Balancing Business Process Analysis with Custom Software Solutions: CEO’s Perspective

In today’s competitive market, all business owners must know how to keep up.

Business Process Analysis is the only way to constant improvements.

The name speaks for itself, BPA is a regular analysis of business processes to define inefficiencies to fix and weaknesses to strengthen.

If BPA is the way to spot the deficiencies, what’s the way to get rid of them?

Custom Software Solutions is a way to go (whether it’s a web or a mobile application).

Let’s dive deeper.

Сustom Software Solutions in Business Success: what’s the importance?

Every business uses technology, in one way or another.

I mean, from basic things like serving tables & payment systems in food industry businesses, to large corporations using software to store data, perform tasks, and achieve business goals.

However, if you want to take your business to the next level, you may want to consider custom software applications.

The list of benefits is endless, so let’s summarize.

A tailored solution that meets specific business requirements boosts its efficiency, improves overall performance, and enhances user experience.

Thus, your business is while staying competitive among rivals and appealing to users.

Custom software solutions are perfect for upscaling your business, but with business analysis, it turns into a strong strategic tool.

Business Process Analysis in Custom Solution Software: what’s the connection?

As mentioned, custom software solutions are already a way to improve any business.

Still, with BPA, the software ensures that the custom software development team is focusing on specific needs and features to improve all business operations overall.

✔️Tailored solution for tailored needs

No business is like any other, still, business analysis lays out specific insights for the custom-build solution to be tailored exactly

✔️Reduce the routine

Automation is another trend in today’s digital world that optimizes processes and costs.

Business analysis spots repetitive tasks in the business workflows, for the custom software solution to automate.

✔️Scalability & Flexibility

When investing in bespoke solutions, nobody wants a one-time gain, but continuous improvement.
Business grows, and so do its needs, which no one other than business analysts can predict, for the development team to keep in mind too.

✔️Strategic Decisions

Once again, proper analysis reveals strengths AND weaknesses, for the software developers to focus on when building software.

✔️Continuous improvement

I think I mentioned this one too, anyhow, both business analysis and custom software are meant to ensure business development permanently.

✔️Cost

Last, but not least, cost is what matters throughout all business operations.
As with automatization, BPA spots the areas where costs can be saved without sacrificing efficiency. Custom software, in turn, focuses on these areas.

Make or buy: strategic outsourcing

No business is the best at everything, and that’s why strategic outsourcing is a thing.

Strategic outsourcing is an approach that allows you to delegate, whether the reason is a lack of resources or time.

There are various destinations, like business processes outsourcing for hiring a dedicated team of specialists in various fields, including the mentioned business analysts.

One of the most popular ones is (obviously) IT outsourcing. That’s where you find custom application development services to make your custom solution.

How to balance: main strategies to achieve business goals

• Cost Efficiency strategy: Identify the cost

First on the list, as every business minds its budget.

Cost efficiency, and even project cost alone is one of the key stakeholders in the final decision of software implementation into your business.

Here, you need to take into consideration development & integration, and operational optimization cost.

The entire development process is big-budget, starting with research and development expenses, deployment of the final product, and its integration, don’t forget the operational optimization, ongoing maintenance, updates, and some additional features.

It’s important here to count not money, but their value.

Use TVM (Time Value of Money), NPV (Net Present Value), and IRR (Internal Rate of Return) to evaluate whether the cost invested in the custom software development process is justified by the revenue and benefits it will get you.

Do not forget to calculate software ROI too.

ROI (Return Of Investment) = Investment Net Benefit / Cost of the Investment.

Actually, it is the most significant one to consider.

By calculating software ROI you’ll see if strategic outsourcing works for you, and if software development project costs are reasonable, along with risk assessment and continuous improvements (that are the next strategies here⬇️).

• Risks Assessment Strategy: Identify, Analyze, Prioritize

Risk is a part of every business.

Evaluating potential risks gives a lot in achieving balance in business analysis and software development.

To identify potential risks you should consider a lot of things, like industry trends, market dynamics, but first and foremost your business goals.

Thus, you will be able to analyze, prioritize, and finally manage the risks relevant to you.

As for the software development process, there are other risks to consider: development issues, delays, and cost; risk of the final product not meeting your primary goal; risk of getting negative user experience and customer feedback; application security; and the list goes on.

And not to mention IT outsourcing is full of risks too: communication misunderstandings, security, lack of control, and honestly plenty of others, if you don’t know how to manage the risks.

The approach is the same: identify, analyze, prioritize, and finally take action.

• Continuous Improvement Strategies

Here we go again.

Though, continuous improvement is involved in every strategy (including the ones I mentioned), and still is a strategy itself.

Going back to the Business Process Analysis, its main purpose is to seek a way to improve.

Thus, business analysts should predict business growth for the development team to include in custom software.

Scalability and flexibility are one of the main things

Additionally, regular review of all the processes is another approach to continuous improvement. Recalculating the mentioned software ROI, reassuring its cost value, reviewing operational optimization, etc.

💡Extra Tip: Collaboration between Business Analysts and Development team

In short: get your business analysts to work with the development team regularly.

The effectiveness of their collaboration of these is mentioned throughout this whole article, so, give it a thought.

To sum Up

Striking the perfect balance between business process analysis and strategic outsourcing for custom software solutions development is vital for anyone and anything aiming to achieve business goals. A strategic approach including cost-effectiveness, risk assessment, and continuous improvement is the way to get the balance and keep your business up.