A recent​ IDC research survey report​^[1] indicates that almost 96% of businesses are wasting money on unused software. Considering that enterprise software is among one of organization’s most strategic assets, this statistic comes across as pretty alarming. Traditionally, businesses have been accustomed to buying specific best-in-class solutions to address distinct organizational processes. According to Gartner​,^[2] a best-in-class product is defined as the superior product within a category of hardware or oftware. However, it does not necessarily mean the best product overall. This is a key point that software purchasers fail to take note of. Best-in-class does not mean best-fit. And this often leads to deluge and wasteful spending.

On the contrary, a new breed of comprehensive and integrated solutions are shaping up today’s software markets. These all-in-one software seem to understand the business critical disciplines, such as project management or sales very well, and cannot be ensnared in the challenges such as vendor management, learning curve, and reporting that best-in-class tools inherently bring to the table. These disciplines are directly responsible for their company’s top lines, so the software they use needs to address their key pain areas in order to allow information to flow seamlessly across various business functions and create better accountability, visibility, and efficiency in the processes.

Here are my 3 best all-in-one software for next-generation businesses.

1. Celoxis

Celoxis is one of the most affordable all-in-one platforms for project management and work collaboration. It is a comprehensive yet easy to use software that is helping businesses deliver successful projects and results. It comes with a plethora​ of capabilities that help businesses^[3] – both big and small – to effectively manage their project portfolios, clients, costs, revenues, resources, and business processes.

Celoxis provides real-time and advanced business intelligence through management dashboards and reports. It offers a wide range of pre-built and customized reporting options, including multiple data visualization and charting. Celoxis has an innovative feature called ‘Apps’ that lets organizations build their own apps for handling business workflows.

This improves team adoption and productivity, since they handle all of their diverse work activities, including project tasks, bugs, change requests, approvals, etc., within a single system – all unified and easy for reporting. It is available in seven different languages, and is highly suitable for global remote teams.

Celoxis is one of the few project management tools to offer a cloud-based access and an on-premise version. Popular brands such as Rolex, Jabil, HBO, Deloitte, Del Monte, The Cheesecake Factory, University of Washington, Singapore Post, and Harman have been using Celoxis successfully for years. Celoxis is available for a flat-fee pricing, which could save you money in the long run.

This company was established in 2001, and is among the first SaaS companies in India.

2. Agile CRM

Agile CRM is a cloud-based, all-in-one customer relationship management (CRM) solution to automate all sales and marketing activities in one platform. It gives businesses a full 360 degree handle on their sales, marketing, and customer service departments, all within the same tool. Sales features include contact management, deals tracking, and appointment scheduling. Marketing features include a landing page generator, email campaigns, and web engagement tracking. Agile CRM also includes a help desk capability to enable support agents to receive, process, and respond to service requests. Agile is packed with advanced analytics features to provide businesses with data-driven insights.

Agile CRM comes at an affordable price and is used by the likes of John Hopkins University and Fidelity Bank.

This company was established in 2013, and is headquartered in India.

3. Namely

Namely is an all-in-one platform for human resources (HR). I would include HR as a business critical function, since it is about employees. Namely seamlessly handles all of the administration and compliance processes across HR, payroll, and benefits. It provides a centralized employee database to keep all pertinent people data at hand.

Namely also comes with workflows to automate approvals for salary changes, promotions, etc. It has a full-service payroll module that automatically keeps in sync with the HR data. With Namely, businesses can simplify employee benefits and allow employees to shop from a menu of world-class benefits plans.

Talent management is another capability that is native to Namely. This provides for easy onboarding, goals, and performance reviews. Namely connects everyone in the organization and helps reduce the HR administration.

Namely was founded in 2012, and has over 600 customers, including TechnologyAdvice and WorkWave.

Software purchasing is a challenging and involved process. Finding the right solution is important because switching products can cost both time and money, so it is important for businesses to carefully evaluate software with their business challenges before committing to a purchase.