Costs and Return on Investment

Many business owners believe that bespoke software is too costly and out of the question, but we're here to say that this is often not the case!

In fact, custom software can quickly pay for itself and often faster than any other investment a business will typically make. We've had many happy clients who have seen a return on investment within just 12 months.

How Custom Software Pays For Itself

If you are not using custom software, you'll be using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (or COTS) software designed for the mass market.

These off-the-shelf packages usually only partially cover a business's needs. This gap often requires businesses to find alternative solutions to fill in the gaps, whether that's through using separate software systems or spreadsheets. Unfortunately, this almost always adds complexity to their workflow, resulting in more staff time being required to administer and leading to increased running costs.

Custom software, on the other hand, can meet almost 100% of a business's needs in one package, allowing for increased productivity by automating tasks that could and should be automated.

Furthermore, with custom software, you're no longer 'renting' software and are not having to pay monthly licensing fees, which for a growing business can quickly add up to tens of thousands of pounds every year.

So don't be deterred by the assumption that custom software is prohibitively expensive. In many cases, it's a wise investment that can deliver significant returns in a short amount of time.

Upfront Investment

There is no getting around the fact that having custom software needs an upfront investment, but that investment doesn't have to be enormous and doesn't have to be all paid up-front. There are several options where the upfront costs can be spread out or reduced. 

• Many of our customers choose to split their software projects into phases, bringing in new functionality and slowly taking over their existing systems. 
• Finance may be an option (depending on circumstances), allowing our customers to spread out the initial investment costs over several months or years. 
• A revenue share plan might be possible, which can be used to offset some of the upfront costs. 
• In some areas, there may well be grant funding available from the local council. 
• There may be tax credit/relief schemes (such as Research and Development tax reliefs) that can be taken advantage of. 

Example Custom Software Budgets

The table below shows some example software projects that could be developed, along with a likely budget range.