The 21st-century workplace depends heavily on application development to manage business processes and workflows. These can range from simple apps that automate a single process to others that help manage multiple processes and workflows.
Companies have several ready-made choices that can design and optimize such apps. However, one major problem with these ‘one-size-fits-all’ applications is that they’re designed for a broad audience—while many serve their purpose, they often lack the core functionality your teams need. This is why many companies develop apps using multiple business process tools for optimal results.
This has forced organizations to notice the advantages of custom app development. With custom application development, businesses can build their apps in-house to meet their specific requirements.
What are custom apps?
Custom or bespoke or custom-made apps are developed specifically for a particular client or organization. They are tailored to meet clients’ needs, requirements, and preferences. They are typically built from scratch using programming languages like Java, C#, and Python and frameworks like React, Angular, Vue.js, and .Net Core.
They are not available for the general public and can only be used by the organization or client who commissioned them. Custom based apps can be used for various purposes, such as automating business processes, data analysis, customer relationship management, etc.
What is custom application development?
Custom application development is the process of designing, developing, and deploying software applications for specific users or use cases. For example, many organizations have custom-made HR portals for employees, freelancers, etc.
According to a recent survey, up to 80% of organizations say that custom development through the help of citizen developers has given their IT departments more breathing room.
Low-code, no-code citizen development platforms have encouraged the rise of a new category of citizen development. These are tech-savvy members of the various teams within your organization who can build the kinds of apps they need to optimize their business processes without writing code.
Previously, the responsibility of building custom app development software relied on in-house development teams or IT departments. These days, thanks to low-code development platforms, businesses no longer depend on professional coders to build the app they need.
Building custom business apps helps users design, build, and deploy applications to suit their needs. This type of app has a well-defined set of requirements that focus on the unique needs of a specific group of users.
The design of these apps begins with a unique problem they’re meant to solve, and the software is fully optimized to solve this problem. To create custom application forms allows business users to step into the shoes of app developers and build business applications like expense tracking systems, employee management portals, tracking dashboards, and more from the ground up. This ensures business users greater flexibility and control over their work and helps reduce overall dependence on IT teams.
Benefits of custom application development
Custom application development comes with many benefits for enterprises that implement them. Some of the benefits and advantages of custom application development include:
- Cost-effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Scalability
- Ease of customization
- Integrations
- Minimal security risks
- Ease of use
Cost-effectiveness
Building an application conventionally is not cost-effective. Once requirements are passed on to the IT teams, they are often tasked with building, testing, and debugging applications. And this can come at a huge cost. However, opting for custom app development, such as a name generator, can significantly reduce resource requirements and simplify the overall development cost of applications.
Efficiency
One central selling point of custom applications is that they’re created to optimize specific workflows and support processes within an organization. They’re typically built with the users in mind or by the users themselves, which makes them better designed to solve business problems efficiently.
Scalability
A solution that is built just for you can grow with your business. Building an application mapped to a specific function and way of work allows developers to revisit certain areas of the process and tweak them to handle larger volumes of requests and data.
This means you won’t have to move to a new solution in order to access advanced features and to scale.
Ease of customization
Customization is one of the biggest benefits of custom application development solutions. Applications built the conventional way often require external help to set up and customize. These may be in the form of members of the IT teams, designated product experts, or external developers. With custom applications, business users have complete control over the way their applications are set up, and so, customization is incredibly simplified.
Integrations
Every business has systems and tools they already use to handle their operations. One of the primary considerations when designing custom apps is compatibility with these systems.
Many application development platforms these days come with API integration functions that make connecting new apps with existing systems easier, so you don’t spend more money on newer solutions to fulfill your needs.
Minimal security risks
Several users often use commercial tools. Not only does this make it more vulnerable to security threats but also introduces several potential nodes for external attacks. A custom-built application exists within a cloud-based platform. This great low-code platform comes with the latest in security, compliance, and data protection, which makes it safer and easier to store and transact crucial data.
Ease of use
Most cookie-cutter applications have a steep learning curve for business users. With custom software, the users that use the app are also the ones who build it. A simple no-code development platform ensures complete control over the application development process without knowing how to hardcode. The no-code platforms allow users to build fully functional apps from scratch or leverage pre-built templates for ease of use.
Registration form templates streamline the user experience on no-code development platforms, enabling business users to effortlessly create and customize application registration forms without delving into complex coding processes.
Drawbacks in traditional app development
In traditional work environments, when a team or department needs to develop a new application, they must submit a request to the IT team, who helps them source and choose the right apps for their business.
By implication, traditional app development relies on the IT team. IT teams do everything from coding, backend development, bug tracking, and release. This can easily overwhelm the IT team since they’re also tasked with handling other business-critical tasks.
In many cases, they’re detached from the problems they’re meant to solve and are scarcely equipped to deliver results promptly. It is time-consuming and expensive to build apps from scratch, customize them, and troubleshoot problems.
Differences between custom app development and conventional app development
Custom app development and conventional app development are quite similar. Both concepts focus on building apps with a narrow set of requirements based on the specific needs of a given set of users. However, there are some fundamental differences.
Here are the key factors that distinguish conventional and custom application development:
- Custom application development platform is not IT-team-centric—it gives complete control to the business user who builds the application. With conventional app development, users have to communicate business needs to their IT teams who develop them.
- Custom application development keeps end-users involved, so platforms that encourage citizen development are used. These are typically not code-heavy. Conventional application development is unrestricted to no-code applications since IT teams are involved in building the applications.
- Custom application development is faster because of the shift in control. Conventional application development is a slower process because requests have to pass through the IT teams, who are often a bottleneck.
- Custom applications are easier to configure and customize because it uses low-code/no-code applications. Conventional apps require external developers or specialists who are experts in the product to customize features/make systemic changes.
How to build custom apps from scratch
Even though custom app development is unique, it still depends on similar app development methodologies as other forms of application development. Here are some steps on how to create custom applications from scratch:
Step 1: Determine the problem and end-user
Every application is built to fix a problem for a specific end-user set. Understanding the problem and the part the application will play in the end user’s life is a crucial first step.
Step 2: Build a prototype
Envision what the application looks like. This means visualizing what the workflow will look like, what core features it will require, and determining the information necessary in order to fulfill requests within the application.
Step 3: Create the application
The third step in custom application development is actually to build the application on a low-code, no-code platform. This step relies heavily on the expertise of the business user since they know intimately how each request flows, what is needed, and how to bring about resolution.
Step 4: Simulate
The testing phase is one of the most crucial steps in custom application development. This phase should highlight any possible problems in the application while highlighting errors or steps that need to be changed.
Step 5: Go-live
This is possibly the most gratifying phase of custom application development. Going live with the application means pushing it to a live production environment where users can get involved, raise requests, and fulfill them. Applications need to be monitored for a period of time to ensure there are no bugs or errors that have slipped through the cracks.
Step 6: Optimization
The process of custom application development does not end there. The final stage involves measuring crucial metrics, keeping track of performance, and making subtle tweaks to ensure optimal performance and output.
Create custom apps with Kissflow
Custom application development equips citizen developers with all they need to create an organization’s business tools. Over the past few years, this has proven to be a cheaper and more efficient approach to app development than traditional app development.
A comprehensive low-code, no-code application development platform like Kissflow lets you bridge the gap between your IT teams and business users while streamlining application development to suit your organization’s needs.
Kissflow is a low-code, no-code work platform that allows you to do more work within a single platform. It bridges the gap between business users and IT teams while truly embracing the philosophy of simplicity.
Guest writer.
