The Default Answer Is Usually SaaS — And Usually Right
For most business problems, a SaaS tool exists. CRM, project management, invoicing, HR, marketing automation — if the problem is common, someone has already built a subscription product for it. Start there.
SaaS gives you a working product on day one, a team maintaining it, and costs that scale with your usage. For standard business processes, this is hard to beat.
When SaaS Starts to Break Down
The cracks appear when your business has process requirements that don't match the SaaS product's assumptions. You start working around the tool: exporting data to spreadsheets, manually bridging two systems that don't integrate, training staff to use a UI that doesn't match how your team actually works.
In Korea specifically, several categories of SaaS have gaps:
- Korean-specific compliance: 세금계산서 (tax invoice), 사업자등록번호 validation, Korean address formatting — global SaaS tools often handle these poorly or not at all.
- Naver-integrated workflows: Naver Smart Store, Naver Pay, Naver Reservation — connecting these into a unified backend typically requires custom work.
- Legacy industry workflows: Manufacturing, logistics, and medical workflows in Korea often have decades of accumulated process complexity that no off-the-shelf SaaS was designed to handle.
A Decision Framework
Ask these questions in order:
- Does a SaaS tool exist that covers at least 80% of what I need? If yes, start with that tool. Adapt your process to fit where possible.
- Am I spending significant time on workarounds? If your team spends more than 20% of their time bridging gaps in the tool, the tool is costing you more than the subscription fee.
- Is this a competitive differentiator? If your process is the thing that makes your business better than competitors, you probably don't want to constrain it to what a generic SaaS product allows.
- What is the total cost of ownership? Compare: (SaaS subscription × years) + (staff time on workarounds × years) vs. (custom development) + (maintenance × years). Custom software often looks expensive upfront and cheap over time.
The Hybrid Path
Many of the best solutions are hybrids. Use a SaaS tool for what it does well — email marketing, calendar management, payment processing — and build custom software for the specific workflow or integration layer that's unique to your business.
This avoids rebuilding what already exists and focuses custom development where it creates the most value.
What JView Lab Recommends
Our first question is always: what does your team actually do every day, and where does the current toolset create friction? From that answer, we can tell you whether custom development makes sense, and — if it does — what scope would deliver real return on investment.
We're happy to tell you to use a SaaS tool if that's the right answer. Our goal is your operational efficiency, not selling development hours.