Field notes / Software
Another subscription can solve a problem quickly. It can also create five new ones. Sometimes the better option is a small internal tool built around the way your business already works.
Igniter Studio · 2 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
There is probably a software product for the problem you have.
Possibly twelve.
That is one of the great things about modern software.
It is also why many businesses slowly accumulate a strange collection of systems:
A CRM.
A booking platform.
A form builder.
A spreadsheet.
A project-management tool.
An automation service connecting three of them.
A dashboard nobody fully trusts.
And one particularly important Google Sheet called something like:
FINAL MASTER 2026 v4
None of those tools are necessarily bad.
The problem is that each one represents somebody else's idea of how the work should happen.
Eventually the business starts adapting itself to the software.
Custom software should not be the automatic answer.
If a mature product already solves the problem well, buying it is usually faster and cheaper.
You probably do not need to build your own:
Commodity problems are normally better solved by commodity products.
The interesting point comes when the workflow is specific to the business.
Maybe the company has three existing systems and employees repeatedly copy information between them.
Maybe a standard CRM technically supports the workflow but requires fifteen fields nobody uses.
Maybe the team spends hours every week producing the same operational report.
Maybe customers need a particular portal that does not fit an off-the-shelf product.
At that point the question changes.
Software does not have to be completely wrong to create friction.
Sometimes it is 80% correct.
And that remaining 20% is where the work lives.
A person downloads a CSV.
Cleans three columns.
Copies it into another system.
Renames a status.
Sends an email.
Updates the spreadsheet.
Then repeats it Friday.
Each individual step is small, so the process survives.
For years.
This is one reason inefficient workflows can be hard to see. They do not always feel catastrophic.
They just consume a little bit of time every day.
Spreadsheets are brilliant.
They are flexible, familiar and incredibly fast to create.
When a business begins managing something in a spreadsheet, that is often exactly the right decision.
The interesting moment comes later.
You may notice:
That does not mean spreadsheets are bad.
It may mean the process has matured enough to deserve its own interface.
The spreadsheet was the prototype.
Custom software does not have to mean a giant platform.
Sometimes the useful thing is deliberately small.
Imagine a team receives project requests from customers.
A simple internal tool might:
None of those features are groundbreaking.
Together, they may fit the business much better than forcing the workflow into a generic project-management platform.
That fit is where much of the value comes from.
Building everything from scratch is rarely sensible.
Modern custom software can sit on top of existing specialist services.
Payments can come from Stripe.
Email can come from Resend or another transactional provider.
Authentication can use an established identity service.
Files can live in object storage.
Accounting data can stay in the accounting system.
The custom application becomes the layer that connects the pieces and presents the workflow in a way that matches the business.
That is very different from rebuilding the internet yourself.
There are also clear warning signs.
Custom software is probably the wrong choice if:
Software cannot rescue a process nobody understands.
Sometimes the right first step is simplifying the workflow.
You do not need an elaborate business case.
Start with something basic.
Suppose four people each spend two hours a week preparing information for a recurring report.
That is eight hours every week.
Across a year, it becomes hundreds of hours.
Now add:
Suddenly a “small annoying process” has an economic shape.
That does not automatically justify custom software.
But now you can compare options properly.
Generic tools are excellent at generic workflows.
Custom tools become interesting around the parts of a business that are genuinely particular.
A specialist approval process.
A unique customer journey.
A specific reporting requirement.
A workflow connecting systems that were never designed to work together.
That is where software can become a competitive advantage rather than simply another subscription.
Before buying another tool, it is worth asking:
Do we need more software?
Or do we need the software we already have to work together properly?
Sometimes the answer is another subscription.
Sometimes it is a better process.
And occasionally, the right answer is a small piece of software built specifically for the job.
Your next chapter starts here
Tell me what you’re working on. I’ll help you find a practical way forward.
Let’s talk about it