help you refine your system and provide required training for the system to ensure maximum impact can be created with it.

See Also: Benefits of Implementing a Modern Performance Management System

How to Implement a Custom Performance Appraisal System?
How to Implement a Custom Performance Appraisal System?

Conclusion

Businesses who are operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or any other emirate of UAE are well aware of the fact that the employee retention is one of the biggest obstacle in growth. The overall UAE market is very competitive and it is relatively easier to switch the job. In such scenario retaining good talent is quite difficult. Furthermore the markets are very competitive and the businesses have to ensure their customers are having a satisfactory experience and excellent service which is nearly impossible with your employee performing with optimum level of productivity and efficiency.

Therefore businesses tend to implement various different types of performance management and employee appraisal systems to ensure they achieve their high-level organizational goals. In order to achieve your organizational goals and strategic objectives, the employee must be aligned with your goals, satisfied with their job role, motivated, guided, trained and engaged. This all can be achieved only when you implement a systematic framework to measure and monitor your employee performance and offer them a highly transparent and fair appraisal system.

A business have two choices, either they can acquire a commercial off-the-shelf solution or they can develop a custom performance appraisal system. The bespoke solutions tend to deliver more comparing to standardized off-the-shelf solutions. In this blog we have discussed how a business can develop and highly-effective and most impactful custom performance appraisal system. If you want to learn more or if you need our help to develop a custom performance appraisal system for your business in UAE, 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.

See Also: Choosing a Performance Management System A Buyer’s Guide

See Also: How Performance Management Impact on Organization’s Culture?


React Native Apps and Cross Platform Software Development

Every business wants to grow, for that they need a robust information and data structure which can be used by their employees and customers. Businesses need to ensure user satisfaction by offering them a great digital ecosystem which enhances the digital user experience. Businesses use various software and applications to improve their processes, operational efficiency and to drive productivity and performance. That is not all, businesses always have several challenges, the tough competition, the ever increasing customer demands, the low performing teams and employees, and what not. When it comes to custom software development, businesses chose the solution which matches their technical requirements and also fits in their budgetary limitations. Businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other parts of UAE are well-aware of the impact of digital tools, software and mobile apps. However, most often businesses do not realize that they don’t need to acquire different applications for different platforms (which is very expensive), in fact they can have a completely customized software using the technique of cross-platform software development, which is most cost-effective way of launching your software or app to multiple platforms.

React Native Apps and Cross Platform Software Development
React Native Apps and Cross Platform Software Development

What is React Native?

The React Native is a JavaScript based framework and library to develop the frontend UI for software and applications. It is an open-source platform, which means it is free to use and it is developed by Meta, formally known as Facebook. The reason why it is so popular is that it enable developers to utilize native capabilities of the platform and develop cross-platform software applications while utilizing only React framework. This simplifies the software development process and enable developers to develop excellent applications for multiple platforms with very less time and efforts. Furthermore the software developers can easily utilize their JavaScript skills to work on React Native framework which minuses the learning curve. The React JS and React Native often confused with one another, however, both are different. The React JS is majorly used for developing websites and web-apps however, the React Native is a cross-platform software development framework which is built on top of React JS and it allow developers to develop applications for Android, iOS, MAC OS, Windows and a few other platforms. Furthermore the React Native can also be utilized for both frontend and backend development which make it superior from other counterparts.

See Also: Customer Software Development: Why React JS is The Future of Frontend Development

What is React Native?
What is React Native?

What is Cross-Platform App Development?

The cross-platform app development is simply a method of providing your software, mobile application or web-apps to a diverse range of audience who are using multiple different platforms. This means all users from different platform would be needing same user experience, features, UI, etc. The biggest challenge of cross-platform software development is that a business would be needing multiple different teams to work on different platforms. Here are some cross-platform development tools:

Popular cross-platform development tools:

  1. JavaScript: For website and web-app development
  2. Kotlin: For Android app development
  3. Swift: For Apple iOS app development
  4. .NET: For Windows software and tools development

If you want to make your software and app available for all above platforms, then you will be needing at least 4 different teams to work on your single app/software. This could be very expensive, moreover it is difficult to manage multiple teams working on a same software or app. Furthermore each platform team will have different costing mechanisms, hence it would be difficult to meet release date. Later on, when you will be needing any maintenance, update or upgrade, your efforts and expensive would be multiplied to the number of platforms you are working at. That is where the React Native comes to play, it allow businesses to hire a single team and make cross-platform software development seamless and very cost-effective. The maintenance/updates are also easier and very less expensive.

