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Many companies now look to custom software development as the ideal solution for organization and management. Some, however, avoid it completely, favoring off-the-shelf solutions instead. While the reality is that any company can utilize custom software development, Phoenix is full of industries that should ALWAYS consider it over any other solution for a variety of reasons. Here are the top three:

Financial Services

The world of finance is very different from any other industry today. Not only is understanding the data and math behind complex processes like securities valuations, risk and trading a must, there are also myriad compliance issues to consider. From portfolio managers to the traders themselves, those in the industry know that sacrifices in functionality can mean lost profits, and that’s not a choice you want to be up against. Custom software development here is a must. Because financial services companies are all different and they have a niche environment in which they must work, challenges abound, and only the right program can meet those. 

Healthcare

Patient care, insurance, HIPAA security, regulation, certification, billing and coding – the list of concerns when you’re dealing with any healthcare organizations is vast. While the list of vendors selling one-size-fits-all software programs is lengthy, for most healthcare entities, cookie-cutter software simply won’t make the grade. Each healthcare organization has its own angle, its own concerns, its own budgets, and choosing a software project that means meeting every aspect of an organizations needs is a necessity. You need a team that has expertise with medical software projects and knows enough about health interoperability standards to create the right solution to meet your needs.

Logistics

Business is about being at the right place at the right time, and in the logistics business, you understand that you need a software solution that will allow you to process and move as quickly as possible. In an industry where the margins are slim, a half-second delay caused by software not specifically designed to suit your needs is either going to cost you time, money, or a customer. The only way is to go with something that has been specifically optimized to meet your exact needs. 

Even if your industry is not listed here, there’s a strong possibility that off-the-shelf software won’t address all your company’s needs. In the long run, customized software development is always going to be the only way to move forward for your company. Off-the-shelf software is developed to appeal to the mass markets of your specific industry. By using off-the-shelf software you disregard the fact that the needs and potential of your business are as unique as the business itself and locks you into using the same technology as your competitors.

Kinetik I.T. has vast experience in developing unique custom software applications for all types of industries. Whether your business simply needs a current application enhanced or you need us to develop a complete solution from the ground up to fit your business, contact us and we will show you how we can make a difference in your organization.

Whether you’re migrating to a new platform, building a new store, or simply upgrading the one you have, shifting ecommerce platforms or making changes to your current system could actually do your company more harm than good. Unfortunately, the little things have the potential to kill your current optimization strategy, and a big shift in your site could mean a shift in your ranking. What can you do to implement your changes while preserving your rank? These tips can help.

Keep an eye on the information architecture during migration as well as the URL structure.

If you have an established site, the search engines know what to expect. The better your information architecture and URL structure, the stronger your SEO program. That could change as you work on your store, so be aware of the fact that you don’t want your pages competing against each other and you want everything you do to strengthen your site as a whole.

Look out for duplicate content!

There is no faster way to get your site in trouble from an SEO perspective than to have duplicate content on the site. Proper planning on the part of absolutely everyone involved can help you avoid this problem, though.

Don’t lose sight of traditional SEO tactics.

Ignoring standard SEO simply because you’re dealing with ecommerce isn’t necessarily a good idea. While there are some practices that may not be perfect for those with an ecommerce site, others, like solid text, are just the gold standard no matter what kind of site you happen to have.

When you’re looking for help optimizing your business’s ecommerce platform, call Kinetik I.T. We can develop a customized solution without compromising your overall SEO efforts, ensuring you get the services you need without losing any page rank in the process.

In the first years of the Internet, websites offered information in straightforward (if not always attractive) formats, created by men and women with specialized training, often self-taught. Today, nearly anyone can create a web presence—a blog or website, compatible on multiple devices and across various platforms. As a business owner, it’s possible to create a site, but the real question is: will it deliver the results you’re looking for?

While the “build your own website” ads look appealing, with easy-to-fill-out forms and low prices, they may not be the best choice for your business. Choosing a company specializing in professional website building offers many advantages over the drag & drop, fill-in-the-blank, pre-formatted online builders.

Cost

While hiring a company to design your website might cost more money up front, the benefits reaped from a fully functioning, easy-to-use website can be enormous. By using an online site to build your website, you could miss out on different ways and  techniques to create more traffic for your site. This is the expertise you need  that a website company brings to the table.

New Trends

When choosing a website company, you get the expertise and knowledge of a large set of individuals. These experts know what is trending in design and how to create a user-friendly site with calls to action.

Saving Time

Most businesses and individuals do not have the time or in-depth knowledge required to build a truly useful and informative website that sets your company apart from the competition and provides a great user experience for any visitor.

Exact Specifications

Do you have specific design specifications you want incorporated into your new website? Do you have a vision for what your website will look like? If this is the case, an online website builder will be unable to fulfill your website dreams. Only a website company can sit down with you and talk through the wants and needs of your new website and advise on the best way to accomplish this.

With cloud technology becoming an increasingly viable choice for business, questions still remain as to whether it’s the right choice for your business. Kinetik IT’s President, Josette van Stiphout, weighs in on questions and considerations when contemplating sending your business into the cloud.

• Company Size: Usually, cloud technology is the most appropriate for small to midsize businesses that do not have the talent and funding to implement in-house solutions. It also depends on the cloud application’s capacity and functionality.
• Physical Location: Does it make sense for your company if all employees are office-based rather than working from a remote office?
• Security: "Do I want to have everything in the cloud including all my company data?"  The most important questions that people need to ask are really pertaining to data security.
• Space and Software Rental: A disadvantage for cloud computing is that you basically rent – it’s a lifetime rental situation. You don't own anything, and you will always pay a fee. This may be appropriate for some situations but not all.

The cloud has been available in some of fashion for 20 years or more, where it was called ASP (Application Service Providers) or SaaS (Software as a Service). Now in general terms, it's called cloud technologies. But keep in mind there are different categories of cloud computing: software, infrastructure, storage and platform hosting.

In addition to general-use questions, Josette offers considerations for the actual cloud provider. Here are some general suggestions:

• Choose a brand name cloud provider – e.g. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, NetSuite etc.
• Find out the physical location of the service provider’s data center, where the application and files are stored.  Is this data center owned by the cloud provider or is it outsourced?
• Understand what kind of security controls and processes the provider has in place. Who will  be administering your systems, can they see your data, and how do they avoid your data potentially being copied? Can other organizations who are using the same service potentially copy your data?
• Learn about their track record for up‑time.  Planned downtime is a given – for them to perform scheduled maintenance and upgrades – and you want to know what it is.
• Know the historical length of downtime or average outage time, especially if it’s unplanned downtime, or a specific outage.
• Learn about the type of redundancies and data protection policies they have in place, in the event of loss of data, data corruption, unscheduled downtime or security breach.
• If you want to cancel your service, how easy is it to get your data and migrate to another service provider?  Will they keep copies of your data after the service is cancelled?
• Get a copy of their SLA (Service Level Agreement) and support guarantees.

Located in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, Kinetik IT is a full-service information technology and internet services provider, offering a wide array of technology and internet strategy solutions, as well as sound advice.  To learn more about services and products, and to stay up to date with Kinetik IT, visit www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.