In business, you often have to make a choice between niche software and general software. Niche products are products that are designed and marketed specifically to businesses like yours; they tend to be industry-specific. For example: a vet’s office would not be able to use the niche software designed for a construction firm.
These niche products compete with general products; products that are just designed to be beneficial to any business, and can be (somewhat) customized to suit your business’ needs. Continuing the same example from above; both the vet’s office and the construction firm would be able to use general software to manage their IT requirements.
The choice between niche and general products is one that all businesses have to make, but is there a right answer when it comes to making this decision?
We think so— niche software products should receive a big “yes” from any savvy business owners, and here’s why we’re confident enough to say that…
Niche software is able to understand what your specific industry requires
The Hot Software Niche in Search of a New Name
Niche software is designed for specific industries, which means it is able to really meet the needs of your business on a deeper level. It knows what kind of business you run, the information you need to store, and how your system needs to be setup for maximum efficiency.
Different businesses have different needs
No two businesses are alike, but businesses that share a niche are similar, especially when compared to businesses outside of that niche. If you run a vet’s office, then specially-designed veterinary software would prioritize the things that really matter to the way your business is run. With general software, you might find a quoting system is incorporated into the software— which is very useful for construction firms, but no use whatsoever for a vet. However, because the software is trying to appeal to as many businesses as possible, you’re stuck with a useless tool that you don’t need, will never use, and is just clogging up storage space.
You may experience this same problem over and over again with general software; it is simply trying to please far too many different niches at once, which can mean generalized software struggles to truly please anyone.
The problem with a “jack of all trades”
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Even if you can find generalized software that delivers everything you require to run your business, it’s worth asking yourself a simple question: “will that software be able to perform as well as niche-specific software?”
Chances are, it won’t. General software that is applicable to all business types is a “jack of all trades”. It tries to do enough things well so that the software works for all businesses, but there’s really no comparison to niche-specific software. While general software might be able to be okay at performing the duties you require of it, the niche software will always be able to do it better. If general software is the jack of all trades, niche software is the true master it lags behind.
In conclusion
Productivity, efficiency, and ease of use matter when selecting the software for your business. If you want to maximize these areas for your company, then choose niche over general software every time— it will almost certainly be the better product to meet your IT needs.
