The most complex of all markets however is the SMB, or small and medium sized business, space for many different reasons. The key one however is down to the nature of their core business software.
Although it is not true of every SMB, most businesses of this size exist because they fill a niche that cannot be provided by a larger business. This could be due to their unique products, a specialist need they fulfil or the outstanding level of customer service they provide. As a result, their software and IT systems have been moulded to fit around the business’ needs, possibly with bespoke software or custom applications. As a result, moving the Cloud is made much more difficult.
This cannot last forever though. If you are going to continue to thrive as a business in the future you have to be adaptable and agile and without the right cloud IT and software strategy this simply won’t happen.
The Critical Question: Does your business fit your software or does your software fit your business?
I’ve worked in the software and IT industry to know that small and medium businesses are the most demanding type of customers, bar none. I admire the desire and doggedness that business owners have to run their businesses exactly how they want to because they know their industry and their specialisms inside out.
However, I have also seen this approach hold businesses back because they simply can’t find software solutions which meet their needs 100%. As a result they are reliant on bespoke software and multiple software packages just to ensure that the operational side of their business runs smoothly. But this comes at a cost.
The first cost is (actual) cost. Developing and modifying software to meet your exact needs is without doubt the least cost-effective way of purchasing software. Not only that, but it also means that you have unique software which needs supporting and updating, which can typically only be done by the authors of your bespoke software, locking your commitment to a single company. It also means that unless you request them (and pay for them) you won’t be getting any other functionality improvements for the life of your software.
Bespoke software also makes it much more difficult to move to the cloud. Unless it has been designed to be implemented through cloud hosting its likely you’ll need more development and more updates, increasing costs even further.
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