Best of Breed vs. Fully Integrated

I had a very nice chat with some folks who are implementing GP and struggling with the age old question of best of breed vs. fully integrated in their fixed asset accounting. They are coming off of FAS which is a long time leader in fixed asset accounting with lots of bells and whistles but integration can be a challenge, especially integration at the PO/Asset Creation point. GP's Fixed Asset module is not as fully functional as FAS and can cause some pain if you have really complex issues.

I've used FAS in an Oracle environment, worked in a fully DIS integrated shop (GEAC, SAP, GP, Peoplesoft and custom all in one company) and we're fully integrated with the exception of AR. In our environment, we needed the AR flexibility of a industry specialized vertical app. We have it partially integrated with GP but we still have challenges. There is no good GP option for our AR needs and we'd rather spend the money for a solid app and integration than customizations. I'd love to be a fully integrated shop but since I can't, we've erected big barriers for any non-integrated applications. Only one has made it over the hurdle.

Often I find this a company culture thing. Money and time are budgeted to add an application but nothing is included for integration. Alternatively, since integration is often a last step, integration is killed in an over-time/over-budget implementation to the long term detriment of the company. There's no one answer but I'm a little surprised at how big an issue this continues to be give that it's been a problem since the PC was invented.



Best of Breed



vs.

Fully Integrated