Why small businesses are outgrowing off-the-shelf software

Take a look at how people work, and you can usually see where their software has failed them. Indeed, manual work is part of running any company. But the risk grows when a temporary workaround becomes essential to daily operations.

 

Today, only one in seven business owners feel well served by the software available to them. Of those who were poorly served, 27% depended on manual processes that became harder to sustain as they grew. Another 27% used SaaS products that never fit their needs, while 33% found no workable solution. Where do businesses turn to next?

 

The technology stack nobody planned

To buy, configure or build a new Saas - one of the biggest questions facing businesses when it comes to improving operations. The answer lies in looking at the process leaders are trying to improve. If an established product handles it well, buying will usually be the most efficient choice.

 

Yet, businesses might face an issue of fragmented technology stacks, which build up as companies solve problems at different stages of growth. Each product may work as promised. The frustration sits in the handovers between them, where employees have to remember which information belongs where and what needs to happen next. That work takes time, yet it seldom appears in the cost of the technology stack. Moreover, the only reason businesses continue using the tech subscription, despite it being a poor fit, is that they have had nowhere else to go.

 

Configuration works when a product is broadly suitable, and the remaining gaps can be addressed without leaving employees to perform extensive manual work. The important test is whether those accommodations will remain manageable as the company grows.

 

Building deserves consideration when the process is particular to the business and the software gap creates a recurring operational problem. Leaders should weigh the value of solving it against the responsibility they will take on after launch. If nobody can own the application, maintain it or oversee access, the business is not ready to depend on it.

 

Bespoke development has always been available to businesses with sufficient money and patience. Yet, agency quotes could be between $5,000 and $100,000 for a basic build, with a median of $20,000, and delivery taking from several months to more than a year. Whether it’s the cost or time, it’s a high price to pay for small businesses, especially given current economic constraints.

 

This is why a third of businesses eventually built an alternative that specifically solved their problems.

 

What AI-assisted development changes

Who knows the business better than its founder, day in and day out? This is exactly the kind of power that AI-assisted software development gives to businesses. Even without a coding background, leaders can take a more active role in creating the software, using their knowledge of the company to shape how it should work.

 

That direct involvement is useful because small-business processes are often full of details that are difficult to explain in a conventional specification. It also makes iteration more practical. Where development through an agency usually stops when the project is finished, operators can see how an application performs in the business and keep working on it after launch. Indeed, according to our research, 21% of founders retired a manual process after building, while a third created something for which no workable solution had previously existed.

 

A working application still needs an owner

For a business owner, launching the application is the point at which a useful build becomes an operating commitment. If it takes payments or holds customer information, a single fault can interrupt sales or prevent employees from doing their jobs. Every application analysed used a database by default, while approximately 59% connected to at least one external service. Owners therefore need to understand what the application can access, who can alter it and which parts of the business would be affected if it became unavailable.

 

Security decisions should follow the way the application is used. An internal tool holding limited information will require a different level of control from a customer-facing system processing payments. Access should be restricted to the people who need it, with a clear decision-maker for any change involving customer data or financial transactions. Business owners should also know whether they can easily remove former employees and whether more than one trusted person has administrative access.

 

Maintenance is a question of business continuity as much as technology. A process may change after a new service is introduced or an external integration is updated. Someone needs to check that the application still reflects how the company works and deal with problems when it does not. If all of that knowledge remains with the employee who created the first version, their departure could leave the business running software that nobody else fully understands.

 

However, it doesn’t mean that small companies need a committee now for every application. But they do need a named owner, a record of who has access and enough documentation for another person to take over. Regular reviews should consider whether the tool is still useful, whether its permissions remain appropriate and whether the business could keep operating if it failed. Those are ordinary management questions, and treating them that way is what makes custom software sustainable.

 

Today, AI-assisted development gives small businesses far more control over one of the biggest influences on how they operate. By removing the manual work built up around them, it creates room to serve customers better and grow without adding administration at the same rate. AI can put custom software within reach; whether it becomes a commercial advantage or another liability remains a management decision, and something that every small business needs to carefully manage.

 

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Mukund Jha is co-founder of AI-powered development platform Emergent

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and  Diy13