The shift from buying to building
For years, a clear rule applied in IT: first look for an existing product on the market, and only consider custom development if none is available. That logic made sense. Custom software was expensive, time-consuming, and risky. Buying a SaaS product was faster, more affordable, and safer.
That trade-off is shifting. With AI-supported software development, building targeted, custom applications has become faster and more accessible than ever. At the same time, the limitations of SaaS products become more visible as organizations grow and their processes become more specific.
SaaS is a strong choice when you need proven functionality for a well-defined business process. Think of email marketing, project management, planning, customer service or finance. There is no need to build your own software, and you benefit from continuous updates, security and ongoing product development by the vendor. This makes SaaS an attractive option for organisations that want to get started quickly, prefer limited technical responsibility or have relatively standard business processes.
A standard SaaS product is designed for a broad market. This works well as long as your processes fit that standard. In practice, three common bottlenecks tend to emerge.
01
SaaS products offer configuration options, but those have limits. In many organizations, teams end up adapting their way of working to the software instead of the other way around. That leads to compromises that build up over time: workarounds, manual steps, and processes that never run quite smoothly.
02
Many SaaS products use a pay-per-user model. With ten users, that is still manageable. With one hundred or more, licensing costs can rise quickly, especially when you use multiple SaaS products alongside each other.
03
With a SaaS product, your data is hosted on the vendor’s infrastructure, often with an international cloud provider. You have limited control over where that data is stored. For organizations where data sovereignty, compliance, or local hosting are important, this can be an issue.
That does not mean SaaS is always the wrong choice. For many use cases, it remains a logical and efficient model. You outsource part of the responsibility: the vendor keeps the software up to date, secure, and continuously improved. But when the drawbacks start to outweigh that convenience, it makes sense to look at alternatives.
Many organizations try to make their existing software work more efficiently. Processes are tightened, integrations are added and teams create workarounds to keep the system manageable. That can work for a while. Until the platform itself becomes the limitation.
Standard software works as long as your processes fit within the package. But as your organization grows, you often find yourself adapting your way of working to the system.
Think of it as an off-the-rack suit. It may fit well enough, but it was not made for you. Custom software starts with how your organization really works. A tailored suit, in other words: precisely fitted to your processes, people and growth ambitions.
We focus on building relatively compact software products, each designed to support a specific task. This aligns with a composable architecture approach: instead of one large monolithic system, you build smaller, focused applications that work together within your digital landscape.
Each custom software product is designed for a specific task, workflow or user group within your organization. That means you avoid unnecessary functionality and create software that supports the way your business actually operates.
Think of a custom CRM tailored to your organization’s customer relationships and workflows. A reservation tool that fits how your hotels or restaurants handle bookings. An internal portal where employees access information and follow processes specific to your way of working. A registration system, a workflow tool, or a dashboard that shows exactly the insights your team needs.
The principle is always the same: the software fits your business processes, not the other way around. And when those processes change, the software evolves with them.
What makes the difference compared to five years ago? Agentic Engineering. It is a way of developing software in which AI agents independently carry out tasks within the development process: writing code, generating tests, identifying bugs, and proposing solutions. Our developers direct those agents, review the output, and make the decisions. The AI executes, the human stays in control.
In practice, this means that an application that used to take months can now be delivered in weeks. That has fundamentally lowered the threshold for custom software. Where custom development used to be feasible mainly for large projects with substantial budgets, it is now a realistic alternative to SaaS products that no longer fit.
That changes the trade-off. The question is no longer, “Can we afford to build custom software?” but, “Can we afford to keep using a product that does not fit?”
With a custom software product, your organization owns the product. You own the code, decide where the data is stored, and determine when and how the software is further developed. There is no vendor setting the roadmap or increasing prices.
You choose your own hosting environment: with a major cloud provider if that suits you, in a sovereign cloud if that fits your compliance requirements, or on local infrastructure if needed. You rarely have that level of freedom with a SaaS product.
SaaS products often provide standard integrations. Those are useful, but they do not always fit your existing architecture, data model or back-office processes. A custom software product can be designed as part of your digital landscape from day one. This makes integrations with your CMS, e-commerce platform, ERP, CRM and other business systems more reliable, easier to maintain and better aligned with the way your organization works.
If your business processes fit well within the capabilities of an existing product, licensing costs remain manageable and you have no specific requirements around data sovereignty, hosting or integrations, SaaS is often the right choice.
If you increasingly rely on workarounds, face rising licensing costs, need greater control or struggle with integrations that do not fit your digital landscape, a custom software product becomes a more attractive option. This is especially true when you need a dedicated application for a specific task, workflow or group of users.
Many custom development agencies build software as a standalone product. For us, custom software is part of a broader digital landscape. Because we also build the CMS and e-commerce platforms and handle the integrations with your back-office systems, it becomes much easier to fit a custom application into what is already there. The same partner, the same architectural principles, and the same understanding of your systems.
We also work with our clients over the long term. We know the domain, the processes, and the context. That means we do not have to start from scratch when designing a custom product. We understand how your organization works, which systems are in place, and where the opportunities lie. That domain knowledge leads to better software, delivered faster.
