The digital transformation, to be real, must happen in a unique way for each entity and follow an individualised transformation plan according to the needs of each industry and each company, as well as the point of digitalisation where they stand.
Digitalisation, in addition to an advance in technologies and infrastructure, requires a change in the culture of the company, so the industries that are determined towards this transformation must invest time in changing structures, methodologies and processes.
For this reason, organisations from different industrial sectors need to rely on third parties who are experts in digitalisation so that they can guide them along the way. This type of strategic alliance provides know-how in specific technologies and sectors.
In this post, we will talk and compare the two main types of technological solutions to achieve the digital transformation of a company: customised solutions or developments and consolidated software products or platforms. In both cases, the consulting process will be necessary to assess the state of the company and offer an adapted plan.
Difference between software product and custom development
Custom development of solutions
Some companies that help in the digital transformation process carry out a first consultancy and later develop solutions or management platforms; SCADAs, MES … tailored according to the needs of your client at that time.
Unlike an operations platform, this type of solution is created under the current needs of the company, so they are not very flexible to changes in the future, require programming knowledge and usually require a high development time. Scalability is complicated and creates a strong dependency between the customer and the company offering the solution.
Consolidated platforms or products
On the other hand, there are software products that simply with a simple configuration allow their implementation and use in different industrial sectors.
These types of solutions are usually proven and stable solutions that offer updates and new functionality over time. Its support is simple and its deployment is fast, drastically reducing implementation times and therefore project time.
Why is a consolidated platform or product better?
The tailored development alternative can help a company to identify the solutions that best suit the strategic planning of the moment, and to update its technological architecture according to current business needs.
However, it falls short when defining and building the pillars of change or reorganising the technological infrastructure of companies so that they have autonomy in the medium and long term.
On the following list, we will specify why the platform may be the best option for digitalising your business:
- It’s a long-term solution – With the platform, digital media and know-how go together, adapting over time and offering a complete long-term solution. While custom developments are specific solutions without much capacity to adapt to future changes or growth. Everything must be reprogrammed as new needs arise.
- Gives you independence and control – Custom developments create dependency while some operational platforms give the user total independence when configuring and controlling all operations. With custom development, the client company can lose control, becoming so dependent that it becomes risky to stop working with it at some point.
- You will control the size of the investment – A custom development does not have its own solutions, and it will not mean that you need a platform behind to facilitate digitalisation, so the costs will be much higher than if you incorporate a platform from the beginning. Custom developments, moreover, can incentivise the client to invest excessively in technology, and that it is not specialised.
- Your data will be safe – In some cases, a custom development may use insecure tools since they are not software products in themselves, and may have security gaps. exposing confidential data, which may be exposed to an external part of the organisation. With the platform, the data will be 100% protected and only the customer will have control over it.
- Integration with management systems – In a custom development, the solutions offered work in silos and it can be difficult to integrate them to achieve a global vision and a centralisation of the data. In contrast, an integrated operations platform has integration with other business management tools (such as ERP) or other applications in a simple way.
The Nexus Integra platform, for example, through a public Rest API web, establishes a bilateral communication channel with applications such as MES so that information can flow between both systems. In this way, applications can become more competitive and productive, enhancing their role of improving the competitiveness and profitability of the industry.
Centralising and unifying all industrial processes with technologies capable of adapting and growing with companies without limitations is one of the steps in digital transformation, and the operations platform must be the link that connects all your production processes and your data of business.
Digital transformation with Nexus Integra
Tailor-made solutions limit companies in adapting to the many changes that arise going forward, thus holding back their potential to carry out a real and long-term digital transformation. On the contrary, with an integrated operational platform like Nexus Integra, you will have all the facilities and control to initiate and execute the transformation over time.
Now it is easier than ever to create an integrated and unified operations environment that extracts maximum value from data to optimise production processes.
The Nexus Integra platform is capable of unifying, sharing, integrating, managing and visualising all company data, breaking down information silos. Connect your data and departments, making information cross, flow and be consumed throughout the company.
Some of the highlights include:
- Interoperable – With other corporate applications and systems.
- Scalable – Ability to integrate new assets and increase processing and storage capacity without disrupting service.
- Platform agnostic – Communication with standard protocols and data ingestion independent of operator and manufacturer.
- Unification and standardisation – Unification, standardisation and structuring of data in a single core
- Global operations environment – Single control centre from which to manage all geographically dispersed assets.
- Advanced Analytics – Machine learning modules and cutting-edge technologies that offer specialised algorithms.
Do you want to know more about how to implement Nexus Integra and what benefits it would bring to your company? Get in touch with us so that we can study your case and you can receive totally personalised advice.
