Custom Software Built for Every Client — Without Starting from Scratch
Companies are as unique as individuals. They have different needs and goals; they come in different sizes and have their own ways of doing things. For these reasons, one-size-fits-all software sometimes leaves companies looking for other solutions that better fit their businesses.
Astecom Business Software in the Netherlands produces custom software solutions designed to meet the specific needs and processes of the companies for which they’re built.
“Our clients usually work with specific business models that prohibit them from using standardized software,” Astecom Programmer Sebastiaan Fisscher says. “We supply custom solutions so that clients can use their desired work processes.”
Astecom creates software solutions that serve a wide variety of specific client needs, such as:
- Helping a call center capture and process all the details from its daily phone calls
- Enabling a company that sells sound systems to manage serial numbers, track components, and invoice customers
- Designing an all-purpose system for a company that sells promotional products, providing online ordering, a warehouse management system (WMS), printing, product customization, and order delivery in one software solution
For most software companies, developing completely custom software isn’t practical because the process is too time-consuming, resource-intensive, and expensive for the customer. For Astecom, providing customer solutions is their primary focus.
How Astecom does it
Although Astecom develops customized software solutions, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel each time to create them. When possible, the developers incorporate interchangeable modules that have already been built — for example, modules that add certain types of menus or particular printing options. These interchangeable modules are built in a way that allows them to be integrated into all Astecom’s applications, saving time and standardizing the code.
The software developers at Astecom use the PxPlus platform to build modules and software solutions. They started using PxPlus in 1995 and never looked back. They have used PxPlus all these years because it is easy to write, maintain, update, and troubleshoot PxPlus code.
“Problems can be solved on the fly because you do not need to compile the code first. This is a huge advantage,” Sebastiaan says. “In addition, PxPlus is built to handle large databases with ease, which is beneficial to both our developers and our customers.”
Continuous improvements for long-term service
Being able to easily maintain and update PxPlus code is important to Astecom because it supports its clients’ solutions over the long term. For example, in 1986, Astecom developed wholesale distribution software in Business Basic for a client, which it later transitioned to ProvideX and ultimately to PxPlus. Over the years, Astecom worked closely with the client to improve and expand the software to meet changing needs.
The software was used for over 15 years, until 2002 when the client’s board of directors decided to switch to Microsoft Dynamics. However, after two years of migration and one year of implementation, the wholesale company realized “the new software was not satisfactory,” Sebastiaan says.
Finally, in 2005, the wholesale company’s board of directors returned to Astecom’s wholesale application. Once again, Astecom worked closely with the client to modernize the software — and to add new functionality and features that helped the client modernize its warehouse operations, too.
“Even the conveyor belts in the warehouses are being controlled by our software. We have also made a voice picking module that tells the pickers which items belong to a particular shipment. The software has automated every level of the business’s processes, from ordering the goods to analytics and reporting functions that create management information for the board of directors,” Sebastiaan explains.
The software is now used by the client in multiple languages and countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Belgium, and France. The level of customized control is extremely granular.
A new frontier
Realizing that not every company needs a custom solution that is so extensive — but every company does need to keep track of its finances — Astecom launched its first off-the-shelf application, Finast Financial Software, in 2013.
Although Finast is standardized software, it is designed to be integrated with any of their other custom-developed software applications — like the Astecom wholesale software solution. It is also possible to interface Finast with a wide variety of third-party applications to provide back-end financial information.
Finast easily integrates with other solutions because PxPlus is platform agnostic. In addition, PxPlus is continually being updated in response to major developments in information and computing technologies.
“PxPlus is a modern programming language that keeps improving. This is one of the reasons why Astecom can keep on developing modern and fresh applications,” Sebastiaan adds. “All in all, PxPlus is a programming language that will stay with us for a long time. It enables us to provide our clients with exciting new products.”
[cta]There’s a reason developers prefer PxPlus! Email theplus@pvxplus.com or call 1-888-975-PLUS today to learn more.[/cta]
