Yesterday Xero posted a blog reflecting on whether it is better to have an "all in one solution", or to take on board different partners and have the best of breed available for choosing.
Following is Stuart's comment to that blogpost, which we wanted to share with you.
Best of breed or all in one?
In my mind, and my thoughts on this have only solidified over the last 18-24 months, there is no argument. There are 3 reasons why this is the case.
1. The consumer has choice.
In nearly every category of software you can choose between an integrated set of products from multiple vendors or an all in one solution from one vendor. Medium to large businesses might choose Salesforce for CRM and Timberline for manufacturing or SAP to do all of the work. Small business might choose Xero and Paycycle for their GL and payroll respectively or Saasu to do everything. Both are fine options, and your decision rests entirely on the needs of the business in question. No one (and certainly not us) will criticize that choice.The issues arise when your do-everything software becomes a compromise in one particular area.
What if the CRM component is not powerful enough to drive the sales results that you thought it could? What if the point of sale component no longer meets your expanding needs? Do you change just that component? You now need some level of custom integration. Which brings me to the second point.
2. Who’s better at doing integration?
The customer or the vendor? Or more pertinent perhaps is who can afford to conclude a comprehensive integration project? And maintain that integration through various points of future upgrade. It is in the interests of best in class vendors to provide that comprehensive integration. Even in this day and age I hear ridiculous arguments like “but we’ll need 2 logins”. Please. I bet your home network has more than that. Irrespective, as integration becomes deeper and more sophisticated, the rudimentary friction points will be overcome by vendors who are committed to providing a first class offering.
3. Best in class vendors are hungrier than the all in one solution.
Back in 1999, when I worked in sales for Oracle, we always knew that if we lost to SAP on the ERP sale we’d still win the database. That’s because our database was the only one in town. So the development effort, at that stage, didn’t really focus on the parts we couldn’t win.
Times have changed, but the reality is, I know that we can offer the greatest payroll interface in Australia. Because that is our job. And we won’t rest until that becomes a reality. We don’t need to worry about GL or CRM or anything and everything else. Just payroll. Boring as batshit to most people, but something that we are deeply passionate about. I know Xero feel the same way about their GL. You can feel it.
Do you see that level of passion in the MYOB UI or the UI of other large vendors?