Leverage Standard Features in Viindoo Software Implementation Projects

With more 10 years of experience in the field of consulting and implementing Viindoo enterprise management software, I have always put the interests of customers first and committed to meeting all of their customization requirements. However, from my real-world experience, this often comes with significant challenges.

Although I always strive to meet customer expectations, I often face internal disputes between departments, increased project costs, and sometimes carry technical debt and high maintenance costs later. All of these are consequences of customizing the software to the specific needs of each business.

Through this article, I want to share my thoughts that, in order for businesses to grow quickly and sustainably, they should perhaps consider leveraging Viindoo's standard features. Leveraging to standard features helps to mitigate risks, costs, and improve integration capabilities, while creating a stable and easy-to-maintain environment for businesses.

What are Standard Features? 

Standard features are functions and capabilities or features that a product, service, or system provides without requiring any special customization or configuration from the user. These are features that most people can use without having to make any special changes or adjustments. Standard features typically meet general needs and are built into the product or service to provide readily available value to the user.

Imagine that you decide to buy a completed apartment to have a stable space immediately without having to wait for the construction process. You search for and select a completed apartment that meets your needs and budget. After negotiations and legal checks, you sign a purchase contract with the developer or seller. The payment installments agreed in the contract are made in installments. After full payment, you receive the key and become the owner of the apartment. Depending on the project handover schedule, you can move in immediately or after a short time. With the apartment that has been built and equipped with all standard amenities such as living room, bedroom, kitchen, and balcony, if you have no special requirements, you can move in without having to adjust anything. All construction and interior finishing steps have been completed in advance, helping to save time and effort compared to building from scratch.

Similarly, management software that provides standard features will often meet 70-80% of the business's management needs, and if the business has a relatively simple operating process, it only needs to prepare the data and "move in." This helps businesses save time and effort compared to having to build the software from scratch. Standard features are an important part of the user experience and play a key role in making a product or service useful and easy to use.

The Benefits of Leveraging Standard Features in Implementation Projects

Leveraging to standard features in Viindoo Software Implementation Project has many benefits, especially when compared to developing custom features. To help you understand the benefits of sticking to standard features, let's take a look at a real-world example of a project that Viindoo successfully deployed a manufacturing enterprise management solution for ABC Corp using Viindoo's standard features.

Context

ABC Corp, a company specializing in the production of electrical wires and cables. They are having difficulty in calculating production costs, tracking inventory, especially when they need to update information seamlessly between departments. Therefore, they decided to implement a business management solution from Viindoo to improve production processes, warehouse management, and optimize customer management within a 15-week deployment period.

Deployment Process

• Project Goal: ABC Corp identified that they needed a system to automate production processes, production planning, material tracking, and production line management effectively.
  

• Survey and Requirements Analysis: 

• • After a survey and analysis of the business requirements of each department, we noted that some additional customization requirements were beyond the scope of the original project.
  • We declined these additional development requests even though it could make the customer unhappy. We also guided the customer to look back at the original project goal so they focused on and maximized the use of standard features instead of customizing to meet the requirements of some people.
    

Results

• For the Customer:
  
• • Viindoo's Production Management feature has significantly helped ABC Corp improve production planning, monitoring, and inventory management.
  • Faster project deployment.
  • Customization cost savings for the business.
  • Inventory reports are now automatically and accurately updated, enabling them to better manage demand and supply.
  • The ordering and inventory management processes have become more flexible, minimizing stockouts or excess inventory.
  • Automation has reduced delays and errors, improving employee productivity and enhancing customer satisfaction.
  • The use of standard features has simplified the maintenance and upgrade process. Viindoo regularly performs updates and maintenance.
  • The pre-deployed features come with accompanying documentation and detailed instructions, saving ABC Corp a lot of training time for their employees.

That is a typical example that we still often bring up to let new customers understand the benefits they will have if they stick to the standard features that the software provides.

• Reduce Development Costs: Customization can be expensive, especially if you need to hire a team of developers. Using standard features can help you save on development costs.
  

• Faster Deployment Time: Customization can take a long time, especially if you need to develop new features from scratch. Using standard features can help you save time on the development process.
  

• Quality Assurance: Compliance with standards helps to ensure that the software product meets the set quality requirements. Reduces the risk of errors and bugs during development and Implementation.

• Stability and Reliability: standard features have been tested and refined by the software vendor. This means that they are more likely to be stable and bug-free than custom features.

• Support and Updates: Viindoo provides regular updates and support for its software. This means that you can be confident that your system will always be up-to-date and secure.
  

• Easy to Upgrade and Maintain: Standard features are designed to be easy to upgrade and maintain. This means that you can easily keep your system up-to-date with the latest features and security patches.

• Easy to Use and Train: Standard features are designed to be easy to use and train. This means that you can quickly get your employees up to speed on using the system.
  

Often, after customers become familiar with how the software works, they seem to no longer have any customization requirements because they are really not necessary. Or, if there are small customizations on the interface such as: Customizing quotation templates, adding additional information lines, etc., we encourage customers to use Viindoo Customizer.

Required Cases for Customization

Although using the standard features in the software brings many benefits, there are still cases where software customization becomes necessary or even mandatory. Here are some of these cases:

"Must-have" Features

Evaluating the necessity of a "must-have" feature requires identifying its impact on the core activities of the business. It is important to consider whether the lack of this feature would create a major obstacle in the workflow, could pose a risk to the business, and whether the system could operate without it. At the same time, it is important to consider the costs associated with developing, integrating, and maintaining the feature compared to the benefits it brings.

Specialized Industries

Industries with special requirements such as healthcare, law, or specialized manufacturing need software to be customized to fit internal processes, industry standards, and legal regulations.

In these cases, customization will improve the performance and efficiency of the software. However, it is important to minimize customization development in ERP projects to mitigate potential customization risks.

Viindoo is an effective and versatile business management solution with a wide range of flexible features. By leveraging to the standard features when deploying Viindoo, businesses can maximize the potential of the system, thereby optimizing workflows, saving time and costs, enhancing flexibility and accuracy, security and safety, and providing better customer support. Therefore, deploying Viindoo and leveraging to the standard features is essential for businesses to grow and succeed in the increasingly competitive business environment today.