Best-of-Breed or All-in-One

When setting up an IT roadmap, an important decision is whether you as a business manager or IT manager are behind a traditional All-in-One solution or rather behind a Best-of-Breed solution in which different applications are linked together.

In the IT world, these different kinds of applications are given fitting abbreviations. Some examples of applications related to:

• Product: PLM, PDM, PIM 
• Engineering: CAD, CAM, CAE, LIMS 
• Operations/production: MOM, MES, WMS, QMS, IIoT 
• Company support: ERP, APS, TMS, DMS, EAM 
• Customer relations: CRM, SRM, HRM

Does this mean that you —when you pick a Best-of-Breed solution— will need a separate package for each of the features you require? No, certainly not. It is entirely possible that one package will be able to support more than one of the features listed above (e.g. ERP and WMS in one package). 

An important aspect when implementing a Best-of-Breed solution is to define the separation of the features: which package masters which data? Which (sub)processes are executed in which package and how is the necessary information exchanged between the different systems? Etc. 

A typical example of a Best-of-breed solution is linking an ERP and an MES package. i.deeds bases the development of such a solution on the ISA-95 standard.  By the way, a lot of ERP and MES packages are built according to the ISA-95 standard, which simplifies the linking of systems. 

Which solution is the best for your company depends largely on your corporate culture, the complexity of your company and your vision: how do you as a company want to grow in both the short and long term? The current situation also plays a big role: which packages are currently available and which transitions are sensible and achievable? What business activities are you doing today and how will this evolve in the future?

Both the All-in-One and the Best-of-Breed solutions have their pros and cons. These should be carefully weighed against your business case in order to make the right decision. 

i.deeds will guide you in drawing up your IT roadmap and in selecting the right combination of packages in a Best-of-Breed solution and —not unimportant— i.deeds offers independent advice in your search for the right implementation partner(s) to realise your roadmap.