Systems and applications software
Types of Application Software
There are many different types of applications software and I shall explain these below.
Package Software
Generic Software
Integrated Software
Office software is integrated software consisting of word processing, database, presentation and desktop publishing software.
Microsoft Office is an integrated package as well as each of its office-type suites being a generic package. Office-type suites bundle popular applications software together.
There are other Office-type packages apart from Microsoft Office. One of these packages is called Star Office by a company called Sun Microsystems.
Some advantages of integrated packages over separate application packages are:
- They are cheaper to buy as a bundle rather than separately
- They are easier to transfer data from one of the modules to another. For example, it is easier to process data in a spreadsheet, draw a graph and and then incorporate the graph in a document produced using word processing software
- It is easier to install because it all installs together so only one installation is needed rather than for each individual piece.
Some disadvantages of integrate packages over separate applications packages are:
- You have to pay for some packages which you many never use so this could be seen as a waste of money
- Some of the individual packages may not be as good as some other individual ones, meaning that you could be sacrificing quality when spending a little bit more money to purchase the ones you want would give you a better outcome.
Other Types
Bespoke software, which is sometimes called tailor-made software, as it is specifically made created for the business or organisation who ask for it. It is produced when there is no suitable software package around and is a very expensive option.
Some of its advantages are; an organisation does not have to change how it works to personalize it to do the job they want it to (this has already been done), you can get the creator of the software to make it do exactly what you want and there may not be a suitable software package on the market so this would be in replacement of that.
Some disadvantages of it are; much more expensive than buying off a shelf and it may contain errors that were not discovered through testing. This would not occur in a mass market applications software because it is likely that the testing done would be much more in-depth.