The Support Group Blog

The first-ever software dates back to the late 1940s and technology has experienced many quantum leaps since then.  It permeates virtually every aspect of society, from communication and entertainment, to education and business, and beyond. Frankly, technology, specifically software, can be the basis for success or failure, profit or loss, frustration or satisfaction.

Do you want custom software that fits your needs? It might not be as bank-breaking as you might suspect. Custom software development involves several factors that influence its cost.

Read on to learn all about custom software development cost factors.

Is your application in dire need of an update? With operating systems becoming more advanced and offering better app usability, ensuring our software performance and scalability are up to par is more important than ever. So, how exactly can we keep our custom software relevant? Here are some things to consider when an opportunity to upgrade or enhance our applications presents itself.

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, businesses today face several challenges in managing their digital assets. Among these challenges, one prominent issue often surfaces – data debt. Data debt results from poor data quality, mismanagement, or neglect, hindering business operations and decision-making. But, data debt does not have to be a terminal issue. We can tackle it by applying practical data conventions, implementing regular review and purge tactics, running system audits, etc.

One way leaders can spend more time working on their business rather than in their business is by automating repetitive tasks. Manual work negatively impacts productivity and frequently leads to errors. Technology can easily automate mundane tasks, freeing time to focus on product/service enhancements, customer engagement, resource optimization, etc.

Implementing software to automate operational workflows no longer has to be a bureaucratic and expensive undertaking. In addition, graphical user interfaces, cloud capabilities, and multiple platform compatibilities make business applications more accessible and comfortable for users.

There's virtually an app that will accomplish just about any task we can imagine these days. And, if an app only partially fulfills our requirements, other options exist.

Some of us lack patience when it comes to improving our workflows. That's why low-code development tools are a God send for citizen developers. They usually understand the true nature of their work and what it takes to improve their workflows. And when process experts directly or indirectly contribute to custom software development, the results are usually effective and fast. 

Nonetheless, it's not all roses and sunshine with citizen development. Citizen developers understand the tasks and processes needed for specific operations but may not understand the risk technology introduces to an organization, particularly when integrations are involved.

Fortunately, a solid low-code development tool will provide security features to protect organizational data. Let's review some of the low-code development safeguards to consider.

FileMaker developers are in high demand. As businesses realized the importance of technology during the pandemic, digitizing workflows immediately became a priority. As a result, developers were needed to build custom software that would allow both internal and external users to function as usual regardless of the COVID requirements. Despite the craziness, the pandemic presented an opportunity for us all to examine and improve our workflows. 

Every FileMaker developer's path is unique. We all have different strengths, skills, and interests. However, there are certain steps to take to make the professional development road more smooth and more direct. So, let's review some of the roles and responsibilities of a FileMaker developer.

Are you a small business seeking ways to grow? Or maybe you have an established business looking to improve operations and take things to the next level. Either way, a custom business app is definitely something to consider. So stop relying on spreadsheets and read on to learn how a custom app:

• Improves business operations
• Provides ease of use
• Secures your data

Low-code development platforms allow users to automate or streamline workflows. For example, an intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to turn a manual process or static spreadsheet into a dynamic application. That is the power of low-code development platforms.

One of the most attractive features of a low-code platform is that users don't have to be trained software developers. Instead, any necessary coding is usually done behind the scenes so that the user can focus on function rather than syntax. Yet, the platform can be flexible enough to accommodate code if the user prefers.

The primary advantage of building custom software is that it addresses a unique challenge. It's not often that a pre-made build fulfills our every need.

However, building that software requires a lot of communication and follow-up with end users. Organizations spend a lot of money making custom software, but it doesn't mean much if it goes unused. Therefore, end user adoption is vital for any product to succeed in the long run.

Here are some of the best practices for building an end user adoption strategy.

Low-code and no-code development platforms present a whole new way of solving business challenges in the digital workplace. Low-code and no-code tools allow the people doing the work – the process experts – to fix workflow and data hurdles instead of relying on internal IT departments or external developers to overcome them. 

The traditional ways of creating business apps require a deep technical understanding and aptitude to get started. So what invariably happens is that the process expert, who's directly involved with the data or workflow, is forced to translate all that tribal knowledge to the technical person. During this translation, material information can be lost and garbled, requiring multiple build and deploy cycles to filter out the noise.