Lear More: What Is Cross-Platform App Development?

What is Cross-Platform App Development?
What is Cross-Platform App Development?

What are the Benefits of Using React Native Apps for Cross Platform Development?

The React Native is rapidly growing on Stack Overflow and GitHub. It is widely adopted by businesses and organizations not only in UAE but all across the world. This also means that a developer can easily find community support and a huge number of ready-made plugins and scripts all over the internet which help developer speeding up the cross-platform software development projects. Here are some key benefits of using React Native apps and cross-platform software development for your business:

Quicker Development Process

Since you don’t require to have different teams working on your software for different platforms and only a single team can do that, the development cycle becomes shorter which also enables you to launch your apps quickly. Furthermore the React Native offers several features which help the programmers and developers to quickly develop their applications, and also it enables quick debugging and testing which makes development process much quicker than any other available framework. Moreover the code is also useable at several platforms which make development fast, it also reduce efforts to write code for multiple platforms and making changes to it. That is why the react native can effectively reduce the time and efforts of developing cross platform software.

See Also: How to Choose the Right Software Development Vendor for Your Business

React Native: Quicker Development Process
React Native: Quicker Development Process

Reduce the Cost of Cross Platform Software Development

The react native can greatly reduce the cost of your cross platform software development projects. Thanks to its ability to provide a reusable and compatible code for multiple platforms and reducing the efforts the time required to develop such mobile apps, web-apps and software has become very low. This also help reducing the cost. As less time and efforts are needed to develop a cross platform software, the cost is also low and since only one technology stack is required for the entire team, it is easier to find the skilled teams or vendors who can develop such software, apps and tools. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the software development agencies, such as RSI Concepts and many others are offering highly cost-efficient software development services, which also impact the cost of your software development and help business get a highly cost-effective solution.

React Native: Reduce the Cost of Cross Platform Software Development
React Native: Reduce the Cost of Cross Platform Software Development

Support Multiple Platforms

There is a common impression among businesses and non-coders, that the react native is only meant to be used for Android and iOS app development. However, that is not true at all. The react native is a very useful platform with a wider range of compatibility. Businesses can develop applications and software which can be offered on Android, iOS, Windows, MAC OS, Websites and a few more. There is a huge online community support for the React Native platform and above all it is rapidly evolving and growing adding support for newer platforms and technologies. This means businesses and developers both can expect a sharp rise in compatibility and efficacy of the react native and its expansion to various other platforms. That is what makes react native much more superior than other such frameworks.

See Also: The Key Elements of Efficient Software Development Project Management

React Native: Support Multiple Platforms
React Native: Support Multiple Platforms

Native-like Experience and Performance

When it comes to platforms like react native, the biggest concern of the businesses is experience and performance. That was also true, but a few years back, not now. Now a days, there are so many advancements made to the react native core, and furthermore the Meta (Formally known as Facebook) has introduced a new JavaScript engine, Hermes, which enables static optimization and help reducing the app size. Furthermore the React Native can also render components to the GPU which is achieved by eliminating the gap between the JavaScript and the native components and results in high-performing apps. This enables developers to offer a native-like experience and performance by simply using react native and its advanced components.

See Also: Guide to Custom Software Development

React Native: Native-like Experience and Performance
React Native: Native-like Experience and Performance

Quick Debugging and Changes

One of the biggest advantage of the React Native is its features like hot-reloading, live-reloading and fast refresh. When making changes to the application’s source code or debugging it the developers will have to recompile the application, however, with the react native this isn’t require anymore. It means that the developers can see their changes immediately, almost in real-time without the need to recompile the entire application, which is a time consuming tasks. That is why the developers prefer to use react native, as it helps them make changes and refine their work without any extra effort or repeated tasks. Furthermore the new features of the react native framework are extremely useful in debugging typos, syntax and other common errors in the code, which makes it more productive and ideal framework for the agile development teams.

