Integrated or Needs Integration

Many new CRM or back office implementations have requests for integrated systems. This could be the best of breed CRM and Accounting system which will need to be integrated or another solution that has both CRM and Accounting in one package. With each approach there are pros and cons.

Best of Breed Integration

The best of breed integration means that you choose the top applications and integrate the two. This can be done with a 3^rd party integration or with a custom integration.

Pros:

You get two tools that are best of breed and do the job exceptionally well
Best of breed tools usually have a following and therefore you have access to a plethora of resources such as consultants, tutorials, training and addons.

Cons:

Custom integrations can be expensive depending on the level of integration. 3^rd party integrations can at times alleviate this.
Added complexity

All in One Tool

All in one systems such as ones that do both Accounting and CRM are generally not the best of breed but offer their own set of pros and cons.

Pros:

You only have to deal with one vendor
No integration complexities

Cons:

These systems usually don’t do either job exceptionally well compared to the best of breed applications. They do however do the job.
Vendor lock in. With an all in one system it is more difficult to change one piece of your business changes.

Listed are only two pros and cons for each type of solution. It is up to the business to decide which one is the right path for them.

What direction did your company choose and why?

Tags: accounting, accouting integration, Business, crm, crm integration