Bespoke, but Broken: Why Custom Software Often Fails Small Businesses

When SMEs begin to seek tailored software to suit their processes they often come to a fork in the road: find developers who provide custom software, or employ an off-the-shelf model of software. Resources that can be found easily online, ideal for small business just looking for a place to start, detail the pros and cons of these competing models. However, muddied by lists of pros and cons, basic descriptions of how the two square up are hard to find. So let’s break down how the often appealing and recommended custom software model is perhaps falling short of off-the-shelf systems for SMEs. 

Goldilocks and the custom software problem

Custom software is described within industry as tailored, bespoke, built-for-purpose - all terms encouraging the belief that it provides end-to-end solutions that fit like a glove. However, we might question whether the epithet at hand - custom - correctly represents the overarching experience of implementing this type of software. 

In a to-remain-unnamed article detailing the advantages and disadvantages of custom software, absolute statements describe its scalability, ‘expanding to meet new demands with ease’ and the reassurance that comes with having developers on hand for continued support. This charming endorsement is followed by a short note on the extensive cost and time required by the process, left in the fine print, as it often is by developers. 

Many similar articles written around the subject of custom vs off-the-shelf software (OTS) favour custom solutions, chalking the flaws found in OTS down to a lack of human attention present. After reading these articles, I was often navigated to ‘Our Services’ pages, to find…you guessed it…custom software development on offer, leading me to reconsider whether I had been provided with an objective account of the pros and cons that come with each type of system. 

Hybrid IT services identify 7 major problems that can arise during custom software development, with many of them related to strengths listed in articles favouring, and selling, the format. The dependence on individual developers required by custom software leaves space for problems to arise via management changes, a lack of support availability and testing, potentially due to developers juggling multiple builds at once and becoming spread thin. Moreover, when issues surface regarding integration or maintenance, it becomes clear that systems supposedly built to perfectly facilitate a businesses needs can fall short, leading to more hours required of developers and a bill that grows faster than the system itself. 

When the system can’t grow fast enough, failing to keep up with emerging innovations and shifting desires, commissioners are left with a chunk of software that can no longer support them, requiring the baby to be thrown out with the bath water. Having racked up a rather large tab during the process of continuously altering software in the attempt to make it truly custom to their needs, buyers are forced to begin the cycle again. We all know what Einstein said about repeating the same actions and expecting different results, so how might we break this pattern? 

How does OTS tackle this?

Let’s use this background to explore off-the-shelf software a more practical solution, particularly for SMEs. Whilst custom software often comes with a long and laborious waiting period before implementation can take place, OTS software can slot into place almost instantly. A common fear for those contemplating OTS implementation is that it cannot provide the flexibility that custom software can, due to the supposed lack of human support or ‘touch’ within OTS. In reality, particularly when employing specialised OTS systems such as claims processing software, there are always support teams present.

If we consider widely known examples of OTS software such as Microsoft Teams or Google Classroom, support outlets, through phone, email or AI chatbots, are familiar to us. During the pandemic when many businesses were forced to rely on these solutions, people learned how to integrate them within their existing business, utilising information pages and help features to do so. Scaling this down to specialised OTS software, this support is even more accessible. Small teams, direct methods of communication and amendments to existing software easily recommendable by users. OTS providers have the capability of meeting user needs through the reconfiguration of existing code, rather than wasting time and money uprooting code entirely, preventing software from becoming a hodgepodge of amended features that eventually leave it unrecognisable. 

Surely there is a gap between what OTS can offer and what businesses want? 

Short answer, yes. OTS caters to anyone and everyone who uses it and, as their individual clients businesses are not identical, gaps can appear between processes and solutions. But if we refer back to where custom falls short, requiring expensive re-writes to try and meet each minute detail of a teams desired process, this gap is shared between the two software types. 

The key difference here is convenience. Why sacrifice the cost and time required by custom solutions if it meets the same mark as OTS software? The chances are your business has adapted slightly to suit other OTS systems like CRMs already, gradually figuring out the tips and tricks needed to optimise its usage by employees. Whilst users adapt, so can the software, with this idea of there being no ‘man behind the curtain’ proving to be false within smaller, streamlined providing companies.

In the end, the search for the “just right” software solution isn’t about choosing between custom and off-the-shelf, but about recognising what truly serves the business in front of you. For many organisations, especially SMEs, the practicality, speed, and affordability of OTS software far outweigh the illusion of perfection promised by bespoke builds. Like Goldilocks, businesses must test what’s available, adapt where needed, and settle on what fits comfortably enough to grow with them, rather than chasing a tailor-made solution that may never quite deliver on its promise.