You have a specific need: tracking stock, managing files, receiving requests online. Two routes are open. A packaged product, whose content is already defined. Or a bespoke application, designed for you. Neither is better on principle. The right choice depends on your situation, and a few questions are enough to shed light on it.
Two different approaches
A packaged product meets a common need. Its scope, timeframe and entry price are known before starting. In return, you partly adapt your ways of working to the tool.
A bespoke application starts from your actual operations. The tool adapts to you. In return, the project requires more time and more availability from your teams, and its budget depends on what you ask for.
The criteria that matter
- How specific the need is. Is your way of working common to your sector, or does it really set you apart?
- The timeframe. Do you need a tool within a few weeks, or can you build over several months?
- The budget over time. Maintenance, enhancements and training come on top of the initial price.
- Existing systems. Must the tool exchange data with your accounting, your personnel management or another piece of software?
- Foreseeable change. Are your volumes, departments or rules going to change soon?
- Your in-house resources. Who, on your side, will follow the project and then keep the tool alive?
Five questions to ask yourself before deciding
- Can you describe your need on one page, with examples of real situations?
- What is indispensable from day one, and what can wait?
- Does an existing product cover most of what is indispensable?
- Are you ready to change a working habit to save time and budget?
- Who, on your side, will decide during the project, and with what availability?
If you struggle to answer the first two, the need is not yet mature. It is better to clarify it before comparing offers.
When packaged is enough, when bespoke is needed
The packaged product is suitable when your need resembles that of many other organisations: an institutional website, an audit, a training course, a document assistant. You benefit from a framework that is already proven and from a clear schedule.
Bespoke is needed when your process is particular, when several user profiles must work together, or when the tool must connect to systems already in place. Take a distribution SME that manages delivery rounds, customer-specific discounts and stock spread across several depots: a standard tool may force it to work around its own rules.
There is a middle route: start with a simple tool, for a specific need, then extend it. An application does not need to be vast to be useful. As for AI, it only makes sense in an application if it meets a real need. Otherwise, it is better not to add it.
What to require of a provider
Whichever route you choose, certain requirements protect you. Have them written into the contract.
- The source code. For a bespoke application, its transfer must be formalised. Without it, you cannot change provider.
- The documentation. Technical for those who will maintain the tool, practical for those who will use it.
- Training. For users, and for the person who will administer the application.
- A written scope and costing, with what is included and what is not.
- Regular demonstrations during the build, to correct early rather than late.
- Retrieval of your data, in a format you can read elsewhere.
- The terms of maintenance after delivery.
A good provider makes you autonomous: source code, documentation and training are the proof of it.
The two routes at MOKILIX
MOKILIX offers both. On one side, twelve packaged products, with a stated scope, timeframe and entry price. On the other, when no product fits, our bespoke software development area of expertise: specifications, architecture, development, testing, documentation and maintenance.
Between the two, MOKILIX APP MÉTIER covers business applications for iOS, Android and the web, from 8,500,000 FCFA excl. VAT, in 12 to 24 weeks. In every case, the project begins with two weeks of scoping, priced according to the analysis of your need. It ends with the documentation, team training and the transfer of the source code. To discuss it, you can request scoping.
