Top 5 Industries Benefiting from Custom Application Development

Custom business applications are becoming increasingly important for companies who want to streamline their operations, better serve customers, or get an edge over the competition. As technology advances as quickly as it does, more and more industries are realizing that off-the-shelf software simply doesn’t work anymore. Custom-built applications are built to provide specific functionality and workflows to companies that have special needs.

While custom apps require more upfront investment, they deliver huge long-term value by enhancing productivity, reducing costs, and enabling new revenue opportunities. We look at five major industries reaping especially rich rewards from embracing custom applications development solutions.

1. Financial Services

One of the most highly regulated financial services spheres heavily relies on secure, accurate technologies to process sensitive client data and transactions. Out-of-the-box solutions simply don’t do enough to meet the unique and complex yet ever-changing needs of banks, insurance firms, investment companies, and other financial organizations.

Custom fintech development allows these businesses to integrate key functions while complying with government rules tightly. Applications can be designed to combat fraud, manage risk, provide personalized offerings, facilitate trades in microseconds, and more.

Some examples of custom apps in finance include:

• Client portals with easy-to-use interfaces for viewing financial positions.
• Back-office tools to efficiently manage trades, portfolios, loans, and day-to-day operations.
• Predictive analytics using AI and machine learning to make smarter decisions that keep institutions secure.

According to Vantage Market Research, the global fintech market is poised to balloon from $112.5 billion in 2021 to over $332 billion by 2028. Financial companies are hungry to harness new technologies to serve customers better and outperform the competition. Custom enterprise applications are answering the call by optimizing key processes to enable the next generation of financial services.

2. Healthcare

Healthcare organizations rely on the latest patient technologies to help improve lives. However, rigid regulatory standards combined with extremely sensitive personal health data make this sector ill-suited for generalized off-the-shelf software solutions.

Custom healthcare applications from companies like Langate allow providers and payers to address highly specific organizational and industry needs without compromising compliance or data security:

• Digital health records tailored to hospital systems’ or physician practices’ workflows, safely storing patient information in compliance with HIPAA rules.
• Custom CRM systems to manage patient communications and marketing.
• Precision medicine apps harnessing genomic data to provide personalized care for patients.
• Real-time data analytics to help healthcare administrators identify cost savings and quality improvements.
• mHealth apps enable patients to easily access medical guidance, test results, appointment reminders, and more.

According to Grand View Research, the global digital health market is expected to expand by a blistering 21.9% CAGR from 2022 to 2030, and solutions will enable healthcare organizations to tap into the vast potential of connected care.

3. Manufacturing & Heavy Industry

Industrial manufacturing involves extremely complex supply chains and production environments that are riddled with old-school, legacy technologies. Custom apps help transform these physical processes digitally, radically improving efficiency and visibility.

Modern manufacturers are leveraging custom solutions to enable crucial capabilities like:

• IoT platforms unite, coordinate, and optimize disparate machines on the factory floor.
• Inventory and assembly line management tools provide real-time supply chain transparency.
• AR/VR systems guide production workers through 3D processes.
• Quality assurance programs monitor equipment and performance end products to minimize defects.
• Custom analytics reveal hidden production bottlenecks and opportunities.

These technologies might require integration with assembly existing line machinery and backend systems, making custom development necessary. Custom manufacturing apps deliver outsized productivity gains and cost savings thanks to their specialized designs focused on individual factories’ or industrial companies’ needs.

Global IoT investment across manufacturing heavy, industry, and associated supply chain logistics organizations is projected to grow from around $64.8 billion presently to $153.2 billion by 2029, per MarketsandMarkets Research. This massive tech investment will be largely funneled toward custom innovation tailored to industrial companies’ unique requirements.

4. Retail & eCommerce

Fiercely competitive retail and eCommerce brands know they need to leverage advanced technologies to differentiate themselves. However, much like industrial manufacturing, it involves significant retail legacy systems and specialized needs poorly addressed by generic market solutions.

Custom apps enable retailers to turn tech into a competitive advantage by building like capabilities:

• Omnichannel retail platforms provide seamless shopping experiences across brick-and-mortar and digital channels.
• Mobile apps allow deeper, more personalized customer engagement via smartphones.
• Order management tools streamline fulfillment across supply and chain inventory.
• Payment solutions tailored to merchants’ checkout preferences and security needs.
• Custom loyalty programs incentivize repeat purchases.
• AR/VR applications enable virtual try-ons, in-home previews, and digital in-store experiences.

Custom development allows them to build the ideal shopping experience from front to back tailored to their brand and customers.

5. Media & Entertainment

Media and entertainment companies live and die on their ability to engage and retain fickle modern audiences. To cut through the noise common and attention in the age of infinite digital distraction, they need platforms offering new levels of personalization, interactivity, and dynamic content.

