The biggest dilemma for Laundry or Dry-cleaning business owners is whether to go for a SaaS (Cloud-based Software) or a Custom-made software. After answering a lot of these dilemmas and helping thousands of businesses make the right choice, we realized that there are a lot of myths out there about Custom Software vs SaaS that need to be busted.
Here are some of the myths about custom made software that will help you make a better choice for your business.
1. Myth – the Desktop/Custom-made Software is 100% Customized. 100% customized=100% utility
Fact – At any given point you are only able to use 10% of your software.
The usability and productivity of the software are highly dependent on your resources, namely your manpower, their intellect and their time. Even if you planned to utilize 100% of the custom-made software, you will be practically limited by the resources.
SaaS Softwares include all these factors into account. Any SaaS software is an accumulated knowledge wealth of not just one but thousands of users. The average utilization score for SaaS is between 30-50%.
Custom made software takes into account only your understanding of the business and your experience in the industry. And hence it is highly unlikely that the custom made software has scope for growth and future expansion.
2. Myth– Custom made software is only a one time cost.
Fact– After the initial huge cost of making a custom software, the incremental upgrades cost a ton.
Custom made software includes the cost of the software for the next 3 years, which is a costly one-time payment. Also, every new update or addition of features would cost you additional time and money. Many times, this new addition may or may not be possible due to structural limitations.
SaaS Softwares take monthly/annual payments(which is a much smaller cost compared to custom made software) from the user. This includes all the inherent costs- the cost of manpower used to keep the software up and running, the upgradation costs, and most important the cost of all the research that goes into projecting the future requirements that a growing business like yours needs. Without your intervention or your concern SaaS businesses are always striving to make your business and life easier, because that is the foundation of SaaS business. At no cost would any SaaS business deviate from this ideology.
In short, SaaS is always working towards making your business better and bigger without you having to work for it.
3. Myth – Features can be easily added or removed in Custom made software.
Fact – We wish it was that easy to do with any form of software.
In reality, this isn’t true. When you get a custom made software built to your requirements, a team of technical professionals works for you for a period of time. By the time you go back to get additions done to your software, the same team might be working on another project and may or may not be available to take up your project. Or worse, the team has changed. Incurring costs in the form of the capital and time cannot be compensated and meanwhile, your business continues to be affected by the lack of features. There are scenarios that we have come across where timing is everything. A lot of features have value only if done at an appropriate time. Too late, and you lose the USP of the feature, or you could lose your customers to the competition.
SaaS, on the other hand, work constantly towards this goal of delivering future market trends to you as soon as possible.
4. Myth– Once integrations have been established with the custom made software, it is all that will be needed.
Fact- Had this been the case, once made, no software would have cost a dime to anyone.
We apologize to break your bubble but the world plays by the rule- the fittest survives.
The scope of the custom made software is defined by your vision and understanding of how the technology might advance. If the custom made software doesn’t have the ability to integrate with other tools, it can’t be added on- it could be due to platform limitations on which the software is built or due to limitations in software design.
SaaS products go beyond your current requirements to prevent these limitations. Also, the upgradation and integration support are the core values for any SaaS product.
5. Myth– Custom Made software once made is all set for a long period of time. We wish it was that simple.
Fact- Any software, be it custom made or SaaS, regular and timely upgradation are the core values.
The life of any software is dependent on the fact if maintenance and upgradation are being carried out or not. A simple example to understand this concept is our Mobile phones. Imagine if your Android or iPhone wouldn’t provide you updates regularly your mobile phone would become outdated sooner than you would expect.
Now, as we discussed in the above points, Custom made softwares are too time-consuming to implement upgrades and they are highly dependent on your inputs and time.
SaaS has a dedicated team constantly working on this sole purpose
6. Myth– Custom made software is more secure than SaaS
Fact– If Custom made software is a desktop version, then your data is saved locally on the system.
It is not very tricky to hack your system to get the data or to create copies. Desktop-based software is highly prone to the risk of data loss in case your system crashes, which happens more often than you would believe. In case, custom made software is on the cloud it is somewhat similar to a SaaS software. The difference is that custom made software would go for a server that may or may not be an enterprise-level which affects the speed of the software and most importantly the level of security that it offers. SaaS software use enterprise servers which ensure the highest level of security and speed.
In conclusion, SaaS software are a much safer option in today’s time. It is faster, more secure, customizable yet cheaper than traditional custom made or desktop software.
