Why Best-In-Class is Best for You

Overview:

When selecting a Point of Sale, AP Automation, Inventory Control, Labor Management, or Financial Accounting application, restaurant operators can choose a “best-in-class” provider for each application or an “all-in-one” provider who offers all or most of these applications.

In the past, all-in-one providers had the advantage of ensuring that data could be shared between applications. Today, however, there is no reason to compromise product performance, service quality, or integration flexibility. Nowadays, best-in-class application providers offer numerous advantages over all-in-one providers, without integration compromises.

“We use Toast for our POS, Ottimate for AP Automation, COGS-Well for Inventory Control, and QuickBooks for our accounting. We want the best solution for each application. All of the systems are fully integrated and share information automatically".  Noah Kopito, Director of Operations, Mamahuhu Restaurants.

Better Integration:

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) facilitate the integration of multiple best-in-class restaurant systems in a seamless, reliable, automatic, and real-time manner. APIs enable the smooth exchange of data and sharing of functionalities between applications from multiple application providers, in a standardized way.

All-in-one providers tend to restrict their integration with other providers, particularly those offering competitive features. This approach is aligned with their business interests. On the other hand, best-in-class providers see value in integrating with a wide array of applications.

Consider a scenario where you are utilizing AP automation, inventory control, labor management, and accounting applications from an all-in-one provider and intend to transition to a new accounting system. This transition would pose challenges for an all-in-provider. In contrast, transitioning with best-in-class applications will normally be very easy.

“COGS-Well was a natural fit to the Ottimate, Toast, and Sage Intacct systems infrastructure that we were building. It easily integrated with our other systems and it was very easy to implement”. Jennifer Beougher, CFO, Ruby Slipper Restaurant Group.

Better Product:

Best-in-class restaurant application providers are focused on top-tier functionality. Their livelihood depends on it. Each investment, whether it be dollars or staff member contributions, at a best-in-class provider goes into supporting or enhancing their core application.

All-in-one software providers generally concentrate on the application with the largest customer base or the highest revenue generation. Their other applications typically provide average functionality at most. By definition, they have chosen to be "Jacks of all trades and masters of none".

“We went with Toast POS, Ottimate AP Automation, COGS-Well Inventory Control, and NetSuite Accounting because we wanted to control our Technology Stack”. We get the best solution for each area of control”. Rich Ortiz, Director of Finance, Buzz Hospitality (Ri-Ra Restaurants).

Better Service:

Sales and Service staff at a best-in-class provider are highly knowledgeable as they focus solely on their core application. This enables them to offer accurate and reliable assistance to address your inquiries in a consultative manner.

On the other hand, sales and service staff at all-in-one providers face challenges in acquiring in-depth expertise across various applications such as AP Automation, Inventory Control, Labor Management, and Financial Accounting. As a result, obtaining timely and quality responses from these providers' sales or service staff can be arduous.

“We have done a lot of system implementations over the last few years and the COGS-Well support team is by far the best we have ever worked with. Any issue we have, any questions we have, their team is always very responsive”. Danielle Panikiewsky, Director of Finance, Playa Bowls.

Summary:

Application Programming Interfaces and Cloud-Based Systems empower users to optimize product performance and service quality by choosing best-in-class application providers. Partnering with leading providers ensures superior performance, best quality service, and enhanced flexibility to scale or switch applications seamlessly in the future.

“There was a time when all-in-one providers were the way to go. Today, however, you can select the systems that are best designed for your needs”.  Bill Lindsey, Partner and Co-Founder, COGS-Well.

“When best-in-class systems like Ottimate and COGS-Well are used together, we can deliver our customers a deeper feature set and two dedicated customer service teams working in unison”. Hannah O’Brien, Channel Marketing Manager, Ottimate.