See Also: Common Mistakes to Avoid in Custom Software Development Projects

React Native: Quick Debugging and Changes
React Native: Quick Debugging and Changes

What are the Drawbacks of Using React Native for Cross Platform Software Development?

The React Native is one of the best framework available to this day for cross platform software and apps development. However, same like other technologies, it also has some drawbacks, although these drawbacks usually won’t impact a business, but in certain and very few number of scenarios these drawbacks could become problematic. Here are some drawbacks of using React Native for cross platform apps and software development:

  • Unlike native technologies such as Kotlin or Swift the React Native is based on JavaScript which is a dynamically-typed programming language. This requires developers to follow certain standards and rules in order to avoid bugs form the apps.
  • There are certain native modules which are not available in React Native, especially those are related to interacting with device’s hardware, hence when dealing with such functionalities the developers must have to insert native codes, which could also affect behavior and appearance.
  • When using a framework like react native for cross platform software development, the developers can never achieve the level of performance and integration which can be achieved using the native codes and APIs.
  • The operating systems of different platforms keep updating very frequently. However, the react native or any other cross platform app development framework is slow on adopting to new changes and introducing new features which are instantly available for the native apps.

See Also: Step-by-step Guide to Develop Custom Enterprise Software

There is a clear difference between the native app development and cross platform software development. However, frameworks like React Native are rapidly bridging the gap between these two. The modern versions of react native have already minimized a lot of problems, which makes it ideal for more than 90% of the businesses, there are only a certain sectors or businesses who still need to build native apps because they need sophisticated features and intensive hardware integration with their apps. Otherwise the react native is best for cross platform software development.

What are the Drawbacks of Using React Native for Cross Platform Software Development?
What are the Drawbacks of Using React Native for Cross Platform Software Development?

Conclusion

When it comes to mobile app development or customized software tools, the first thing businesses should consider is their needs. Both react native and the native app development has its own advantages and drawbacks. However, cross platform software development can significantly reduce your cost, efforts and time of development which is why most businesses are preferring it. The react native is also preferred choice of software developers as it is convenient, easy to use, debug, and it offers a variety of features which enable them to add advanced features to their mobile apps, and software tools. Furthermore the react native offers almost native like performance and experience. The developers can reuse the code, they can easily debug it and update it, and the overall efforts and development time can be greatly reduced. The react native framework is rapidly gaining popularity all around the world, the Meta is also introducing new features to make it better and the community support is also growing. All these are signs of a very bright future for React Native and cross platform software development. In this blog we tried to cover everything important about React Native and cross platform software development. This blog will give you a better understanding of cross platform and native apps. If you want to learn more or if you want our help to develop a native or cross platform app, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and someone will get in touch with you soon.

See Also: How to Develop a Custom Software in Dubai?

 


Maximizing Efficiency: The Benefits of Implementing a Queue Management System

Every business wants efficient operation, whether it is some internal process or a customer facing environment, the efficiency is essential. When a business has efficient work flows, processes and even the teams, they tend to produce more and better outcome with whatever resources they have in hand. That is the reason in order to generate value and drive profits a business needs efficiency in every aspect of the operations. Now when we talk about the customer facing environments, the biggest challenge is to adopt and implement modern queue management system to make customer flow efficient and improve customer experience.

Whether you are operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or any other part of UAE you must be aware of the fact that every customer have too many choices, you one mistake and you can lose them to your competitor. Furthermore the customers are also very demanding and they tend to switch service provider very quickly. Even just a single bad experience is enough to make customer the switch. Studies and market research have revealed that it is 9 to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer comparing to selling to an existing customer. That is why customer experience and customer satisfaction is crucial for a business success.

See Also: What are the Different Types of Queue Management System?

Maximizing Efficiency: The Benefits of Implementing a Queue Management System
Maximizing Efficiency: The Benefits of Implementing a Queue Management System

What is a Queue Management System?

