Every business strives to accelerate growth and sustain a successful workflow model. Software applications that are used to run various business processes play a vital role in organizing your efforts and achieving desired outcomes. Given the abundance of software applications available, how do you select the best solutions for your business? Should an IT manager or business owner choose the best-of-breed systems from different vendors? Or, is it wiser to invest in a comprehensive, unified software suite? Sounds a bit clad and now you are rethinking life choices.
We are confident current trends are in favor of comprehensive software suites. From ease-of-use and implementation to greater cross-team communication, reduced cost of ownership, and faster time to value, a unified software solution is the way to go. If you feel your team could collaborate better or find your business software costs are hurting your wallet, read on.
The best-of-breed approach
You thought of your favorite breed of dog, didn’t you? Well, similar to how a breed of dog has distinctive characteristics, best-of-breed software is niche-specific. It offers specialized product functions for all types of businesses and various business needs. The data in each piece of software lives in silos, and robust integrations are required for information to flow across these silos. The best-of-breed applications come in handy when there are major security breaches, as the data is not centralized.
That said, signing into multiple applications can become a major inconvenience, and it may not be worth the hassle for many users.
The best-of-suite approach
Best-of-suite is a package of software or modules tailored to run multiple functions relevant to your business. It provides end-to-end solutions crafted to fit a range of business operations. Suites are industry-specific, but they are not limited to single use cases. For example, say your business requires both an invoice application and a finance application. A suite would provide you with both of these solutions in one place, preventing the need for two separate applications.
A search for the best of both worlds
Imagine having access to a best-of-suite solution that contains multiple best-of-breed systems. That would be pretty impressive.
Businesses that use the best-of-breed approach save time when it comes to implementation and security patches, as these kinds of solutions are often simple. At the same time, these businesses can also spend hours integrating different applications so that they all work well together.
As a result, data transfer is one of the main challenges that come along with the best-of-breed approach. Standalone solutions require multiple updates over a single year, and ensuring these updates work cohesively with your other systems can be resource consuming. Updates also require users to learn new software versions and over time, this can become exhausting.
One of the other drawbacks of the best-of-breed approach includes siloed data. Employees may struggle to work together, especially in larger businesses, as they cannot easily share data across departments. This can cause discord among teams and the company as a whole. Meanwhile, a software suite may offer the best overall platform, but the modules within it are not always high-quality options, and most vendors moderate pre-existing suites to suit a business. This has its own cons, if your business uses different suites in itself then integrating multiple suites will also consume resources rapidly.
The unified business solution
“Wading through disparate user experiences while operating different software with starkly different interfaces is cumbersome, prone to errors, and creates poor user and customer experiences. On the other hand, a unified solution such as Zoho One, built on a common platform that spans across applications keeps data up-to-date in real-time, and the consistent user interface makes operating the software easier. This unification drastically reduces errors, improves efficiency, and accelerates growth.”
— Michael Fauscette, Founder and Principal Analyst, Arion Research
Zoho One is an all-in-one, unified platform that focuses on the 360-degree development of your business. The included solutions are all best-of-breed and crafted by Zoho. Your data flows seamlessly through multiple applications, making it easier for you to establish a workflow that benefits your business. With centralized data and a personalized interface, you can focus on improving your operations without the hassle that comes when you use a suite or breed.
Zoho One includes over 45 applications that work together cohesively, thus drastically reducing the burden of having to keep standalone apps in sync.
Zoho One comes with a unified user interface that allows you to manage all the aspects of your business under a single tab. It also offers a robust, smart chat tool that allows you to chat with your colleagues without changing tabs. Zia, our AI assistant, brings all your data to life with its unique dashboards and charts. Its advanced analytics function helps you build and analyze insightful reports.
Zoho One can allow your business to meet the ever-growing demands brought about by various market trends. This includes the implementation of additional intricate functionalities to your pre-existing system.
We also provide you with the best security systems, including multiple layers of firewall protection. This way, your data remains private and protected from data breaches.
Best for your business
“Adopting Zoho One was a no-brainer for us. I’ve never seen the versatility and customizations with any other system. Along with the out-of-the-box integrations offered, the customization made it possible for us to unify a lot of our processes onto one system.”
— Mike Sigvaldason, Sales Representative, Arctic Spas
Have you ever pondered on selecting the right software to solve your business problems?
We hope this blog helped you understand and choose the right model for your business as technology today inspires many fads, some of which fade quickly and others that stick around and cause heated debates on the internet. Businesses that implemented some of these trends—however—were successful as they lingered and evolved over time.
Now, do you think that a unified software suite like Zoho One offers the best of both worlds? Please share your views and comments.
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Insightful!