The past decade has witnessed a proliferation of smartphones and tablets in the region. Incidentally, reports show that the UAE and Saudi Arabia top the smartphone penetration table in the EMEA region. The usage of remote tools has followed a similar trend for about two years, primarily due to the pandemic forcing businesses and consumers to become more tech-savvy and tech-dependent. Both scenarios present an opportunity and challenge for corporate leaders and CIOs.
In this new hyper-digital reality, every company, no matter the industry, needs to deliver exceptional technical experiences through online and mobile platforms. And if CIOs don’t have a digital strategy that prioritises developing customised software the right way, their business will struggle to remain competitive.
Off-the-shelf software simply isn’t the answer and is unable to meet this demand, as it offers the same solutions to all customers in a world where every company has a tech-savvy consumer base that expects unique, personalised experiences. Major software vendors that churn out products at a massive scale cannot offer products and services that allow for that level of customisation – it’s not profitable or feasible for them to do so.
Off-the-shelf software fallacy
Unfortunately, the pressure to launch new digital apps quickly leads many businesses to buy layer upon layer of off-the-shelf SaaS products that are designed for a mass audience – not designed for them or their customers. This all prevents businesses from optimising for and adapting to rapidly changing customer needs and new business opportunities, while creating a host of new problems:
- Adopting the same off-the-shelf solutions as every other company limits customisation and leads to lost competitive advantage. Your competitors are buying the same solutions, remember.
- Deploying multiple off-the-shelf solutions from different vendors is a complexity nightmare, with entangled architectures, code and processes that increase maintenance and management time, and crush productivity. The more time spent maintaining your architecture means less time developing outstanding customer and employee experiences.
- Integrating disjointed systems takes unique time and talent all on its own, which is costly, hard to find, and is not a scalable resources model.
- Vendor end-of-life solutions put the burden on the customer who has to rethink their IT strategy down the line and often undergo complex and expensive migration projects.
All of these problems will worsen as time goes by and undermine innovation by consuming scarce resources and leading to burnout in IT departments. These vulnerabilities won’t go away on their own; in fact, they will continue to rise to the surface at a time when speed and differentiation are critical to survival. SaaS sprawl is a huge contributor to technical debt, something that costs organisations $6,000 per second and is expected to reach $5 trillion in the next decade.
By contrast, when businesses build custom software the right way and for the long term, their IT teams can continuously make changes based on evolving customer needs and market opportunities. This offers a massive competitive advantage.
Customised: Al Salam Bank
For example, Bahraini Al Salam Bank revamped its onboarding process to allow clients to set up their accounts via a mobile banking app, cutting down the time to open a bank account from days to mere minutes. It took only three developers to find a solution that would mesh well with Al Salam Bank’s existing digital infrastructure and crucial Shari’a requirements. Instead of using an off-the-shelf product, this small team helped Al Salaam Bank offer their customers a seamless, user-friendly digital experience.
The speed and flexibility of the low-code application development platform was tested again when the disruption of the pandemic reached Bahrain. As part of the nationwide #TeamBahrain effort to support the island’s citizens through COVID-19, the bank created the #AlSalamInitiative. Two of Al Salam Bank’s developers built the portal in just two days, which enabled the bank to provide support directly to its clients. This initiative included interest-free loans, installment deferrals, and credit increases for all clients to ease some of their financial stress.
Or in the case of Saudi Arabia’s oldest medical city – King Saud Medical City (KSMC) was able to progress its digital transformation journey by developing the Watheeq platform. KSMC launched a digital application for patients and staff as part of the process. One of the most important tasks was to digitise patient health data, which was formerly stored in files on paper and updated manually. Another employee-specific app was also released to assist with internal and HR tasks.
By ditching solutions that limit differentiation, Al Salam Bank and King Saud Medical City kicked off a new approach to build for the future they want, not a future imposed on them. Many business leaders incorrectly think it’s too expensive or too complicated to do something similar, as they overlook the power of modern approaches to application development.
In reality, only businesses that take ownership of their software innovation will survive and thrive in this quickly evolving world.
Rodrigo Castelo is the vice president Middle East & Africa at OutSystems
