Over the years, we have worked with our clients to determine the best way to achieve their business goals. Many times this has led to comparing the benefits and costs of custom development, versus purchasing off-the-shelf software, or vertical market apps (software built for a specific industry). This is what we’ve found:
COST
Frequently the cost to develop can be competitive or even less than “vertical market” apps – i.e. those created specifically for one industry. This is because:
- We have the experience and the tools to create solutions that incorporate previous development.
- FileMaker is designed as a Rapid Application Development environment (RAD), allowing us to build custom solutions much faster than most other development languages.
ROI: The cost is less for both fixed upfront and recurring costs – these are hard costs that are relatively easy to determine when calculating ROI.
PRODUCTIVITY
The solutions we develop are exactly custom to the way you work – you don’t need to compromise the way to you work to fit another company’s perception of what your workflow SHOULD look like. Our experience is that every company has its own culture and ways of working that rarely fit into the confines of a pre-built solution.
ROI: This represents perpetual cost savings year-over-year for the long term for your company – harder to analyze, but arguably more important and relevant to why you want to invest in new software in the first place.
FLEXIBILITY
If you have any exceptions to your workflow, or need to change an aspect of how the system works in the future, the solutions we build are adaptable very quickly, both as we’re building it for you, and years after you’ve been using it. This is because:
- We are not locked into source code that has to fit many customers, as vertical market apps are.
- The FileMaker platform is designed for immediate, on-the-fly modifications. So one-off changes can be made directly to your hosted app.
SUPPORT
- We know the solutions we develop inside and out. When you reach out for support, the actual developer and project manager is available to support you, not an outsourced support line.
- Paradise Partners as been in incorporated for 13 years, and many of our customers go back 25 years with us.
- There is a network of thousands of FileMaker developers worldwide.
- FileMaker, Inc. is an an Apple subsidiary that has been independently profitable year-over-year since it’s incorporation in 1998.
- This idea of personal, one-on-one support, coupled with our strong history, and the extended FileMaker development network, provides the confidence that the software you’re using will continue to be supported and to grow as your company grows and changes.
