107618 Resource 102302 102466 102466 1131679451839 1132402944021 Controlled Why is Integration so Integral?

Integration is more than a feature of a useful, valuable information system; it is the key value driver.

<P>We work with a very interesting online portal for companies that are looking for business management software,&nbsp;ERP and&nbsp;CRM systems, called <A href="http://www.findaccountingsoftware.com/">FindAccountingSoftware.com</A>. It's a great service for companies that need new systems and want to talk to several different vendors.</P> <P>Once in a while you come across some of the most amazing things there. Like this morning there was a company, small company, that wanted a stand alone Accounts Receivable application. What? Of all the possible stand alone applications A/R has to be the worst. It's the heart of your company for gosh sakes, and you want to push it into a corner by itself?</P> <P>This would be a huge undertaking for even a Fortune 500 company with&nbsp;a 250 person IT Department. Three vendors took the lead, which is amazing and just goes to show that people will sell you anything if you show up with cash. The worst thing about this is that there is actually a 'consultant' helping these poor people. </P> <P>What are we doing? How can our small businesses be competitive if they are blowing huge sums on sticking corks into the dike? How can they ever become efficient and customer oriented if they run 7 different systems and a bunch of half-assed, mostly broken interfaces?</P> <P>It's sad, really. The business owner only knows that all this technology costs them a ton and they can't make heads or tails of it. They become fed up and then seek to get by on the least possible solution. Someone has to help them stop the bleeding. You should be able to look up the customer record in your system and see everything from sales activities to service issues, orders, balances, issues and new opportunities. </P> <P>A lot of the fault of this type of thing goes to the IT industry, really. What have we done to our customers that&nbsp;they get to the point where they're looking for a standalone A/R system? If we don't go to market with value, driven by values like integration, then we shouldn't complain when the&nbsp;market treats us like soul less marketeers.</P> <P>The 'incumbents business model is broken' has been a familiar refrain recently in the blogosphere, <A href="http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2005/11/spiritually_ecu.html">here</A> and <A href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/?p=60">here</A>. This refers to the fact that the big on-premise business software vendors are losing steam to web based accounting and customer relationship management solutions because their business model of broken software and huge yearly maintenance fees is broken. Here's another reason the on-premise vendor's model is broken: They will sell you anything; in fact,&nbsp;they&nbsp;prefer an interface solution because after you sink all the cash into it you won't want to change it, ever.</P> 9 application/xml false web based accounting web based crm Innovation's straight edge razor http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/?p=60 Right on the money, as always http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2005/11/spiritually_ecu.html Great leads, good people http://www.findaccountingsoftware.com Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; T312461; YPC 3.0.1; (R1 1.5); .NET CLR 1.1.4322) 69.218.156.212 69.218.156.212 tfoydel false true false false true 205861 false false true false false false true 102302 blog blogsite/SightLines/web