Resource Management Software

Strategy

Our rules for engagement with GPT and LLMs

For a custom software business in the year 2023, large language models (LLMs) like GPT are hard to avoid. GPT takes have flooded tech news while GPT projects constitute an overwhelming proportion of trending open-sourced software. It’s not just hype: LLMs have proven remarkably adept at writing code, generating content, and assisting with research— all pertinent to our operation. Prognosticators wonder if the shift to AI-driven development permanently alters the custom software industry. The emerging art of Prompt Engineering speaks to a shift. And so, after careful consideration, we have crafted this framework for dealing with LLMs internally.

Insight

Custom software development: what every business should avoid

You’ve probably heard a success story or two about custom software development, something like “ordinary guy launches a popular mobile app” or “business cuts costs in two with a clever digital system”. Perhaps you’ve also heard of a flop— maybe a friend sank money into an idea that didn’t take off, or a colleague owned a faltering IT migration. The horror stories, though depressing, can teach the most. So if you’re considering a foray into custom application development services, get to know the points of failure. They’re less public, so unfortunately many learn someone else’s hard lesson again.

Insight

Custom Automation Solutions for Business

Thinking of automating a piece of your business? You’re probably onto something. Most companies, even tech-savvy companies like yours, can unlock huge gains by taking advantage of automation opportunities. Investing in custom automation solutions will pay dividends. In this introductory guide, we examine some great custom automation tools and explain (in detail) how you can implement your own automation solutions at your business.

Insight

Why we’re moving away from Firebase

We’ve launched dozens of applications on Firebase, utilized nearly every facet of the platform, and designed a playbook for scaling gracefully. Suffice it to say, it’s proven an invaluable tool for K-Optional Software. As recently as March 2022, our developers were cheering innovations like Firebase Extensions. Unfortunately, three major developments in the past few months have polluted the developer experience and consequently K-Optional will shift towards alternatives for green projects.

Insight

The perils of single-client SaaS products

Subscription revenue is the gift that keeps on giving; who doesn’t value long-term and predictable income? Multi-billion-dollar companies like Adobe have transitioned their products to subscription-based payments for good reason. Even so, product creators might be overly-disposed to conforming to this model- alternate pricing systems often make more sense depending on a few aspects of the user-base.

Strategy

When to buy, and when to build custom software

Explore the build vs buy dilemma in software development with a real-world case study, and learn to strike the right balance between off-the-shelf solutions and custom software.