Creatology specialise in custom designed software carefully crafted to meet the needs of your business. Whatever type of software you need, we can help you plan an affordable route to achieve the system you desire. More importantly, we will support and expand your system throughout its life span as your business needs grow and develop.
The difference you’ll find with Creatology is that we always design our software to be centred on people. We pay particular attention to usability – ensuring that your employees feel at home as soon as they use your software. This means automating repetitive and boring tasks so that your staff can concentrate on their core skills.
We put you firmly in control. All major design decisions are always agreed with you as the system develops from your idea, to a fully written specification, to a prototype and finally to a fully working system.
Why Custom Software?
Every person is different. Every business is different. Why are we all using the same software?
There are always going to be core areas where using good quality mass-produced software makes total sense. There is no reason for example to write a Word Processor or a Spread Sheet program when extremely good software already exists. However, when you get away from these “common tasks” that all businesses require, there are always areas where your business needs specialist software or even just to extend the capabilities of the system you already have (often based on customising your existing software). This may be for something as simple as easy to use data-input or for something as complex as software that can make decisions for employees (for example extending credit to customers based on their trading history with you).
Most of the time the reasons we choose software are because of cost, what reviews we’ve read, personal recommendations or not knowing all the available options. Often small businesses simply use the software that comes supplied to them with their computer systems. The problem is that there is a host of reasonably priced off-the-shelf software that can be tweaked to give you a reasonably workable solution. However, often you end up altering the way you run your business because of the software, rather than the software moulding to suit how you would like to work. As you have a growing and successful business, it is often difficult to commit to changing things if “it works ok”.
Customised software means designing a system built to meet your needs only and not the other 3 million customers of an off-the-shelf product. It will only have the features you require and be as easy to use as is possible. How about the cost? Well, consider the costs of existing options. You either need to know how to set things up, invest time learning about it, or employ someone to do this for you. The off-the-shelf price may be simple to understand but the eventual total is often underestimated.
The time and effort expended to get a reasonable system up and running is more than you might initially think. Are you sure that the vendor of this product will not keep you on the upgrade cycle … version 2007, 2013, 2016? How much is the real cost to stay compatible with your clients and suppliers? What happens when you need to change things or expand the system? The main difficulty is that costs are not always up-front or simple to account for. You should consider these costs when conducting a cost benefit comparison.
The custom solution?
Maybe you are concerned with reliability, stability or ease of use. Whatever your needs – it’s your call. Have your software tailored to how you want to work, rather than have it dictated to you. Finally you get your say. What a refreshing change.
We will make sure that all our systems are reliable, and all of your data is always compatible, even with our competitors’ products. Why? Because we want to give you the peace of mind in knowing that whatever happens, you stay in control and will never be locked down or constrained by our software. We will always follow industry compatibility standards where we can. Maybe it is time for a change? Contact us and we would be delighted to explore the options.