A queue management system is a tool which consists of software and hardware parts and it is used to manage the customer flow and customer experience. The queue management software is a server application which is connected to an interactive self-service ticket dispensing kiosk or queuing kiosk. It is also connected to digital signage screens and audio announcement system. Some businesses also use dynamic counter plates which can also be managed through the queue management system.

Furthermore the hardware part of the queue management system includes a ticket dispensing kiosk which allow your customers and visitors to interact with the system and issue them token numbers. There is a digital signage screen, which displays live queuing details and keep your guests informed about the current activities on each service counter. A business can have multiple signage depends on the premises size. Similarly the audio announcement system is also hardware part powered by in-built multi-lingual audio announcements module.

The counter plates are also connected to the queue management system via network and can display the counter number/name along with the current ticket number. These components form a standard queue management system with basic configurations. Businesses can add more software and hardware components to enhance the features of the queue management system.

See Also: From Chaos to Control: How Queue Management Systems Can Improve Your Business

What is a Queue Management System?
What is a Queue Management System?

What are the Drawbacks of Poorly Organized Customer Flow?

A poorly organized customer flow have many drawbacks, it doesn’t only affect your customers but it will also have a negative impact on your employees and their performance. Which will translate to low productivity, poor growth, bad business reputation, higher customer churn rate, lower conversion rate and in the long run it will damage your brand image. When the queues or waiting lines are not managed properly the very first effect is extended wait time. When the customers will have to wait for longer period of time, they will be frustrated and annoyed.

This will cause many other problems such as line jumping, customer complaints and more fraction in customer journey. When the waiting lines are not managed efficiently they employees also suffer, they will have to deal with customer complaints, they will have to manage the queues by themselves and they will have more workload, it will also distract them from their primary tasks which will undermine their performance. The customers will reach to the counter in stress and they will be unhappy, this will result in poor interaction with the service agents, and it will also make it difficult for the service agents to satisfy the customer.

Long waiting lines, and extended wait time will result in higher customer churn. When employees will fail to improve their performance despite putting all efforts, they will leave too. Higher employee turnover will cause several other problems, higher customer churn rate will damage your business’s reputation.

See Also: The Concept of Queue Management and Crowd Control

What are the Drawbacks of Poorly Organized Customer Flow?
What are the Drawbacks of Poorly Organized Customer Flow?

What are The Benefits of Implementing a Queue Management System?

There are several benefits of implementing a queue management system, but it is important to understand that there are different types of queue management systems available in the market. You must have to choose the right solution that suits your needs and business type. However, one of the best way is to hire a well-reputed queue management system provider such as RSI Concepts and ask them to build a bespoke tailor-made customized queue management system according to your needs. Here are some of the benefits of implementing a queue management system:

Reduction in Customer Waiting Time

When the customer flow is well-organized, they queuing process is automated the customer wait time will automatically reduce. By implementing a queue management system businesses can automate several queuing process. The ticket dispensing is automated, the customer flow is managed by the smart algorithms of the queue management software, and the employee performance is also improved. A queue management system can automatically take decisions, and set customer route according to the historical data and the live queuing data, which is why the customer wait time is optimized.

Furthermore the queue management system also help improving customers’ waiting experience by reducing the perceived wait time. It keep customers engaged and distracted from the waiting by frequently making audio-visual announcements and updating the digital signage. Furthermore the queue management system can also play multimedia content, adverts, promotional and marketing content on the digital signage which also help increasing customer engagement and help optimizing the perceived wait time.

See Also: How Queue Management System can Boost Productivity and Profitability?

Reduction in Customer Waiting Time
Reduction in Customer Waiting Time

Improved Employee Performance

When a business implements a queue management system the employee efficiency and performance is significantly improved. Without a queue management system the employees will have to adhere to several other tasks, most of which are not productive. Manually managing customer flow, especially during the peak-hours can greatly undermine the employee performance and it also have toll on service quality. However, with a proper queue management system in place the employees don’t have to worry about many things and they are free to focus on their primary and more productive tasks.

