There are dozens of tasks that even a simple, straightforward business needs to do these days, and they all get done on the computer - from ecommerce and inventory control to customer relationship management, accounting, project management, and time tracking, there are literally thousands of combinations of management software systems out there today.
And the list can go on… Some companies claim that they can cover off all business systems and software needs in a single offering. However, is it really likely that a single business software suite can offer the same service levels of the most widely-used targeted, single-task software solutions?
For example, while Microsoft Access may work well for the marketing group’s records, it doesn’t integrate into most HR financial systems, at least not without help (read: cash). But, a full-service business software package vendor can’t honestly expect to give purchasers the same kind of add-on options or support that a company like Quicken is in a position to offer to their huge community of users.
One major selling point of single-vendor systems is that they make it a cinch for staff to learn different portions of the software, since it should look and feel the same as what they’ve already been trained on. And often, single-vendor solutions can be customized to match your industry, since they tend to be modular.
However, single-solution vendors really can’t invest the same amount of effort into their business management software system as, for instance, Kronos is able to put into their single, specialized product. All-in-ones who customize by sector don’t necessarily offer the same user base or face the same competition pressure that pushes specialist companies to create extras and invest in incremental improvements and updates.
Often, though, employees spends a lot of time, in terms of dollars, just moving information from one container to another, because many software systems just are not compatible with each other. Either the data is vastly different, or it is not worth a company’s time to connect with a disprate product in another industry. A one-stop-shop might also make collaboration between departments easier, since it is able to record every transaction from end to end. You might actually shell out less on a single business management software solution in the long run simply through economization of work.
And then there’s cost. All-in-ones aren’t cheap. But when you actually throw together all of the one-off medium-sized business solutions you need to buy, the licensing costs can approach the tens of thousands of dollars for even a relatively modest license package for your business - on top of a modest payroll, dealing with multiple vendors for purchasing, inventory control, marketing, and management represents a huge chunk of your operating costs.
While single-solution management software vendors might be able to economize using a modular software model, your training costs might end up being proportinoally higher. Look at it this way: there are far more manuals out there that talk about hot to use Microsoft Excel than there are on a project-management module in the IT version of an end-to-end single-solution product!
And lastly, once you actually buy into a single-solution business systems and software vendor, you might find that you are pretty much stuck with them, unless you want to pay a team of engineers to get all of your business data back out for you at the end of the contract, in a format that’s compatible with other software platforms.
If most of your data and staff work is going into using only one of a few business management software suites, like Microsoft Office or Quicken, you’re likely going to be better off sticking with them. Look very carefully at your business’s day-to-day operations. If you have employees who are spending as much time in the sending out invoices as they are analyzing product sales patterns, it’s definitely worth at least giving a single-source vendor a try. Just be sure that it can export to industry-standard compatible formats: all data should be compatible, off-the-shelf, with the comparable standalone software suites that the system is replacing.
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