Massive Waste in Custom Software Development
The life sciences industry spends an estimated $10 billion annually on custom software development. Yet, 70% of these projects are late, over budget, or fail to meet expectations. Given that the average project costs around $1 million and takes 12 months (if on time), how confident can you be that this time will be different?
Before diving into the investment, it may be time for an alternative approach given the following factors:
1. Conflict of Goals
In labor-based industries like IT outsourcing, success is driven by billable hours. Doing more with less doesn’t align with revenue growth. As software becomes more complex, it’s harder to maintain predictability without automating and optimizing how it’s developed. Without those efficiencies, the goal of predictable outcomes becomes increasingly elusive.
2. Investment vs Revenue
It’s possible to automate and optimize custom software development, but that requires investment in new processes. This often means pulling resources away from revenue-generating activities. The question is: can you afford that distraction while ensuring the rest of your business continues to operate smoothly?
3. Reuse vs Redo
While your specific needs may require bespoke software, a lot of what ends up being developed is similar to what’s already been built elsewhere. Much like an iceberg, what you see (the visible part of the solution) is only a fraction of what needs to be built beneath the surface. Instead of starting from scratch, why not leverage what’s already available? It won’t come free, but it could save significant time and effort—something worth considering in light of the first two points.
4. Skillset and Desire Mismatch
For developers, coding is like an addiction—they love it and always want more. But there’s a big difference between simply writing code and engineering a scalable, compliant solution that meets the complex demands of the life sciences industry. Compliance, in particular, is not something all developers are familiar with, and that gap can lead to costly delays or errors down the line.
5. Custom vs Configurable
These two words often create confusion when discussing bespoke software. “Custom” typically refers to building something unique from the ground up, while “configurable” implies adjusting existing software to meet your needs—ranging from modifying user interface parameters and database fields to using scripts (i.e., code) to alter the software. While configurable solutions are usually preferable to fully custom-developed software in the context of bespoke systems, the term can sometimes be misleading. Some configurable options may prove too limited to meet requirements or may demand extensive scripting and system alterations to achieve the desired outcome. What is truly needed is getting to the point where configurable can achieve a customized solution—without custom development.
Clearly, these challenges don’t diminish the need for bespoke software—they amplify the demand for a more predictable way to achieve the same results.
Alternative Approach to Status Quo
Thankfully, other industries provide examples of how this can be done. Take eCommerce, for instance—there was a time when building an online store meant custom development. Then Shopify came along, making it easy for anyone to set up an online store without writing a single line of code.
Slowly, similar solutions are emerging in the life sciences industry, offering alternatives to custom software development that still meet the strict regulatory requirements unique to the field—without the need for custom coding. These “no-code” solutions put control of what is developed back in the hands of the business rather than the developers. This eliminates long delays from defining requirements to experiencing the finished product. Changes are instant, timelines are cut in half or more, regulatory submissions are reduced to the click of a button, and costs are both reduced and kept under control. If you’re interested, check out this article, which explains how this is achieved.