As thousands upon thousands of employees have officially relocated from their cubicles to makeshift home offices during the coronavirus outbreak, now more than ever employees are reliant upon enterprise software to communicate with colleagues and operate remotely. Amid the public health crisis, a new era has emerged for employee enterprise software. For many businesses this experience has not been an easy transition as they scramble to arm their employees with all the tools necessary to operate effectively outside of the office. This should serve as a wakeup call for some to focus less on day to day operations and more on long term resiliency through a technology enabled business plan. Now is the time for businesses to expand their digital workplaces and remote access in order to become capable and competitive into the future. After all, the businesses of the future will be reliant upon the ability to work quickly, efficiently, and securely via remote working capabilities, not just during public health crises, but as the world shifts ever more in favor of teleworking.
Right now, many businesses are relying upon third party platforms and tools to facilitate remote teleworking capabilities beyond standard phone and email. From sharing documents, to videoconferencing and chat, there are a host of tools out there to help enable these types of features for the enterprise. Utilizing third party tools is a sufficient means to operate in the short term, but less than ideal overall. Below we will outline a handful of reasons utilizing off-the-shelf solutions is not the best investment in the long term.
Firstly, there is a lack of unity. Utilizing a handful of different tools and platforms creates a fractured infrastructure. Essentially, there is a lot of friction involved when moving between tasks, reducing productivity.
Secondly, there is little opportunity for customized features specifically tailored to a company’s specific needs and requirements. Businesses are simply forced to choose between what is readily available, often including unnecessary features and functionality.
Thirdly, the cost of subscription services and software tools may seem cheap in the short run, but add up over time. Like renting a home, your money could be better spent actually owning the property. Custom software development involves an initial investment but once it’s built its yours. No more throwing money away on licenses or wasted features that aren’t utilized.
With all this in mind, custom enterprise software development is the ideal long-term solution as it allows for a centralized channel of task management and communication, specifically tailored to the enterprise, with the best return on investment. It may initially seem daunting, but working with a knowledgeable and experienced enterprise software development company can make the process so much easier.