ERP Packages and Best Of the Breed Business Softwares

Posted at August 20, 2009

There have been a lot of discussions around Best-of-the-breed Business Soft wares and ERP Packages.

Best of the Breed Business Softwares are suited to manage specific business functions whereas a fully integrated software or ERP Package comes with a number of Integrated Modules that can handle business functions across different departments, verticals and industries.

Rather than comparing the two approaches, it is more beneficial to understand the business scenarios under which the approaches are applicable.

There are some business functions like Material Planning, Advanced scheduling, Demand Scheduling, Order Management, Warehouse Management etc. which ERP Packages handle excellently. Whereas there are other functions like Collaborative Messaging Systems, Computer Aided Designs, Content Management, Transportation Tracking, Online Sales Tracking/Forecasting etc. which can be handled better by Best of the Breed Software. For small Businesses where the business requirements are less it can be more beneficial by implementing best of the breed soft wares. For large Organizations spread over multiple business sites, where scope for integration across functions is more, it is more beneficial to implement an erp suite.

The Time and Resources required to Implement the Best of the Breed Soft wares required will be more as Individual Software packages has to implemented and designed to ‘talk’ to each other. Moreover the implementation of individual Softwares will have to done department wise and then integrated. For an ERP Package the total time spent in integration would be lesser as the Package itself comes as a Fully Integrated Suite. Once Business Processes are clearly documented, the time taken for Implementation will be less.

ERP Packages may not deliver all Business functions to satisfactory levels. A package may be known for its excellent Order Management functions, but may be poor in financial. Best of the breed software are designed to meet specific business requirements. Hence they provide excellent functionality in those areas. Also the ease of use for these soft wares will be very high with excellent UI.

Maintaining the Best of the Breed Soft wares can be very costly. For Instance if an ERP package needs to be upgraded, and then all the modules catering to different functions can be upgraded in one go. However upgrading a System using best of the breed software can be a very complex affair consisting of isolated upgrades. Also it is always advantageous to deal with a single vendor for Support and Maintenance than dealing with Multiple Software Vendors.

Overall, the decision to use the best of the breed software against an ERP package depends on the business requirement. Using a Hybrid model using the best features of the two approaches can be beneficial.

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