This not only boost employee performance but also greatly reduce their workload. When the employees work under a balanced workload their satisfaction increases and they tend to perform better. The queue management system automate several queuing processes, and it also offers dedicated service agent dashboards, which can also lift up a lot of workload and help service agents in many tasks. Businesses can significantly improve employee performance and service quality by implementing a queue management system.

See Also: Top 8 Benefits of Using Queue Management System

Improved Employee Performance
Improved Employee Performance

Enhanced Customer Experience

The customer satisfaction depends on customer experience and service quality, better experience results in higher customer satisfaction index. When a business implements a queue management system it automates several queuing processes. When the customers know that their tokens are issued by computer operated system, they have more trust over the system, and it assured them there will no favoritisms, no line-jumping, no intervention from the staff, whatever token is issued to them they will be served accordingly.

Furthermore the queue management system keeps customers and visitors engaged and help diluting the effects of waiting and reduce their stress. This will improve their waiting experience. As the service staff is also aided by the queue management system, they are also more welcoming, fresh and prepared for the customers. This all results in a better customer interaction with the service agent and also tend to improve the service quality.

Implementing a queue management system greatly improves customer experience and results in higher customer satisfaction which help your business building a strong brand image and reputation.

See Also: Queue Management System for Trucks and Logistic Centers

Enhanced Customer Experience
Enhanced Customer Experience

Real-time Monitoring and Remote Management

One of the best advantage of implementing a queue management system is that it offers real-time monitoring and remote management features. Businesses often have multiple branches where they deploy a queue management system, and even in case of only one office the real-time monitoring dashboard and capabilities to manage the system remotely are some of the most productive features.

Usually there is a central location or head office where the top management resides, they want to monitor the queuing activities and stats to take timely decisions. The queue management system is a centralized software system which connects all branches and parts and enable real-time monitoring. The branch manager, or the senior manager at the head office or any other user with adequate access can monitor the live real-time queuing data and stats.

Furthermore it is very easy to implement the queuing polices and strategies across the entire business, remotely from the head office. Businesses can also set automated alerts and notifications for the managers and supervisors to enable them to be more reactive towards the customer footfall and help them improve the customer flow by keeping them up-to-date all the time.

See Also: Qualities of a Good Mobile App for Queue Management System

Real-time Monitoring and Remote Management
Real-time Monitoring and Remote Management

Collect Business Intelligence Data

The data is the backbone of modern fast-paced markets. Every business who wants to succeed should be able to collect, analyze and utilize the business intelligence data in order to generate value and productive outcomes. A queue management system can provide a wealth of highly accurate and valuable business intelligence data. The queue management system can collect queuing data, system usage stats, waiting time trends, customer footfall trends, employee performance and KPI metrics, and it can also collect direct customer feedback which can be incorporated in several internal decision making process to improve strategies and overall performance of the business.

The queue management system can also be integrated with third-party tools and central information center which enables it to collect data from various sources, and it also allow the queue management system to provide business intelligence data for other systems and tools. Businesses can analyze the queue management system data and customer feedback using in-built analytical tools, or they can extract it in form of various intuitive report formats such as summary reports, trend reports and much more which help them utilize the business intelligence data at its full potential and maximize the overall efficiency and performance of the business.

See Also: Efficient Queue Management System Qualities

Collect Business Intelligence Data
Collect Business Intelligence Data

Conclusion

In modern fast-paced markets where the markets are subjected to subtle and rapid changes, a business needs a proactive approach to deal with up-coming challenges. Managing customer facing environments and maintain a satisfactory customer experience is one of the most challenging task a service-based business ever faces. Poorly organized waiting lines and long queues can have devastating effects on a business. Pool queuing strategy and manual queue management can results in poor employee performance, low service quality, and unhappy customers.

However when a business implements q modern queue management system, they can greatly improve employee performance, customer experience and consequently customer satisfaction. A queue management system offers many features which can help improving the customer flow and minimizing the customer churn rate. In this blog we have discussed what a queue management system is and how businesses can benefits from it.

If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to build you a 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.


Why Custom Performance Management System is more Effective?