We would be glad to think along with you. With our technical expertise and years of experience in digital platforms, we help you make the right choices for your digital landscape.
Custom business software is developed specifically for your organisation's processes, data and way of working. Examples include planning systems, CRM platforms, customer portals, quotation tools and industry-specific applications. Unlike off-the-shelf software, you decide which functionality is included and how the software works.
Custom software fits your business processes precisely, eliminates per-user licence fees, gives you full control over where the software is hosted and makes you the owner of the source code. It also evolves with your organisation. New functionality can be added whenever you need it, without waiting for a vendor's product roadmap.
Custom software requires a larger upfront investment and typically takes longer to deliver than purchasing a SaaS subscription. You are also responsible for maintenance, updates and security, or you can outsource these tasks to a managed services partner. For generic business functions such as accounting, standard software is usually the more practical choice. Custom software delivers the greatest value when your business processes provide a competitive advantage.
Yes. This is one of its biggest advantages. Standard software often forces organisations to adapt their processes to the application, resulting in workarounds, spreadsheets and manual steps. Custom software is designed around the way your organisation works. For processes that differentiate your business, this leads to greater efficiency and competitive advantage.
Yes. You choose where your custom software is hosted, whether on your own servers (on-premises), in a private cloud or with a European cloud provider. This is an important difference compared to SaaS, where the vendor decides where your data is stored. For organisations with strict requirements around data residency, such as healthcare providers or public sector organisations, this flexibility is often essential.
Yes. With custom software, you choose your hosting provider, technology stack and integrations, and you can keep your data within Australia, New Zealand, Europe or another preferred jurisdiction. Regulations such as the US CLOUD Act may allow US authorities to access data held by American cloud providers, regardless of where that data is physically stored. As a result, more organisations are prioritising digital sovereignty through software they control, hosted on infrastructure that meets their regulatory and business requirements.
With SaaS, you depend on the vendor's functionality, pricing and terms, and migrating to another platform can be expensive and complex. With custom software, you own the source code and choose your own hosting environment and integrations. While you will naturally build a relationship with your development partner, that dependency can be minimised through good documentation, widely adopted technologies and clear agreements about ownership and transferability.
Because you own the source code and documentation, another development team can take over the software if needed. At New Orange, we build with widely adopted technologies such as Microsoft .NET and React, and we deliver complete documentation and transferable code. This ensures your software remains maintainable, even if you decide to change development partners in the future.
That depends on the development approach. At New Orange, security is built into the development process through security by design, code reviews, access management and regular security assessments, supported by our ISO 27001 and NEN 7510 certifications. Another advantage of custom software is that it is not a common target for large-scale attacks aimed at widely used off-the-shelf platforms, while you remain in control of the security measures that are implemented.
Yes. With custom software, compliance is incorporated from the design stage. Data minimisation, access control, audit logging, data residency and processor agreements become part of the application itself. For healthcare organisations, we develop according to the NEN 7510 standard. For organisations subject to NIS2, working with an ISO 27001-certified development partner helps demonstrate supply chain security and compliance.
The investment depends on the size and complexity of the application. Thanks to Agentic Engineering, where AI agents support developers throughout the software development process, development costs have decreased significantly in recent years. New Orange works with fixed-price projects, so you know the investment upfront. When comparing custom software with SaaS, always consider the total cost of ownership over several years. Without per-user licence fees, your costs do not increase as your organisation grows.
A first working version is often delivered within a few weeks to a few months. We develop software iteratively, starting with the core functionality and expanding it based on real-world usage and user feedback. This allows you to realise value quickly while retaining flexibility throughout the project.
Ownership of the source code is agreed upon before development starts. As the client, you receive the rights to the software developed specifically for your organisation. This means you are not dependent on software licences or a vendor that can unilaterally change pricing or functionality.
Yes, increasingly so. For many years, custom software was only financially viable for large organisations. Thanks to AI-assisted software development, the required investment has become much lower. For businesses with specialised processes, such as manufacturers, logistics companies or professional services firms, custom software can be more cost-effective than paying for multiple SaaS subscriptions that only partially meet their requirements.
Yes. With custom software, you decide which AI capabilities are included and which data they use. Examples include automated document processing, intelligent search functionality and AI agents that perform tasks within your application. Because you control the architecture, you also control which data is shared with AI models and which data remains private.
For generic business functions such as accounting, email or HR administration, off-the-shelf software is usually the better option. These solutions are mature, affordable and widely supported. Custom software delivers the greatest value for business processes that differentiate your organisation. In practice, many organisations choose a hybrid approach: standard software where it makes sense, custom software where it creates competitive advantage.
We develop custom software using small teams of experienced developers supported by AI agents through our Agentic Engineering approach, delivering projects on a fixed-price basis. We provide honest advice on when standard software is the better choice and where custom software creates real value. After launch, we continue to support your application with proactive maintenance and management. Our development processes are certified to ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and NEN 7510 standards.