Ronelle Liversage, account manager at QBCon, shared her thoughts on the enterprise resource planning (ERP) single-vendor approach versus a best-of-breed strategy.
According to Ronelle, best of breed (BOB) refers to using a particular software program or package to meet each of your business' requirements. To share information between the applications, these packages are linked. The links can be established by the vendor or by a third party package (also known as middleware), thus providing varying degrees of integration.
An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a single-vendor solution. This means that different modules are combined to provide a comprehensive software solution from a single vendor. These systems generally consist of a number of databases, linked automatically by key fields.
Advantages of an ERP Solution:
• One vendor solution:
One stop shop – the user communicates with one source.
Limited number of Vendors.
Project Management easier with one Vendor
• Viability:
The ERP firms are more established.
• Broader Offering:
Additional products can be offered too.
• Consolidated information
Information is available at one place – no integration needed.
• Overall Cost
Price can be negotiated
Disadvantages of an ERP solution
• Time:
An integrated ERP approach has traditionally taken longer and can create many "Catch 22" situations. There are integral decisions in implementing any component of an ERP system that impact other parts of that same system.
• Diversity:
As ERP vendors are broadening their offerings to reflect the needs of the marketplace, they are involved in many strategic directions that are playing out in parallel. Vendors need to determine where future R&D investments will be applied. The concern is that some of these vendors are trying to be "everything" to "everybody."
