How to prevent off-the-shelf software from costing you your competitive edge
Michiel Walsteijn
CEO
Pro Tips
You want to beat the market. You want to be faster, smarter, and better than your competitors.
That becomes difficult, however, if all your processes run on an off-the-shelf software package that anyone can buy. As soon as you fully adapt your processes to your off-the-shelf software, your distinctiveness goes through the meat grinder and disappears into a bland uniformity.
A waste. And completely unnecessary. Even if you do want to leverage the advantages of an off-the-shelf software package.
An off-the-shelf software package certainly has its value
I have nothing against off-the-shelf software packages at all. In fact, in various professional chapters, I have implemented and even built them myself. For your financial administration, your HR, and your core processes, they are an excellent choice. The same goes for vertical applications. Thousands of companies run on them successfully, all the teething troubles have long been ironed out, and all laws and regulations are built in. Why reinvent the wheel?
You just don't want to squeeze every topic into an off-the-shelf package. And you don't have to at all!
Build custom solutions on top of your standard package
Many organizations think they have to choose: standard or custom. This is mainly due to the fear that extensive customization will prevent you from upgrading the standard package and require you to rebuild the custom work with every new release. However, you can combine the two perfectly by building a flexible layer of custom applications on top of your standard package. We call this composable ERP. You use a standard ERP (which can also be a vertical ERP) for the core processes. For your unique processes, you develop custom software that runs on top of your ERP and communicates with it via message exchange (“loosely coupled”). This way, you get the best of both worlds.
How we put that into practice for clients
This might all sound a bit abstract. That's why I'd like to take you through three of our clients. Three completely different companies, each of which strengthened their distinctive edge with custom software.
Interfood trades dairy globally and, together with us, developed a marketplace and parts of their back office with which they can serve clients and suppliers even better and faster. When we asked if we could also offer this software to other parties in their market, the answer was a clear no. They view this software as an essential part of their competitive advantage.
Grant Thornton must, like every accounting firm, thoroughly vet new clients before taking them on. That process is known as Know Your Customer. Various firms do this with manual checklists, emails, and Excel files. Available off-the-shelf solutions fell short. Grant Thornton fully automated this process together with us. As a result, a mandatory task that everyone has to do became a process that, in their own words, sets them apart from every other firm in the market.
And then there is a large tire wholesaler. Their promise to clients: we respond to virtually every request within 24 hours, preferably even on the same day. They looked seriously at off-the-shelf software packages, even conducting multiple vendor selections. The conclusion was always the same: with standard processes from an off-the-shelf package, they could not deliver on that promise. For them, purchasing, sales, warehousing, and logistics interlock so specifically that they deliberately chose custom development for these components, using standard solutions only for the remaining processes.
Good custom software strengthens your competitive edge
You now understand that you don't have to squeeze your distinctive processes into a standard mold. That is the highway to mediocrity. But how do you ensure that you build custom software that strengthens your competitive edge rather than dilutes it?
We stick to 5 rules for this:
1. We never just build something
Clients often approach us with requests like: "We want an application with functionality X, Y, and Z." We will never simply build that right away. First, we ask the tough questions. Why is this specific functionality needed? What is the question behind the question? What really makes this process stand out in your market? By applying the design thinking methodology and probing critically, we discover together with the client what the business truly needs to gain that competitive advantage.
2. We involve the right people
To arrive at genuinely distinctive software, you need various perspectives at the table. End users know better than anyone where the bottlenecks in current processes lie and can properly assess whether the new application works well. Management has insight into the market and a vision for where the organization needs to go. Designers and Business Analysts excel at gathering and aligning all that input, and subsequently design the solution. Architects know what is technically feasible and how it should be built.
3. We visualize the solution
The traditional IT world loves thick stacks of paper, filled with written-out user stories, for example. People are then expected to understand how the software will look in practice and how it will help them based on those dry texts. We create those user stories, too (nowadays with AI). But above all, we like to visualize the solution in interactive prototypes containing data. That way, every stakeholder at the table immediately understands how the new software will support the business process.
4. We consider integration from day one
You don't want your custom software to operate as an isolated island. You want to be able to use data from your standard software suite in your custom software, and vice versa. That's why we involve Tech Leads from the start to investigate integration with your existing systems. They do this right from the initial prototypes, and certainly not just at the end when everything has already been built.
5. We leverage AI for speed and a WOW factor
A competitive edge also requires speed. That is why we use AI during development with Outsystems, Microsoft, and our proprietary Native AI platform. To maintain high quality, we apply specialized methods and techniques in conjunction with the underlying platform. The underlying platform plays a crucial role in this.
For end users, we deploy AI whenever the use case calls for it. Often, this delivers not only a competitive advantage, but also a WOW factor.
Why you need a specialized partner for this
You don't just build this kind of distinctive software overnight. We are talking about systems that your organization is completely dependent on. That have to run 24/7, serve many users simultaneously, and process sensitive data. That comes with significant responsibility.
What you need is a rare combination. Design thinking, to quickly get to the core of what is truly necessary and distinctive. Technical expertise, to then build it properly and quickly. And the capacity to maintain the system afterward and continue taking responsibility for it.
You will find that combination at Team Resilience. The founders come from the world of large enterprises and business-critical software. The people we hire are selected for this specialization. And our way of working has been designed for it from the very beginning.
What makes you unique?
That is the question I would like to leave you with. Which themes set your company apart from the competition? And are those themes currently getting the software they deserve, or are they stuck in standard off-the-shelf software?
Would you like to bounce some ideas around on this? Then I'd love to hear from you.
