Custom Software Showcase: Determining What You Need
Software Development services from our team is a dynamic process where we work with you closely to improve your workflows. In the simplest terms, you have a problem with your current software, we work with you to come up with solutions, and we handle developing and deploying that solution. After it’s in place, we are available for adjustments and support.
In this series, I’m going to walk through what this process looks like from start to finish. Before I get into Part 1, you might think that you need to know exactly what you need before contacting us; but this is not true! Part of what we do is examine your current processes, ask you what your pain points are, and determine what software solutions could help you out.
Examine Your Current Process
Examining what you are currently doing day-to-day can be a hard process from the inside, since you’ve possibly been doing the work for years, it might be hard to see where things can be better. Certain things might be obvious, but here I’ll go over what to do to determine something can be improved.
The Basic Questions to Ask Up Front Are:
What software are you currently using?
Are there things about it you would change?
What is the flow of data through the system?
First, look at what needs to happen for you to run your business and how you are accomplishing it. These can be legacy software systems you’ve always used, it can be heavy use of spreadsheets, or even pen and paper data that simply has not been converted digitally yet. Try to figure out what takes the most amount of your time – maybe it’s manual entry of data, or it is getting data from one place into another. Also take a look at what software you are using to accomplish those tasks – are they slow or outdated? Do they do what you expect and are nice to work with?
At this point in the process, it is also helpful to find areas where mistakes happen; Maybe some manual data entry is not 100% accurate. Maybe it is an old system where you always need to do a workaround to get the data to turn out correctly, and sometimes that workaround is missed or forgotten about. It could even be maintaining data in multiple systems not being perfectly synced up, where some departments think one thing when it is truly another. Mistakes and miscalculations can be costly, as we have seen time and time again in the software world, and these are things that can be fixed through better software solutions.
Workflows that you have been doing must have been working to a certain extent, otherwise you would not be where you are today. When we get started working with a client, we always make sure that required existing functionality is still there; we are looking to improve, streamline, and add consistency to your systems, replacing or adding software as needed. It has been proven time and time again that having fast, accurate data in your software solutions can save you much needed time and money.
If your current software solutions are slow, clunky, outdated, inconsistent, and are a pain to work with; you might need a new solution. Whether or not you know exactly what you need, let us help; we have the experience to design, develop and produce software that streamlines your systems to make it an ease to work with.
To recap part 1 of this series, here are several things that point towards needing better software.
A process takes too many steps or is time consuming
Manual entry takes too long and is error prone
Current solutions are clunky or outdated
Company-wide miscommunication
Inconsistent data across systems
You wish things would just work!
In part 2, we dive into an example of what we can do to help alleviate these issues.
In part 3, we go over what the design and development process looks like with EHTC Digital.
EHTC Digital is a certified Microsoft Dynamics Partner, with over 30 years of experience implementing and supporting Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM applications. Our team of software developers, business analysts and consultants can help you assess software solutions, implement, integrate and customize solutions to meet your objectives.