Since the introduction of cloud-based app-style software, the intense debate on a single integrated ERP vs best-in-breed software has re-ignited.
The debate for best-in-breed supporters has always been that an ERP solution cannot meet 100% of an enterprise’s business process requirements and that certain elements of the implementation will suit certain departments better than others.
However, on the flip side, a single ERP solution ensures that those same departments are tightly integrated to ensure that duplicate transactions and processes do not occur. A very simple and basic example is that of an employee record. To keep the master record in the payroll system, what app do you use? The OH&S or the timesheet and scheduling app? Which record takes priority, how do you ensure commonality in the structure of the data? Which one is correct if it is kept in multiple formats when using data analysis tools?
Because of the above, companies will pursue the idea of integration, and again the new detractors will advise that with the advent of open API’s that this is no longer as big an issue as a decade ago. However in our experience, we find the cost of a software implementation can very easily blow out or become cost prohibitive when integration between disparate systems occur, regardless of the new open sharing of data.
ERP vs Best-in-Breed Solution Evolution
An ERP solution is commonly upgraded as a single software entity, usually every 12 to 18 months. Best-in-breed software, especially downloadable apps, releases patches and releases continuously and automatically, without the ability to choose when the release is installed. If integrations between apps have been implemented, managing any change that needs to occur is extremely risky and complex.
Selecting an ERP solution is seen as a long-term strategic decision that impacts the whole of the organisation. It has also been the opinion of best-in-breed software providers that due to its rather larger and more complex nature, it is not able to keep up with modern-day functionality and environments. However, we have seen that ERP software vendors are able to keep up-to-date with the introduction of cloud technology and lean development methodologies. In some cases, vendors are able to release much more stable and feature-rich upgrades than their smaller counterparts.
One Size Can Fit All
ERP vendors have acknowledged that not one business process fits all. An ERP system still has to fit into an enterprise with minimal disruption. Because of this, vendors have taken a more holistic and lean approach to the ERP implementation. This allows smaller companies to adopt an ERP solution through a careful and more specific approach to their size, company roadmap and business processes than the more traditional way of blue-sky thinking.
Scope Systems has experience in both types of implementations. If you can meet your business processes with at least 80% of the functionality of an integrated ERP solution we find this is still the most cost-effective and risk-averse way than multiple best-in-breed software apps.
