There are three ways to get business software. You can download something free, subscribe to a product, or have software built for you. Each has its place, and each has costs that are easy to miss.
We sit on both sides of this question. 30Days Technologies runs seven software products, from GST billing and payroll to manufacturing ERP, and we also build custom ERP and software for clients. We have no reason to push you one way, so this guide sets out how we think about the decision.
When a product is enough
Start with a product if most of these are true:
- Your process is common to many businesses: GST billing, payroll, attendance, a sales pipeline
- The rules come from outside your business, such as GST or PF, and a product vendor keeps up with them for every customer
- You need to be working in days or weeks, not months
- You would rather pay a subscription than fund a build
- You are willing to adjust small habits to fit the software
A product spreads its development cost across many customers, so you pay only a share of it. You also get updates and fixes you never had to specify.
When a product stops fitting
The warning signs usually show up on the shop floor or in the accounts office before anyone calls them a software problem:
- Your team keeps a spreadsheet next to the software, because the software cannot hold something they need
- The same data is typed into two or three systems that do not talk to each other
- Your workflow is specific to your business, and the product forces you to change how the plant, warehouse or site works
- You have outgrown the product’s plan or design, and moving on means starting again on a new platform
- You need several departments or business types on one system, and no single product covers them
If you recognise two or more of these, it is worth pricing a custom build, or a custom module that works alongside a product.
What custom software gives you
A custom system is designed around your processes, not around a generic business. In practice that means:
- Fit: screens and steps follow how your people already work, so training is shorter and the workarounds disappear
- Integration: it can be built to exchange data with the systems you already rely on, such as Tally, Excel or older software
- Growth: new modules can be added as the business grows, on the same data
- Ownership: you own the source code, so you can change the software, or hand it to another team, without asking anyone’s permission
- Direct support: problems go to the team that built the system and knows the code
What it costs, honestly
Custom software is not always expensive, but it always involves trade-offs.
- Cost follows complexity. A simple app that shows your products costs far less than one with online payments built in, because payments need more design, testing and security work.
- One client carries the whole cost. With a product, that cost is shared across every customer.
- It takes longer to start. Requirements have to be studied and agreed before the build, and that takes your team’s time as well as ours.
- It needs maintenance. All software needs fixes, updates and changes after launch, so plan for them from the first day.
The payoff is software that matches your business closely. The time spent on requirements up front is what makes that possible, so don’t treat it as a delay.
The middle path
The choice is not always all or nothing. Many businesses do well with a product for the standard work and a custom system for the part that is unique to them. A manufacturer might run payroll on a product and build a custom module for job cards and dispatch. Others start with the modules that hurt most today and extend the same system department by department.
How we run a custom build
When a custom build is the right answer, we follow the same steps every time, so you always know what happens next:
- Discovery: we visit your site or run structured calls to map how work actually moves today.
- Fixed-price proposal: modules, deliverables, timeline and payment milestones, written down before the build starts.
- Sprints with demos: we build in short sprints and demo working software on a staging system at the end of each one.
- Data migration: masters, opening balances and history move across from Tally, Excel or your current system, checked with your team.
- UAT and go-live: your team tests the system, then we go live with our engineers on standby.
- Training and support: role-based training in Hindi and English, and 12 months of post-go-live support on custom ERP projects.
When the project is complete, the source code is yours, so there is no dependency on us to run or change the software.
Questions to settle before you decide
- Which parts of our process are standard, and which are specific to us?
- Have we tried a product properly, with our own data, or only seen a demo?
- What are the current workarounds costing us in staff time and errors?
- Who on our team can give time to requirements and testing?
- Who will maintain the software after launch?
