"Our Take" - Suite versus Best of Breed

(Past Editions by: Date, Title, Topic)

 
About "Our Take" 
"Our Take" is a collection of daily vignettes covering a wide range of CRM topics. It's an attempt to add our own spin to the world of CRM. We will use the column to share our perspectives, opinions, epiphanies, web nuggets, or quite frankly anything that moves us. Get ready to expect the unexpected. And, don't be shy about sharing your thoughts.
 
 
9/15/06 - Best-of-Breed or Suites - Here We Go Again
It's been a while since I've talked about best-of-breed (BOB) versus suite solutions. My views haven't really changed but I find it interesting that the collective intelligence of Gartner analysts seems to be in motion with regard to the debate.
 
Here's the latest scoop. There are over 50 CRM submarkets and no one vendor will ever cover all of them. Some say the most comprehensive suites will cover 50 - 60% at best. And remember, that is functional coverage and not necessarily functional excellence.
 
If you believe that assessment, it stands to reason that you cannot get all your needs met by one vendor. If you have to have multiple vendors, why not go best-of-breed? But that brings up another issue. If you have to have multiple solutions from multiple vendors, you cannot ignore your integration strategies. More on that later.
 
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
 
9/18/06 - Best-of-Breed Wins
Today, we continue the discussion regarding best-of-breed solutions and their superiority over suite solutions. Gartner's current guidance suggests best-of-breed is often the way to go. That guidance represents a change from their former position that suite solutions are often the better choice.
 
So why the change? Does it have to do with Oracle's acquisition of other enterprise suite solutions (Siebel, Peoplesoft) or the difficulty of implementing SAP's CRM solutions? Are best-of-breed solutions maturing to the point of enterprise credibility?
 
All of those reasons contribute to the strength in best-of-breed solutions. Another is that one-trick ponies are just that. They do one thing, so they have to do it well or they have no value proposition. CRM implementation failures often happen because people bite off more than they can chew. Acquiring and implementing best-of-breed minimizes getting in over your head. Do you agree?
 
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
 
9/19/06 - Best-of-Breed Solutions and Integration
Perhaps another reason best-of-breed solutions are gaining momentum is a general ability to integrate to other packaged solutions and/or to home-grown applications and databases.
 
By definition, best-of-breed solutions acknowledge they don't do everything thus the demand for integration is omnipresent. Suite solutions are often designed with a mentality that all the functionality exists within the walls of the vendor thus integration takes on a somewhat different meaning. As stated last week, comprehensive suite solutions will rarely, if ever, be the case.
 
So technologies like XML, web services, SOA, and integration tools, and other techniques will continue to make best-of-breed solutions more attractive. Best-of-breed does not necessarily mean stand-alone. Do you agree?
 
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
 
9/20/06 - A New Type of Suite
In the past, common thinking describes a suite solution as a portfolio of applications available from a single vendor. One reader suggested that we need to broaden our definition of suite solutions.
 
He writes, "A suite does not necessarily mean that you have a single-vendor solution. For example, when Microsoft finishes re-coding the Great Plains program in .NET so that it becomes part of the CRM product, then I would consider that a suite. The suite would consist of modules sharing a single database and single code base, covering sales, support, marketing, general ledger, AP, AR, etc.
 
The Microsoft example with Great Plains still fits in the single vendor category but what about the ecosystem created by Salesforce's AppExchange? That involves countless companies adding functional extensions to the core Saleforce offering. Maybe we shouldn't count the suite solution as out of favor forever.
 
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
 
9/21/06 - New Suites - Not So Fast
Yesterday, I suggested that while suite solutions may be a bit out of favor in light of best-of-breed solutions because in part due to better integration tools, new multi-vendor ecosystems could become next generation suites - Suites 2.0, if you will.
 
I made the statement as a forward looking trend rather than today's reality. A few readers wanted to make sure that was the case. One wrote, "There is definitely a place for best of breed products and I whole-heartedly agree that standards like XML and web services have definitely made integration of best-of breed solutions much easier and ultimately less expensive. However, these integration standards are not a panacea."
 
He went on to write, "What they don’t resolve is how to share configuration data between applications. For example, most contact center agent profiles are historically configured in multiple applications making it difficult to gather real-time or historical reporting across those multiple applications." Good points. Recognizing these real life limitations today will hopefully provide industrial strength integrations solutions in the future.
 
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)