Every independent software vendor (ISV) – and every software engineer – wants to build a better application. However, between the regular maintenance updates and a looming release date for a completely new application, reaching that goal becomes more difficult.
That’s why it is important to consider other ways to address the issues preventing you from getting the job done. It might be that the solution that you are seeking can be delivered more efficiently at a higher quality level by a third party vendor.
Three typical improvements ISVs make to their applications include license key management, customer service management and integration-ready business intelligence solutions.
Today let’s look for the best way to improve the BI and analytics solution used with your application. To keep the core application’s development at a high-quality level, you might find using third party BI software to improve and replace your current solution is a better idea. Here are some of the common questions that you are asking and why a third party vendor might be the right answer at the level of quality your customers demand.
Reducing the Costs of Development
Put simply your development team might be trying to build a better mouse trap. Odds are that you don’t need to do this. In-house development costs are high both in time and money. A dedicated team of developers and IT staff working on your project might simply be a waste of resources.
Third party applications have many solutions out of the box that can be customized directly to your company’s needs. Not only do you save on the development costs, but the support costs might also be lower because it’s in the third party vendor’s best interest to support their own code so customers can be retained.
Leveraging the Knowledge of Experts
Does your internal development team have the knowledge that it needs to complete your BI software project? While your team might be full of highly competent software developers, they may not have the specific knowledge in the area of BI that they need to complete the project. The added complexity of embedding a self-service BI solution adds to the drain on your development resources.
Leveraging a third party solution means that you have their entire expert team of developers at your disposal. They live BI day in and day out, something your team is probably not doing. This means a third party vendor has the specialized knowledge that your company needs to make the best BI application you can.
Complete the Support Cycle
If you have hired a specialized team of contractors to develop your BI application for you, how many of them are you planning on keeping when the project is over? The issue with custom, in-house software development is that it tends to stagnate.
Once the team has developed the application, they move on to the next job. That means that when end users need help or when new functionality needs to be added, a new team must be assembled. This typically means a ramp-up time that can add more cost to an upgrade.
Third party software is supported by the vendor that you purchased it from. This means that the burden of supporting it is on them, not on your IT team. You can leverage the third party for assistance in customization, upgrades and user support. Your IT team can focus on other issues such as improving the quality of your core application and keeping your data safe from hackers.
Trust Izenda to Be Your Third Party BI Vendor
Looking for a self-service embedded BI and analytics solution to integrate into your application? Are you mulling over the build vs. buy decision? Learn what Izenda’s embedded business intelligence has to offer ISVs!
