Best of Breed vs. Integrated Systems: The Battle Continues
The debate between buying best of breed software products versus fully integrated systems has raged on for as long as there have been integrated platforms. Each approach certainly has its pros and cons. The interesting thing about this debate is that there is no clearly defined right or wrong. Making these types of decisions is truly a combination of art and science.
In some cases, you may have no choice. You may need the specialized features of a particular software package. You may have a corporate contract with a vendor who markets a fully integrated platform, the new module you want to install is included in your site license, and you can use it for free. That said, getting the justification to spend an additional $100,000 on a best of breed application with slightly better functionality and a nicer user interface is hard to justify.
So what do you do if you are not the decision maker in a best of breed versus integrated platforms debate?
If your systems are best of breed, you have the best possible functionality. Your issues, however, may lie in the areas of standardization, data integration, data flow, process flow, vendor management, coordinated software upgrades, and non-transferable skill sets.
If your systems are fully integrated, you certainly have a great fully integrated product set. Some of the modules, however, may be better than others, and you may have issues with high reliance on a single vendor, weaker functionality in some of the modules, lack of easy integration with software outside the vendor's core product suite, and less control over future software upgrades.
When you add cloud-based software into the mix, the issues both simplify and magnify. The simplification is due to the operational ease that comes with cloud-based products because the vendor performs the upgrades, handles disaster recovery, provides customer support, performs the nightly backups, and manages data security.
The downside of integrating cloud-based products into your best of breed environment or connecting it to a full product suite is that it further fractures your data model by storing the primary copy of selected production data outside your firewall and away from your core corporate databases. This cloud-based complication is certainly manageable, but it is yet another hurdle that must be overcome toward your goal of a stable, manageable production environment.
Each of these software architecture types has its challenges. Therefore, it's easy to look longingly at the perceived top functionality of best of breed or the perceived ease of operation of integrated platforms. Should you decide to invest the money, sweat, and tears associated with replacing core systems, do it with your eyes open to the operational challenges of your future architecture. If you're not careful, your new product set may be just as difficult to support as the one you left behind.
