Free and open source software
One of the advantages of free & open source software (FOSS) is that there is so much of it already freely available. Chances are, for most sets of requirements, there is already a suitable package available under a FOSS license. saosce can help your organisation identify and evaluate these options, and—where appropriate—select, implement and support those that fit your business needs the most closely.
Customisation
However, no two organisations are identical, so often their exact requirements for software also will vary. With FOSS, the license permits modification and redistribution. So if the most suitable FOSS package available fits most but not all of your organisation's requirements, saosce can make the necessary modifications so that the software meets your requirements exactly. This reduces development costs significantly, by avoiding "re-inventing the wheel". The modifications can then be contributed back to the relevant FOSS project, which helps reduce ongoing costs by obviating the need to pay for further development work when updates are released.
Original development
In some circumstances, requirements for software can be so specific to an individual organisation, or so original and innovative, that there is no "wheel" to re-invent and it makes most sense to begin development from scratch. saosce provide both business analysis (sometimes also known as requirements engineering) services to help your organisation define its exact business needs for software, and comprehensive original software development services tailored to those exact requirements.
Porting
Sometimes it is necessary to move software from one hardware platform or operating system to another, in order to adapt to an organisation's changing infrastructure over time (or to enable rationalisation of infrastructure, for example after a merger), or (less commonly) to rewrite software in a different language in order to leverage the maintenance and support abilities of internal IT staff. This process is known as porting. Where the destination operating system is Unix® or Unix-like, regardless of either hardware platform or of source OS or language, saosce deliver effective, well-documented software ports.
Where to now?
saosce have engineers with significant software development expertise with a wide range of platforms and languages and are ideally positioned to meet your software development needs, whether customisations, original development or porting. For a confidential discussion of your organisation's software development needs, contact us at info@saosce.com.au or call today on (08) 8121-3075.