In the fast-paced business landscape it is extremely important for a business to utilize its resources at fullest potential. Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and anywhere else in UAE are well aware of the fact that the markets in this country tend to change very quickly, the customer demands are also increasing endlessly. That is why businesses all around the UAE give a lot of attention to performance management system. The performance management is one of the primary task of the HR department and that is the reason HR leaders and businesses are ready to invest a lot in performance management systems and programs.

There is another strong reason for investing in performance management system which is the adaptation of agile processes and methods. When businesses adopt agility, a gap is formed naturally between the managers and the employees. Most of the time the business leaders and managers failed to implement proper people management practices which results in dissatisfaction and distrust among the employees and undermine their performance and productivity.

Why Custom Performance Management System is more Effective?
Why Custom Performance Management System is more Effective?

The modern day employees are also more concerned about their personal development and growth, they want more frequent feedback from their managers which help them improve their skills and productivity. There has been several surveys and studies all around the world which suggested more than 80% of the business leaders lost faith on the traditional performance management practices and annual appraisal processes. Almost similar percentage of employees also express their distrust on traditional performance management methods. Therefore a modern, digitalized and technology based performance management system is needed.

Basically a performance management system is a software tool, which can provide a continuous performance monitoring tools and analytical data and allow both managers and employees to access valuable performance management data in a very intuitive and interactive manner. Only a modern digital performance management system solution can fulfill the needs of the modern businesses. In this blog we will discuss why a custom performance management system is more effective for your business.

See Also: Customizing Performance Management Systems for Diverse Workforces

Only a modern digital performance management system solution can fulfill the needs of the modern businesses.
Only a modern digital performance management system solution can fulfill the needs of the modern businesses

What is the Difference between a COTS and Custom Performance Management System?

Before we discuss what is the difference between a custom and COTS performance management system it is important to understand that a performance management system is a software which is used to streamline and improve the performance management processes such as one-on-one meetings, acquiring feedback, appraisal, developing personal development and training programs and other such tasks. For any HR department it is their prime goal to retain and sustain a skilled workforce and ensure other business functions can get the required talent and skillset. The performance management system is built on a powerful analytical and statistical engine, along with smart algorithms and AI software tools which makes it more efficient, impactful and effective.

When it comes to acquire a new software tool there are two options, one is hiring a professional software development agency like RSI Concepts and have a tailor-made solution which matches 100% of your business needs. The second option is to quickly implement a cloud-based solution or acquire a ready-made performance management software. Both the ready-made and cloud-based solutions are COTS software, it means Commercial Off-the-shelf Software. The COTS are not designed for a single business or a specific set of users, in fact they are general purpose tools which are designed and available to a mass audience ranging from a few hundred to millions of users.

See Also: Choosing a Performance Management System A Buyer’s Guide

What is the Difference between a COTSand Custom Performance Management System?
What is the Difference between a COTS and Custom Performance Management System?

What made Custom Performance Management System Superior and a Better Match to your Needs?

Whenever a business needs a software solution and they decide to go with a commercial off-the-shelf software or COTS they usually seek to match as much of their needs as possible, on an average a good COTS solution will meet your 80% of needs. That means you will have to make compromise for the rest of the 20% of your needs. That is one of the major reason business prefer to have a tailor-made custom software solution because a custom software solution is capable of meeting 100% of your needs as it will be exclusively designed for your needs.

Another great advantage of a custom performance management system is that it can provide a great competitive advantage. Furthermore the custom performance management system is exclusively designed for your business, so you also hold the ownership rights for the product. This will free your business from vendor-dependency. Businesses can manage, customize and upgrade custom performance management system in-house as well as they can choose any vendor to do so, as the entire software tool and its resources such as source code, databases and integration tools are handed over to the business who will be using it.

See Also: Performance Management System: Best Practices

What made Custom Performance Management System Superior and a Better Match to your Needs?
What made Custom Performance Management System Superior and a Better Match to your Needs?

