Have you seen those internet ads, mobile app for under $5000?
I have. I was lost and confused, how on earth could a company honestly say that they can provide a custom mobile app for under $5,000 and are people honestly believing this?
So, I did a Google search and found a few companies that marketed their service as such. Heck, I even found articles on this topic. The truth of this topic is that custom software is not easy, it is not quick to create, and it is not well…I won’t say cheap…but, I will say that a custom software option is not readily available to every influencer and organization.
But don’t be discouraged, The Community Cloud is an alternative to custom software.
Over 30% of Custom Software fail for one or more reasons.
Let’s start from the beginning, before The Community Cloud, we built custom software for influencers and organizations. We helped them to define unique web and mobile customer experiences and built either a booking, registration, ticketing, and ecommerce stores that allowed him to sell products, services, and accept bookings from a website or mobile app.
After many custom software projects, most successful and some not so successful, we saw a trend and mirrored a study by Geneca. They surveyed over 700 businesses and IT executives and 75% admitted that their projects failed. I am happy to share that our failure rate was much lower, but still, that number is high for the industry. Custom software projects failed because the organization seeking the service did not have the expertise nor the experience to 1) build the custom software and 2) manage the organizational or end user change management effort that was needed. In those cases, a customer misunderstood the need and ended up building the wrong thing or ran out of money. They ran out of money, because they underestimated the resources needed to support end users and enhance the software to meet new needs. They build the wrong thing, because in most cases, they did not verify the customer need with the innovative idea, or they gave customers more than what they needed.
Why Influencers and Organization think they need custom software
Through past experiences, and working with Customers of The Community Cloud, we learned that influencers and organizations were looking for software that enabled people to engage each other, purchase experiences, products or services, while enjoying the benefits of having access to a group of people that have a connection to an experience, product, service, or cause from any device.
These customers used Facebook, Instagram, a Mighty Network or another social media platform for engagement. Salesforce or another marketing automation tool to manage the pipeline of new customers or members, a customer relationship management (CRM) or a Member Management (MM) to manage customer and member information; shopify and squarespace to sell products, or a WordPress website and its deep library of plugins to have an online store, a message board for engagement, and a lot of time to connect the different software solutions together.
Before they invested months of time figuring out and standardizing manual processes, then paying tens of thousands of dollars to build or purchase and integrate a booking, registration, ticketing, or online stores that allowed him to sell products, services, and accept bookings into a custom web or mobile app, that XYZ says will fail 70% of the time.
Like we said above, don’t be discouraged, there is an easier way…read on.
A better alternative to custom software
The community cloud is a better alternative than custom software. Members have a Facebook alternative that includes branded mobile apps, and web portal in the influencers or organizations brand. This branded Facebook alternative has the tools to facilitate member connection and a special connection to the influencer or organization.
Nonmembers have a marketplace that integrates into your existing website or a Community Cloud theme where they can purchase experiences, products, accept service bookings, and register for trainings without being a member of your Cloud Community.
A Cloud Community is the result of lessons and the feedback hundreds of customers and created for you process and the platform that will meet most of your engagement product sales and marketing needs all in one platform. Our goal is for you the influencer and organization to provide to be the platform we’re engagement starts continues and gross.
What’s the best way to explore a Cloud Community?
There are 3 ways to explore The Community Cloud:
- Get started with a free account. Create a Marketplace or start a free trial with our Community Plan.
- Join the Community Center. This is a resource for community leaders. We recommend several popular articles specifically designed for people who already have a community and how-to articles to maximize your cloud community.
- Join a Webinar. Register and join our monthly webinar where one of our community experts can share the latest enhancements and helpful tips to grow your online community.