It seems like there has always been conversation between custom development and off-the-shelf software.  It also clearly seems to be an area where there is no clear answer other than "it depends".

We try to help in the discussion by looking at software as a bridge with the real goal being the business objectives.  The right answer needs to look at a few different questions:

• Is there existing software that does what you want?
• How much of your objective is met by the software as is?
• How can you address those gaps?

More than one smart business leader has stumbled delivering what is reported to be an easy existing platform that "just needs a few tweaks" only to see the project extend deadlines by months and tens of thousands of dollars.  Large organizations are not immune to that same issue, and while they may have the funds to insulate themselves from the impact of a delay, shareholders inevitably start loosing patience when cost overruns occur.

An entrepreneurial eye and a clear set of objectives and openly reviewed timeline can develop something that is both standards-compliant for easy data portability, and also finely tuned to do exactly what the business needs without the waste of time or feature.  You literally pay only for what you need and get exactly what you pay for.

By keeping costs down with a experienced delivery team, particularly for the business automation space and for entrepreneurs trying to bring a concept to light, custom development can not only be the right answer but also an economical one.

Nomad.Works has completed development work with innovative social platform urJELLY, in partnership with Skyfall Blue.  A large PHP project with programming complexities around user profiles and security, site interactivity, and tight deadlines, James Mackenzie, CEO of Nomad.Works, was pleased to be able to deliver exceptional value to urJELLY CEO Brent Blythe along with Skyfall Blue CEO Fadi Ghaby.

Mr. Mackenzie comments further: "Any time a customer is trying to build something special and unique, they are taking a risk.  We work around the clock with our dedicated team to deliver on time and on budget and remove that risk for them.  The urJELLY project is just such a unique platform, and I'm glad we were able to blow them away and help turn their vision into a reality."

urJELLY, an innovative user-created lifestyle experience guide allows users to share similar lifestyle interests and is poised to become the next big thing in social media.  The urJELLY platform allows members to define, join, and rate groups that share similar lifestyle interests.  Once a member of one or more lifestyle groups, the platform enables users to share their real world experiences that are relevant to a lifestyle through collections of products, services, locations, and media.  They make online discovery better by offering socially intuitive ways to search, shop, and share.

Nomad.Works accepted a Bronze award in the top People's Choice category of the Bootstrap Awards put on by Exploriem, an entrepreneurial network founded by Dr. Bruce Firestone.

"Despite being a small company," says James Mackenzie, CEO of Nomad.Works, "we are passionate about delivering the best value and technology solutions for customers.  This award shows well that business automation and web app development is our sweet spot where we can help customers across the board and keep them happy despite the complexity."

The Bootstrap Awards started in 2004 in Ottawa, Canada. The overarching purpose of the Awards is to recognize and celebrate entrepreneurs in Ottawa, Gatineau, Eastern Ontario and West Quebec who have successfully founded new enterprises by self funding or bootstrapping them.  The ceremony honours self-capitalized startups aged seven years or less that have received no more than $650,000 in external funding.

Exploriem provides mentorship, conducts events, creates networking opportunities and provides early stage funding and office incubator space to assist young entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and artpreneurs in the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau as well as in Eastern Ontario and West Quebec.

OTTAWA — Nomad.Works announced a partnership to provide Granite Networks software development and business acceleration services.  These services, which include software integration and data migration, provide a technology application roadmap for one of Ottawa’s fastest growing technology infrastructure companies.

“This is the best data centre around, bar none,” states James Mackenzie, 2012 Forty Under 40 Award winner and CEO of Nomad.Works.  “We are pleased to be involved in a services partnership that merges best of breed application development with operational processes to support Granite Networks’ rapid growth.”

"Granite Networks is focused on serving the needs of demanding customers that are concerned about their data and the reliability of their information systems,” says Rainer Paduch, Granite Networks’ CEO.  “Granite Networks is building a collaboration of like-minded partners to continually improve how information is managed in the National Capital Region.  We are working with Nomad.Works to help put in place critical automated infrastructure to better serve our clients."

“Nomad.Works looks forward to continuing to provide the technology solutions that support Granite Networks in their ongoing success,” said Mackenzie.  “As Granite’s business expands, we look forward to working in partnership with them to provide the most modern and cost-effective technology solutions.”

Nomad.Works recently announced a strategic partnership with Skyfall Blue, an industry fresh PR, guerilla marketing, and strategic communications company, services that Granite Networks can now be leveraged under its services agreement.

ABOUT NOMAD.WORKS

Nomad.Works, a Canadian Application Development and Managed Apps team, is a dynamic and professional application development and technology solutions company with a proven record in design, application development, security and systems management.  Nomad.Works' portfolio includes THICKbrick, the only fully automated and customized content management system (CMS) specially designed for real estate agents that includes social media integration, SEO, and an easy to use administration tool that saves agents hours and dollars every single time.

ABOUT GRANITE NETWORKS

Granite Networks is a vendor and carrier neutral hosting company built with Tier 3 and LEED standards in mind, offering colocation, managed services, and cloud hosting services to small and medium businesses in the Ottawa area and beyond. This specialty data centre focuses on four main features: carrier neutrality, support for high densities, high reliability, and legendary customer service.

ABOUT SKYFALL BLUE

SKYFALL BLUE is a multilingual full-service business development, web development, marketing and public relations agency that offers fresh and innovative solutions to any business operations and communications challenge. SKYFALL BLUE produces creative and compelling campaigns that will guarantee to garner optimum coverage and maximize return on investment.