Custom streaming apps, digital publications, AR/VR experiences, and related solutions enable them to deliver unique, tailored offerings like:

• OTT streaming platforms are built to specifications, serving up video content in the way modern audiences want.
• News/magazine reader apps optimized for digital content experience on mobile devices.
• Immersive games content/ leveraging emerging AR, VR, and 3D technologies.
• Targeted advertising platforms integrating captive messaging into digital content experiences.
• Unique social media networks and community apps tailored to niche audience interests.

As consumers grow accustomed to hyper-customized digital experiences, media and entertainment companies are unleashing developers’ creativity to build the next generation of captivating apps and platforms. Market research firm Statista estimates global spending on streaming digital entertainment will surge from around $108.50 billion in 2021 to over $137.70 billion by 2027, a blistering 8.27% CAGR.

Driving Rapid Growth with Custom Development

While off-the-shelf software still powers many baseline business functions, companies across industries are realizing they need custom innovation to compete at a higher level. Purpose-built applications optimize operations and open up new opportunities through groundbreaking digital capabilities and experiences.

And the data clearly shows that companies investing in custom development are outperforming their peers:

A McKinsey study of more than 300 public companies found that those in the top quartile for technology spending grew revenue more than five times faster and drove growth earnings eight times higher than the industry average over five years. Much of this technology investment went toward specialized innovation.

A McKinsey report revealed that organizations with custom applications saw higher revenue growth than competitors that relied more on out-of-the-box solutions.

The potential benefits for companies embracing custom apps include:

• Radically improved productivity, efficiency, and cost savings thanks to optimized workflows and processes.
• New revenue opportunities are available through unique digital and tech emerging capabilities.
• Tighter customer relationships and brand affinity are driven by tailored, engaging experiences.
• Competitive differentiation and shifts to higher-margin business models or value propositions.
• Future-proofed operations with solutions scalable to support continued innovation and changing needs.

With the proliferation of digital transformation, these gains often translate into rapid growth. The most successful modern businesses take charge of their digital destiny with custom platforms engineered for their goals.

Choosing the Right Developer for Custom Business Applications

However, finding the right developer is crucial to fully maximizing the potential of custom apps. Since these solutions are so engrained in core business capabilities, specialized institutional knowledge and technical experience are must-haves.

Warning signs of inexperienced or ill-suited developers include:

• Inability to write a technical feature based on business needs.
• Rushing developers into roles that are not a good fit for them.
• Lack of documents of code and development process.
• Poor project scoping; inability to provide reasonable timeline budget estimates.
• Lack of strong change management processes once an app has been launched.

Instead, search for proven experts that:

• Specialize as a required developer for complex project requirements.
• Built similar apps in the past and have experienced accelerating timelines.
• Extracting needs and closely partnering with stakeholders across the business.
• Look ahead to improvements with modular or service-oriented architectures.
• To allow knowledge transfer so that companies can sustain applications.

It is also ideal for developers to pay due attention to adopting agile, iterative development. This enables apps to grow rapidly through constant feedback and refinements in continuation with launches.

For most companies, the technical lift required for custom platforms demands outside help from expert development teams with demonstrated experience in engineering formative trans business applications. Specialized consultants and dev shops will help minimize costs and execution risk while leveraging the best industry-leading practices.

Prioritizing Custom Development Now Pays Long-Term Dividends

Today, in the highly competitive, increasingly tech-centric business landscape, custom applications are a must to stay in the race. Of course, funding innovation initiatives remains a perennial challenge, especially with uncertain macroeconomic crosswinds causing many leaders to pull back on tech investments.

However, companies doubling down on custom platforms and digital capabilities now will reap huge advantages once conditions improve. Purpose-built apps drive efficiencies and unlock new opportunities that more timid competitors simply can not match.

Leading enterprises are taking the long view, leveraging custom development to future-proof operations:

• Financial are cutting organizations building-edge fintech to provide elite personalized services and experiences. This establishes loyal customer bases, valuable brands for a lifetime, and higher values. Manufacturers are piloting shop-connected floors and supply chain solutions. Those moving first will realize dramatic productivity gains and cost savings their industry peers will struggle to match.
• Retailers pursuing custom mobile and web advancements will have a head start on capturing surging eCommerce growth as buyer preferences continue to shift online.

In a post-pandemic world marked by tech-empowered consumers and ever-rising customer expectations, off-the-shelf software just won’t cut it anymore for serious enterprises. Even in the midst of near-term belt-tightening, companies that invest in custom innovation today will reap outsized returns for many years to come. Prioritizing purpose-built platforms tailored exactly to organizations’ needs is now a competitive necessity, just not a strategic advantage.

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