What is a Best-of-Breed Software Ecosystem?
A business ecosystem is a dynamic group of products or services that, when they come together, constitute a coherent solution to realize a specific value proposition. Boston Consulting Group, 2020
A ‘best-of-breed’ ecosystem approach in the context of source-to-pay (S2P) is one where companies don’t rely on a single vendor to deliver technology to automate all the S2P stages from sourcing to payments, but instead use an open technology architecture, enabling multiple best-of-breed solutions to work alongside each other, united around a central core.
S2P Best of Breed Software Advantages
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Provides faster implementation time and ROI on technology investments.
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Ensures you get the most innovative technology on the market, now and for the future.
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Minimizes your business risk with a proven integration methodology.
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Achieves true 100% visibility of your organization’s suppliers and spend.
How does a Best-of-Breed Ecosystem Work?
The Best-of-Breed (BoB) ecosystem philosophy works in the same manner as an S2P single suite covering all stages but without relying on a single solution or provider. Instead ecosystems leverage specialist vendors for different stages of the S2P cycle, all connected by a single core. This data-driven core centralizes all S2P processes and data via open API technology.
Through an ecosystem approach, customers can expand existing procurement or accounts payable technology to include broader S2P functionality through complementary solutions and value-added services like contract lifecycle management, strategic sourcing, supplier risk management and more by using specialist partners. This expansion is powered by integration capabilities to ensure the whole process is seamless, each module is entwined, and all data is centralised and visible at the core.
Basware encourages clients to embrace a holistic ecosystem of solutions that is built around their business needs, so they are not forced into adopting a single suite, which may not deliver the best or most advanced functionality across the entire S2P process. With this approach, companies can quickly realize the benefits of best-of-breed solution functionality and technological innovations across their S2P operations, while gaining the benefits of a strong P2P solution at the core.
Basware Best-Of-Breed Ecosystem Approach
As a leading provider of procure-to-pay (P2P) solutions, Basware supports an open S2P ecosystem philosophy and enables co-existence and connection amongst best-of-breed solutions and multiple vendors, backed by our robust integration capabilities and our strong core.
The data-driven core centralizes processes and spend visibility, using Basware procure-to-pay solutions, comprised of the business network, electronic procurement, AP automation, supplier management and analytics.
We believe that these services combined with a balance of specialist, recommended partners plugged into it mean you have superior tools working together to give you:
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Complete visibility of spend and cashflow data in one place.
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Choice of 250+ ERP integrations and 220+ network interoperability partners.
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A single core platform that centralizes data and delivers actionable insights.
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Benefits of AI and ML overlaid on top of your S2P data to drive smart recommendations and touchless processing.