3 Examples Of Tailor Made Software Skyrocketing Business Growth

Custom Software: When it Works, it Works

The custom software market is expected to grow to nearly 200 billion dollars. 

The reason is simple: in certain situations, investing in custom software is the only way a business can add millions of dollars to their bottom line.

In this post, we’ll be covering three examples of such situations:

• one B2C
• one B2B, and
• one internal ERP

The businesses that built these custom solutions come from three wildly different industries, which shows that custom software can be a valuable tool for enterprises in any sector.  

B2C: McDonald’s Self-Serve Kiosks

McDonald’s is a global industry leader in selling burger-shaped piles of salt and fat, with a 2023 report that showed USD 8 billion in profit.

We’re sure a conglomerate of their size has multiple custom software solutions.

But we’ve chosen to highlight their self-serve kiosks and the software within.

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McDonald’s began implementing these kiosks in 2003, and to our knowledge, started a trend that other fast food outlets have since copied.

There are several benefits to self-serve options:

1. Customers are less pressured compared to interacting with an employee
2. Turns out touch screens make people buy more impulsively
3. If you completely automate the ordering process, you can direct more manpower to getting the orders ready.

It’s no surprise then, that McDonald’s has never looked back, and there’s a Business Insider article from 2017 reporting a 6% growth in sales for McDonald’s thanks to the kiosks.

Imagine doing this with a human cashier.

6% may not sound like much, but McDonald’s total 2017 revenue was USD 22.8 billion so 6% is an extra USD 1.37 billion.

According to the Big Mac Index, that’s an extra 258,566,037 Big Macs by 2017 prices!

B2B: Air Canada’s Suite of Integrations for Business Partners

As a major airline, a significant volume of Air Canada’s revenue is B2B in nature.

And so, Air Canada’s Connex is their investment into a ticketing platform that specifically caters to B2B agents buying tickets on behalf of their own clients.

It allows users to do everything you’d expect from an airline ticketing platform: browse, purchase, cancel, and upgrade tickets.

It accommodates four types of users:

• Admins 
• Agents
• Sub-admins, and
• Sub-agent

Each role has access to different permissions based on their real-world functions. It’s all documented in their publicly available user guide, which we’ll add is excellently written.

And Connex is just one of Air Canada’s options for B2B buyers.

They also offer an API for bigger agencies and tech firms to directly connect their own platforms to Air Canada.

Our detective work tells us Air Canada’s ecosystem was launched in 2023, and in Q4 of the same year they reported a profit versus losing money in Q4 2022.

And according to a recent article from February this year, Air Canada is set to surpass their projected 2024 profits.

ERP: N&N Moving Supplies Manage A Quadrupled Workforce

N&N is a wholesaler and supplier of moving equipment and packing products.

Here’s a quick summary of how they ran into a problem:

1. They expanded from one to three locations across several states.
2. They also quadrupled their labor force

They began to face challenges with maintaining accurate time records and reconciling payroll using QuickBooks and a third-party payroll provider.

So they built and implemented a unified ERP with a built-in time-clock solution.

And what did they get in return?

3. An 84% reduction in payroll processing time.
4. Improved speed in balancing accounts.
5. Enhanced accuracy in tracking hours and vacation time, and
6. Labor-cost trend overview in all three locations.

Management could see what was going on in three sites across different states and make sure that internal processes were carried out properly in real-time.

Netsuite lists N&N as earning between USD 5 – 10 million annually. 

Is Custom Enterprise Software Right for You? 

We looked at three examples of custom software.

Three very different use cases from different industries and with companies of various sizes.

And in all three examples, one common factor: Customizability.

• McDonald’s created a custom user buying experience
• Air Canada created custom methods for B2B clients to access their services
• N&N created a custom way to monitor internal company processes

And in all three cases, the businesses benefited massively either through increased sales or efficiency.

The main reason you build custom software is the ability to create a digital solution that solves your most complex or trivial problems.

So long as you hire properly, and you have the budget!

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