Finding the right areas to invest in custom development doesn’t have to be so difficult. Here are a few things you need to know to make the right choice. Full write-up: https://by.dialexa.com/the-business-advantage-of-custom-platform-engineering

1. Custom Development: The Business
Advantage of Custom Platform Engineering
by Scott Harper
https://by.dialexa.com/the-business-advantage-of-custom-platform-engineering

2. Dialexa
We are on a mission to make every
company a great technology company.
We work with organizations to define and
execute digital transformation strategies to
improve business operations and customer
experiences. Our services include:
• Multi-Year Technology Roadmap
• Platform Engineering
• User Experience Design
• Custom Software Development
• Hardware Prototyping /IoT

3. When Samer, our
VP of Engineering,
and Russell, our
Head of Technology
Strategy, discussed
the differences
between monoliths
and microservices
and their data
models, they gave
you a lot to think
about.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

4. But if it wasn’t tough enough
to just find a middle ground
between platforms and
microservices, you also have
to decide whether you can get
by with a COTS solution or if
you need custom developed
technology.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

5. Finding the right areas to
invest in custom
development doesn’t have to
be so difficult. Here are a
few things you need to know
to make the right choice.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

6. Custom Development
Drives Business
Differentiation
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

7. You can separate a businesses into two
primary buckets. First, there are the common
business systems that are necessary to any
company. Whether you’re Walmart, Amazon,
or a smaller-scale enterprise, you need things
like HR technology, CRM, ERP systems, and
payroll, for example.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

8. There might be some
industries where you can
differentiate through a CRM
system, but for the most part
you can rely on third-party
tools for these common
functions.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

9. However, the second bucket is where you must
decide what’s unique about your business. When
you look at what’s unique about your business
processes, you can start to recognize opportunities
to differentiate through custom technology. For
many businesses, this business differentiation
occurs close to the edge of customer interaction.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

10. Differentiation can come in many
different forms, but it’s easiest to
think of it under three business
leaders:
• CIOs typically look for inefficiencies in
internal applications
• CTOs focus on product-related differentiation
• Emerging Chief Digital Officers handle
websites and mobile. However, often times
these are more marketing/customer
experience functions as opposed to complex
custom development cases.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

11. While your product might be the first thing you think about
for business differentiation, internal applications and daily
operational efficiencies are often the most unique part of
your company.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

12. To read more you can find the full article at
https://by.dialexa.com/the-business-
advantage-of-custom-platform-engineering

13. The Adoptability Problem For
New Internal Technology
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

14. One reason why custom development is so
important for unique internal processes is that CIOs
face adoptability and change management
issues when deploying new off the shelf applications.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

15. When you introduce COTS software
for a unique business process, you
start making modifications to
workflow to meet the tech
specifications. But if the process is
truly unique, you’ll face employee
resistance and diminish the value or
your unique process as you modify
your business to adopt new software.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

16. The question you have to ask yourself is: “Do we
want to bend the way we work to meet the needs of
new technology? Or do we want to bend technology
to meet our unique business needs?”
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

17. Think about the systems you have in place today. Are you
sacrificing your ability to differentiate with technology in
order to meet the needs of a COTS solution? Are you
struggling to get employees to buy into third-party
applications? If your employees had a choice to use your
software, would they? Or are you force feeding it to them?
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

18. Rather than struggling
to redefine workflows,
custom development
lets you adapt
technology to meet the
needs of your unique
business processes.
And when you have
technology that is
custom-fit for your
workflows, you can
start differentiating in a
way that drives
business results.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

19. Resisting the need for custom
development in some areas of
your business would be like
how the taxi industry resisted
Uber. They already had the
value creation done because
they worked out the logistics,
distribution, recognition, and
everything else you need for a
differentiated business. But
when taxi companies failed to
meet customer demands by
developing new technology,
they opened the door for Uber
to eat their lunch.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

20. If you’re constantly compromising
what makes you unique, you might
survive for a while—but eventually
you’ll fall victim to growing digital
transformation demands. This is the
attitude we had when we built
Engage, our own custom dashboard
software that boosts workplace
efficiency.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

21. Does your software platform strategy support your
business demands?
Download or free eBook:
Platform Thinking: Creating Real-World, Scalable Platforms

22. How Dialexa Uses Custom
Development For
Workplace Efficiency
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

23. When we thought about what makes
Dialexa unique, one thing that kept
coming up was our ability to manage
many different client projects without
sacrificing quality or attention to detail.
Information accessibility is critical to
maintaining these differentiators.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

24. We could go into Jira and access all of the data we
needed for various projects, but there was so much
friction for us because it didn’t perfectly fit our workflow.
It would take me 15 minutes just to log in, go through our
different projects, and make notes for the day.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

25. When we built our in-
house Engage dashboard, we
thought about what was most
important for us to recognize at a
glance. Being able to see whether
we were behind schedule, on
time, or ahead of schedule was
most important, so we moved
forward with a color-coded
system on the dashboard. Now, I
can quickly glance at Engage and
understand the current project
statuses just by seeing which are
red, yellow, and green.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

26. Quickly recognizing
where the bottlenecks
are means
streamlining operations
so we can continue to
differentiate our client-
facing services. You’ll
be surprised how
much of a difference
you’ll notice when you
adapt technology to
your needs (not the
other way around).
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

27. What Makes Your
Company Unique?
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

28. The reason companies compromise on their unique workflows
and adopt COTS software is that custom development seems
daunting. But as digital transformation accelerates business
change, you can’t afford to sacrifice what makes you most unique.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

29. PROPERTY OF DIALEXA LLC ©2017 - CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
Thank You
Doug Platts
VP of Marketing
marketing@dialexa.com
If you are looking to undertake a
digital transformation initiative,
contact Dialexa today and see how
we can help make your company a
great technology company.
Get the full write up of this slideshare at https://
by.dialexa.com/the-business-advantage-of-custom-
platform-engineering