The majority of business leaders believe custom software increases their ability to meet business needs and offers a competitive advantage.
This is one of the biggest takeaways from the recent survey by ThoughtWorks and Forrester Consulting. The study involved 200 business and IT professionals across the UK, Australia and the US.
It emerged from the study that 82% of respondents believe custom software has massive benefits for their organisations.
The study revealed three main challenges for these leaders - mobile is dramatically affecting developer skills and velocity; the need to scale and do so using cloud infrastructure affects architects and required infrastructure skills; and open source and public cloud infrastructure are affecting IT control points.
As a consequence of these challenges, organisations are turning to custom software solutions that offer the ability to adapt and iterate at pace while providing a user experience that is unique and responsive to needs.
Custom software, also known as bespoke software or tailor-made software, is software that is specially developed for some specific organisation or other user. Large companies commonly use custom software for critical functions, including content management, inventory management, customer management, human resource management, or to fill the gaps present in the existing software packages.
Sameer Deans, general manager at ThoughtWorks, says the advantage of custom development is not only in building such unique solutions, but also the ability to deliver enhancements and features more rapidly.
He points out custom solutions have the added advantage of introducing process improvements enhanced by automation that packaged solutions cannot necessarily leverage. "This provides businesses with complete ownership of the delivery chain by eliminating dependence on improvements from the packaged solution vendors."
According to Deans, the implications for developer teams - whether in-house or contracted - is that they have to possess a wider range of skills.
"This applies as much to the architecture or language employed as it does to having a deeper understanding of integration into legacy systems, business processes and priorities as well as customer needs and preferences.
"This need for 'polyskilled' developers is a trend that is as prevalent in the South African market as it is globally. It is becoming more prevalent as the need to present a simple and clear user interface grows - irrespective of whether the data is integrated with internal legacy systems, or drawn from new applications using cloud services."
Deans believes organisations should also not underestimate the importance of the business itself having a similar view that cuts across processes and dependencies.
He says this is particularly important in the pursuit of remaining relevant into the future. "The pace of evolution in solutions to meet customer needs is moving ahead at breakneck speed and an industry leader can rapidly become a laggard if the foot is removed from the accelerator."
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