Here are some key advantages of choosing a custom performance management system over a COTS solution:

Custom Performance Management System: Effectively Implement Strategy

It is important to understand that the performance management is a very flexible concept. Every business has a unique organizational culture so does the strategy to implement different performance methods. It is due to the preference which every business have different from the other. These preferences are based on the business goals, strategic objectives and their desire to improve certain aspects of the performance. For example, some businesses might prioritize the technical competencies and some might want to focus on behavioral competencies and so on.

See Also: The Role of Performance Management in Employee Engagement

Along with that for a different set of employees the KPIs are different the desired outcome is different, hence the strategy and focused performance aspects would be different. Furthermore there are different performance management methods and every business would have different choice, on top of that most business leader prefer to use a combination of two or more methods to implement their own unique performance management strategy. That is the reason the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions can never fulfill all of your needs. Furthermore the COTS are built as per industry standards and offers more rigid framework.

However, a custom performance management system can offer you more control, flexibility, freedom and customization which enable you to effectively implement your own unique performance management strategy. You can utilize in-built templates and configurations wizards to setup your own customized KPIs, OKRs and performance metrics as per your needs. This allow you to laser focus on your prioritized aspects of the performance management which can greatly improve the impact and outcome.

See Also: The Risk of Poor Performance Management and How to identify it?

There are different performance management methods and every business would have different choice
There are different performance management methods and every business would have different choice

Custom Performance Management System: Easy Integration with Data and Third-party Systems

The entire performance management system depends on collecting, flow and analysis of the data. It is extremely important to understand that if data collection would be easier, the outcome would be more accurate. That is why most modern performance management systems have ability to automatically collect data. Businesses can manually upload data too or they can use dedicated dashboards to input the data but it is important that uploading data or integration and automated-data collection is as per the needs of the business. The IT infrastructure of any organization is a very complex eco-system, it develops gradually and evolve as per the needs and changes within the organization or due to the impact of external factors.

See Also: Performance Management Trends in the Digital Era

This means there would be a lot of different system some of which might be integrated already with the central information system. There could be a lot technology platforms and different vendors that a business is using to form their IT infrastructure. When a new software application is deployed in such environment the biggest challenge is integration and communication between different third-party systems and tools. Since the commercial off-the-shelf software are usually standardized tools, hence integration could be a big challenge, it could be very expensive and in some cases it could be impossible.

However, the customized performance management system is exclusively built for your needs, so all these problems are already accounted for. All these challenges can be dealt effectively and with convenience when you have full control over the structure of the software that you are building. That is why the customized performance management system are more effective in integrating with third-party tools and databases, which allow them to easily attain automation and built innovative features to minimize the effort and workload of the users. Even in case of manual uploads or dedicated dashboard to input data the customized performance management system is much more effective and far superior to any COTS solution in the market.

See Also: Which one is better Standalone VS Integrated Software?

Easy Integration with Data and Third-party Systems
Easy Integration with Data and Third-party Systems

Custom Performance Management System: Get Customized Features and UI

Similar to performance strategy implementation, the features of the performance management system also require customization if you want to align the system with your needs. The biggest problem with the commercial off-the-shelf performance management software is that they are built according to the industry standards and only follow standardized procedures and processes. Which is helpful but sometimes it could be a hurdle instead of support. The custom performance management system software is exclusively designed as per your requirements hence there is no such barrier or limitation. You can customize each and every feature, process, SOP, protocol and even the reporting formats and designs.

See Also: Linking Performance Management to Business Outcomes

For any performance management system the ultimate goal is to collect performance data, drive reports from the data and then take informed decisions to maximize the probability of the success. There is another most important aspect which is the user interface (UI). Most of the businesses doesn’t focus much on it, however, it is extremely important aspect of any software application. With the custom performance management system you can customize the GUI or UI as per your requirements, you can have your customized branding, and even functionalities can be customized and labeled as per your needs which can greatly enhance the efficiency and efficacy of the performance management system. The stock or off-the-shelf solutions doesn’t offer such customizations.

