The Benefits of Packaged Software for Your Business

Packaged Software vs Generic Software: Understanding the Difference

What Is Packaged Software?

The term refers to specific software designed to meet a company's needs. The French word "progiciel" is a contraction of "programme" (program) and "logiciel" (software). You may also come across the expressions "business software" or "vertical software" as alternatives.

Packaged software is developed to meet the specific requirements of a profession, unlike generic software, which is designed for a wide range of users and needs. It is used in sectors such as healthcare, finance, human resources management, real estate, and more. In the industrial sector (in French), packaged software drives production lines, manages inventory, and automates critical processes. The e-commerce sector (in French) relies on SCM-type packaged software to orchestrate logistics from end to end.

Warning! It is easy to confuse packaged software with an intranet. An intranet is a computer network set up within a company. It lets employees share, view, and collaborate on files or documents internally. An intranet takes the form of a site, with a set of applications, pages, and services, all through a web browser. It can only be accessed from workstations admitted to the intranet's private network.

An intranet is more informational, while packaged software is more precise in its use. It covers only one particular task.

Usually preconfigured with features and workflows specific to the company that uses it, it adapts precisely to that company's particular needs. Features available in packaged software include modules for customer management, resources, inventory, sales, purchasing, reports, and industry-specific analytics.

What Is the Difference Between Software and Packaged Software?

The main difference lies in their level of specificity and applicability.

Software is a generic computer program that can be used in various contexts and by different users. It can be office software, such as Microsoft Office, or specialized software such as the Adobe suite for graphic design, web browsers, media players, and so on. Software can be compared to an application, offering a vast choice of features to meet users' general needs.

Packaged software, on the other hand, is designed to meet the specific needs of a company, a particular profession, or a particular task. It can be made up of several programs designed for a very specific use.

The Benefits of Using Packaged Software

Using packaged software brings many benefits to a company. The main one is improving its efficiency and productivity by meeting its needs. This adaptation to business processes echoes the philosophy of custom web development (in French).

First, specialization. Packaged software is designed to meet the expectations of a particular function, which allows a better fit between the software and the company's business processes.

Thanks to this preconfiguration, it is implemented faster than generic software, as shown by the case study of Doctavis and Efficience IT (in French) on delivering an MVP quickly. This brings considerable time savings in the deployment process.

With their specialized and optimized features, business applications automate certain tasks, streamline workflows, and improve overall operational efficiency.

Good packaged software relies on automated tests (in French) that guarantee the reliability of its processing. Thanks to their specific processes, packaged solutions can help reduce the risk of human error and inconsistencies in operations. They offer tools and features that make it possible to track and control processes more precisely.

Another advantage of these tools is that they are compatible with other systems used in the industry concerned. Connections between systems often rely on well-designed REST APIs (in French). For example, in customer relationship management (CRM) systems or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. This simplifies the integration of the packaged software with the company's existing systems, allowing better data synchronization and better visibility into processes.

Packaged software generally comes with specialized technical support for the industry concerned. This support is handled by a team with in-depth knowledge of the needs and challenges the company faces. All of this enables fast and effective resolution of potential problems.

Some Examples of Packaged Software

There are two major families of packaged software: ERP, Enterprise Resource Planning, and CRM, Customer Relationship Management.

ERP systems manage and coordinate enterprise resource planning, such as human resources management, accounting, among others. This software lets the company's different departments share information and collaborate efficiently.

CRM systems are used for customer relationship management. They let companies manage sales pipelines, sales prospecting, and marketing actions. Their main mission is to centralize and organize customer data while making communication with customers easier. In short, this tool improves the customer relationship by nurturing and retaining customers while increasing the company's profitability.

There are also SCM systems, Supply Chain Management, which group the tools that integrate suppliers into the company's information system. The perfect example for this type of software is e-commerce sites and everything upstream of a shipped order.

Conclusion

It is worth noting that packaged software can have more limited features than generic software. Because it is designed to meet more specific needs, it does not cover every area of a company.

You now have the essential information about using this tool, which can only improve your productivity thanks to its many features.

As specialists in Symfony (in French) development, our agency has a large database at its disposal, as well as a back end that, thanks to our framework, makes it possible to deliver secure, high-performing projects. Explore all of our expertise (in French) to understand how we work. Efficience IT is here to design packaged software that meets your company's specific needs. After delivery, we also provide maintenance for your web applications (in French) to ensure the longevity of your business tool.

Going Further

• How an audit works at Efficience IT (in French), assessing the technical health of your line-of-business application
• Technical debt: should you really be afraid of it? (in French), anticipating and managing debt accumulation in business software over the long term
• Symfony: The PHP framework for web projects, the framework used to build high-performing packaged software
• Doctrine ORM: Object-relational mapping for PHP, the persistence layer at the heart of Symfony applications
• API Platform: Framework for building APIs, connect your packaged software to your other systems through APIs