To digitalize or not to digitalize? Is that a question?
Ivan Grinkevich CEO PHPDEV.org, Yury Rahachou CCO PHPDEV.org
"Should I digitalize my business?" Today this question is no longer raised. Regardless of whether you have an international corporation or a flower shop near your home - of course, yes in either case! This reduces costs, increases productivity, speeds up all internal processes, and therefore increases profit.
But then the question arises: how to choose the right solution to implement your plans?
Developers and resellers of IT software will be happy to describe to you all the benefits of their product or service. But it is unlikely that they will tell you about the dangers that you will most likely encounter, no matter what solution you choose.
The first fork that a manager, who has decided to introduce new software, meets is the choice between:
self-written solution vs. ready-made solution
self-written solution
Pros | Сons |
• you get a solution completely tailored to your requirements | • the high cost of drawing up a competent technical task |
• the code and solution belong only to you | • it’s difficult to find good developers, so incurs long terms and high cost |
• no fees ready-made solution | • often the chosen open source solution turns out to be redundant |
Well, there are many disadvantages, it is obvious that you need to choose a ready-made solution.
ready-made solution
Pros | Сons |
• there are modules that enlarge the ready-made solution with the necessary functions | • ready-made software does not take into account all the nuances of your particular business |
• you can get your software right away, it’s ready for use | • customization usually will cost a lot of money and take a lot of time |
• technical support is available, the developer releases updates | • a ready-made solution is usually expensive |
• as a rule, there is a trial period to test it |
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Сase history. One of our clients, when he contacted us, had a management system (CRM) written by someone from scratch, and as a result, there were a bunch of bugs, lags, and everything eventually crumbled. We began to clear up the reason for such a solution, for example, whether there were any complex non-standard needs. It turned out that no – it will be enough a ready-made CRM, the same Bitrix24 for example. But a lot of money was thrown away for improvements, cuts, dips, and maintenance of crutches.
We offered to configure CRM Bitrix24 for the client. The calculation showed that the cost of this solution would be equal to the cost of two months of supporting the old solution. The client decided - do it.
A month later, everything was ready: CRM was configured, data had been migrated from the old system, even user passwords were saved by transferring from an unsafe system to a safe mode. Everything works, everyone is happy, especially the sellers who suffered from the old buggy solution the most. Yes, we improved some points later, added custom modules for the client's specifics, but the fact itself is important: the choice at the first stage of the wrong decision led the client to a loss of money. And this is all too often the case, alas. C'est la vie =)
Then goes the next fork: cloud vs. server solution
Сloud solution.
Pros | Сons |
• All information is available from any device, the user is not attached to a specific workplace | • ready-made solutions do not take into account all the nuances of your particular business |
• no need to buy servers or pay a salary to the system administrator | • Internet is always needed |
• the amount of disk space, RAM and the number of processors are absolutely unlimited | • inability to add additional functions |
• security issues |
Server solution.
Everything is exactly the opposite compared to Cloud solutions.
Another сase history. A client contacted us with a request for a solution for order accounting, warehouse accounting, communication with customers. Bitrix24 was advised to this client, but something confused him. We carried out an evaluation. It turned out that the client needed a high-load application for accepting payments, attracting partners, etc., and nothing would remain from Bitrix24 in it. Excessive load on the base and so on. We recommended delivering basic functionality on Yii2 with further addition of the necessary blocks. We launched the basic solution in just a couple of weeks. Working. Then the project developed according to a global plan, with a turnover worth millions, the client is pleased with fault tolerance and speed, the possibility of optimization and the introduction of unloading microservices. Scaling is in full swing, and a small project has grown into a whole network, which has already taken a great part in its market.
Is your head spinning from the number of possible solutions? Is digitalization already seen as a world of endless costs and problems? The thought arises: my business worked fine without digitalization, can it continue in an old-fashioned way?
No! The key to digitalization success is getting expert consultation!
A consultant with broad expertise in solutions and technologies will understand your business and offer the best option for your ideas and needs. Including a digital development plan for your business. This will allow you, in the shortest possible time and with an optimal budget, to receive digital solutions that will take your business to a new level, making it easy to administer and scale!
Therefore, the moral of our story is, first go to the experts who will develop the concept of digital transformation, and only then to the developers.