See Also: How to Customize Performance Management System

Get Customized Features and UI
Get Customized Features and UI

Custom Performance Management System: High Scalability and Easy Upgrade

Whenever businesses are acquiring any software solution, the scalability and ability to upgrade it in future are the two most important aspects to consider. The commercial off-the-shelf software comes with several restrictions and limitations. Similarly the commercial off-the-shelf performance management system could be easier and quicker to deploy but down the road it will pose more challenges. Furthermore these software are usually cloud-based and comes in different tiers and plans which are designed to target a specific size or industry. Hence if you need some features which are not available in your plan you might have to subscribe for additional plan, which will be more expensive and at the end of the day most of the features comes with expensive plan might not be useful for your business.

See Also: The Future of Performance Appraisals: 6 Innovations and Changes [Quick Guide]

The markets evolve very fast, the customer demands could change over the night, and business need to be very vigilant and responsive towards such changes, which is usually not possible with the commercial off-the-shelf solutions. Furthermore these applications take ages to develop and build new features, there are several challenges for the vendor to upgrade them. Businesses keep growing and after sometime scaling up these software would cost you a lot. The custom performance management system is completely free from all those limitations and restrictions. You can customize it whenever you want, you can scale it up or downsize it whenever you need and without paying even a single dime.

Furthermore you can also customize your custom performance management system to add new features or to make changes at a nominal cost unlike the COTS which incurs hefty fees and charges for such requirements.

See Also: 5 Challenges in implementing Performance Management System

High Scalability and Easy Upgrade
High Scalability and Easy Upgrade

Custom Performance Management System: Cost-effective and High ROI

When we compare the initial cost of the commercial off-the-shelf solutions and the customized software applications, the COTS apparently looks more cost-effective. However, that is not true at all. The COTS can be deployed quickly but won’t be able to fully match your 100% of the requirements, however, the custom performance management systems have higher initial cost but can fully aligned with your requirements and fulfill your 100% of the needs. In order to compare the cost we will have to look at the ROI over a longer period of the time. The stock or commercial off-the-shelf solutions have regular subscription charges which you will have to pay on monthly, quarterly or yearly bases as per your plan. You will have no control over the software vendor, the vendor will own the application and in some cases your data is also stored at vendor’s server which is not as that secure.

However, the custom performance management system is exclusively designed for your business, the vendor doesn’t have the ownership of the application, instead you will own the ownership rights of the software and you will also own all the software code, resources and the entire application which will be handed over to you. You can have full control over your custom performance management system, there is no vendor dependency, you can chose any vendor or even in-house team to maintain and upgrade your software. Your data will be hosted with you or at the server/cloud of your choice which offers better security. There will be no subscription fee or hidden charges, the customization will be very cost-efficient and if you calculate the ROI over an extended period of time the custom performance management system will cost you less than half of a reputed commercial off-the-shelf performance management system.

The custom performance management system have longer life-cycle which can be further extended by making few changes and iterations, but in case of COTS you might have to acquire a completely new software after a few years.

See Also: The Impact of Performance Management on Organizational Culture

Cost-effective and High ROI
Cost-effective and High ROI

Conclusion

Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or any other emirate of UAE knows that very well that the markets here are very competitive. The overall government policies and environment is very investor-friendly hence the competition will keep rising in future too. Furthermore the customer demands are also skyrocketing and the market is subjected to rapid changes. In such environment if a business want to maintain a steady growth it is extremely important for them to have a proactive performance management strategy.

The modern day employees need higher engagements and the business leaders also want more productive and effective tools to maximize the performance and productivity of their organization. That is why businesses deploy performance management systems which are mainly a dedicated software application designed to streamline the performance management processes and aid management in performing performance management tasks.

When it comes to acquire a performance management system software, businesses have two way, one is finding a suitable commercial off-the-shelf solution and quickly implement it and the other is slightly longer path, which is to develop a tailor-made and fully customized performance management system which is exclusively designed for the business by keeping in mind all the needs, requirements, and existing IT infrastructure.

In this blog we have discussed several aspects of performance management system and tried to highlight the aspects which make custom performance management system more superior, effective and impactful then its counterpart, the commercial off-the-shelf performance management software. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to develop an exclusive tailor-made custom 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.

See Also: How to Develop Custom Performance Appraisal System in UAE?