Two days ago, I had a networking coffee meeting with a colleague from IT. One of the topics was the question between “all-in-one” versus “best-of-breed” solution for social media. Unsurprisingly, our views differed: I advocate the best-of-breed approach, while he prefers a more standardized option.
But we also found some common ground on this topic: We both agreed that free software solutions can be very beneficial to the company. So why not introduce the following policy?
“Any organizational entity may introduce new applications on their own, as long as
- they are free,
- they have an API
- and the organizational entity takes responsibility for their support.”
This guideline counters three major arguments against a best-of-breed approach: 1) Organizational entities should be kept from buying expensive software on their own, 2) organizations should avoid lock-in with proprietary software that can’t be linked into the existing IT environment, and 3) supporting applications is expensive.
What do you think? Is this something both a CIO and a social media pioneer can live with?