Greetings! I’m Mathew Grace, Managing Director of Flying Donkey IT. Before starting Flying Donkey IT, I worked for software vendors managing projects to add new features that their customers requested. During this time, I noticed that many of the new features developed cost the clients far more than it should because software vendors have features that are meant to cover as many situations as possible. While this method makes it where most companies can use the software, there is always some functionality missing making the software less than ideal for most companies.

I decided I was going to take a different approach.

I started Flying Donkey in 2018 to achieve the following objectives:

  1. Create Custom Software that Meets the Client’s Needs with Precision.
  2. Comparable Deployment Time to OOTB solutions
  3. Provide more personal customer service.
  4. Reduce the cost of having the exact features needed for businesses that need functionality not included in the OOTB solutions.
  5. Your organisation develops a competitive advantage.

Create Custom Software that Meets the Client’s Needs with Precision.

Custom software is designed to be intuitive (or highly automated), saving users’ time while doing their jobs. Most of our clients don’t need thousands of features in their software. They need it to do a few things really well. This is perfect for custom software because only the features you need are developed. Custom software can save time, money, and frustration over the long run because you have exactly what you need.

OOTB software tends to have a lot of things you don’t need or lacks the functionality you really need. Unnecessary features increase integration costs, while lack of functionality increases the amount of time to accomplish an objective. From my experience before starting Flying Donkey, if a new feature was custom designed it would take multiple organisations needs into consideration and charge those organizations for the new feature. You get what you want (and other things you didn’t need), but so does everybody else. You just paid for the software company’s new feature and they gained an infinite return on investment.

Comparable Deployment Time to OOTB solutions

Our custom software is developed using an agile approach combined with prototypes of the pages needed. The client is able to see the progress and give input every step of the way because we give them access to the project management software we use for their project. We’ll normally start with the most pressing objectives and get them deployed ASAP. From there we start adding other functionality in order of priority. This makes it where you can have custom software at comparable times to OOTB solutions.

Provide More Personal Customer Service

A custom application comes with more personal customer service. Our approach requires us to truly understand your business and it’s software needs to generate meaningful results. OOTB software will be looking to fit your needs into their software as opposed to fitting the software to your needs. We operate based on the logic that its our job to increase your success. During our free consultation, we consider what you are wanting to achieve, as well as why. If you have specific ways you want to achieve your goals, we’ll let you know if there are ways that could meet your requirements better. If you don’t have specific solutions you’d like to achieve your goals, we’ll advise you on the most efficient way to achieve them.

Reduced Cost to develop new features

I discussed this during the precision of custom software, but software vendors will develop new features at a customers request, but they will bill your business substantially to implement them. The new feature will include what you want, but if other organisations are requesting functionality in a feature it will go beyond what you want, need or have use for. Adding the new functionality, while making sure not to break the current functionality can require additional time on the project as well. Depending on your agreement with the software vendor there is a good chance you just funded a new feature for all their customers. Your competitors are thanking you.

Meanwhile, a custom software app will limit the functionality to what you actually need. No unwanted features. No additional complexity to make it useful for multiple organisations. Just the functionality you need. The streamlined approach will save money during development and time learning the software.

Your organisation develops a competitive advantage.

I touched on this in the last section, but it needs to be discussed more. Unique solutions are a competitive advantage. According to a study by Ponemon Institute, LLC, intangible assets such as intellectual property made up 84% of the S&P 500 in 2019. Flying Donkey IT’s intellectual property policy is that when you pay for custom software development, you get the IP. This protects your competitive advantage, does not incur monthly licensing fees from the vendor, and potentially gives you another stream of revenue if you want to license it to other companies.

I hope this has helped you understand some of the benefits you get when partnering with Flying Donkey to meet your software needs. If you’d like to discuss your upcoming projects, contact us and I’ll be happy to provide a free consultation.