I have written – more than once – on the attraction people have for all-in-one software.
It makes no sense. Yet it is pervasive. So, yet again, let me take another stab at this.
Look at your personal life. You have online banking. You do not send emails from your online banking, do you? Do you want to?
You go to Facebook, jump to Twitter, then LinkedIn (oh, whoops that is business). Each has separate log-ins.
Each software has a unique function. You need to do a personal budget. Facebook has a module for that. Just kidding.
Would you trust it if it did? I am not referring to security. Plain excellence. You would likely do a budget in Google sheets or Excel, right?
Three Industry Examples
Here are some business examples from 3 separate industries:
- Real Estate Industry – core brokerage software could be Broker Wolf, or, more recently, Loft47. Neither has an accounting package. Broker Wolf has a sync to Quickbooks Desktop. Loft47 syncs seamlessly to Xero.
- Home Health Care Industry – two main scheduling software packages are – ClearCare and Alayacare. Neither has an accounting package. They do a fabulous job at scheduling, tracking patients, and billings. They do not even have a payroll module.
- Technology Industry – two main software packages dominate about 90% of the global market. Autotask and Connect Wise. Neither offer an accounting package.
When an industry-centric software does offer an accounting module they tend to suck. Really suck. How bad do they suck? Really bad. No bank feeds, horrible reports, not up-to-date with tax reporting to name a few things.
Conversely, when a great accounting package starts to add modules for manufacturing, health care, and so on, it will suck too.
The accounting software has a bigger problem. Think of the sheer, stunning number of industries they would have to add as modules! Why not just let really smart software developers have access to your software through open APIs (techy abbreviation for Application Program Interface)?
Then, boom, you get the best of both worlds!
Hilarious Spoof
Here is a hilarious advert for all-in-one business software just to really drive my point home, for the, uh, 3rd time…
Thanks for reading…