How many software products SHOULD you use?

The title of this post is deliberately awkward.

I don’t know if it’s right to blame social media, but we’re in a binary world,  you’re right, or you’re wrong; you’re in, or you’re out; you agree, or you don’t. You get the gist. Why can’t the answer be “I don’t know” or, even better, “it depends”?

And that’s the theme of this post.

One more thing before I move on. Software vendors who tell you that you won’t need any other software than their product. “It does everything” is the claim. “Why look at anything else?” You know the patter. But, in truth, it depends.

The key question

Is it better to handle all your data processing on a single platform? Well, the answer is ‘yes’, but it comes with a giant caveat.

If everything you want to do now, and are likely to want to do to meet your clients’ needs and grow your business in a reasonable timeframe,  is covered, one single platform is better. Full stop. No argument.

The benefits are obvious: one supplier, one software system to learn, one software system to get the best from (most software products have their quirks), and one workflow that everyone knows how to operate smoothly. And it probably runs more and more smoothly as time passes. This is all good.

But now that giant caveat

However (you knew I would start this paragraph with that word), does it cause a bottleneck, compromise your client offering, or prevent you from having the tools you need to do something as quickly and efficiently as you’d like?

The problem with every ‘all-in-one’ solution is that another product better serves some parts. No product can be the best in class at data collection using any methodology, the best for coding data, the best for managing data, the best for crosstabbing, the best for charting, the best for reporting, and the best for dashboarding.

And that’s without thinking of specialist software, multivariate statistical solutions, AI-generated reporting, mapping, hooking into client databases or reporting systems. The list is never-ending.

‘All-in-one’ software often comes at a cost

Using an all-in-one system means you are almost forced to do things less efficiently than possible.

But the other extreme is also nonsense. Who wants ten best-in-class products for their data collection and processing? Besides the cost, the practicalities would outweigh the benefits.

Increased choices

Multiple products may increase efficiency, enable you to serve customers better, or even help you win new ones.

Perhaps more importantly, the right products can help your team handle the messy parts of data processing more effectively. If there’s one underestimated truism about software, it is that sometimes the right product can handle a task in one-tenth of the time – or even less – compared to the wrong one.

An example of inefficiency

I saw a client who had recently imported data into a software platform from SPSS. After importing, they had to spend time adding mean score values to each rating scale one by one, adding top-two and bottom-two boxes, adding ranking to certain questions, and performing several other mundane but necessary tasks.

Having completed that work, they learned there was an error in the data and a revised file was needed. The whole task had to be carried out again – a loss of several hours.

I showed the client that, in MRDCL, this whole procedure would take 10 minutes at most the first time and a few seconds the second time. They were using the wrong tool for the job.

Avoiding the software trap

The other problem with all-in-one systems is that they often allow one-way traffic. They may be good at importing data from all sorts of sources, but they don’t want to let you escape to another system.

In my view, this is the worst kind of software. Getting surveys in and out of systems should be as easy as possible. Why? Because good software suppliers want their clients to succeed as easily as possible.

Am I anti-‘all-in-one’ platforms?

My line of reasoning might sound as though I am railing against all-in-one platforms. Well, no, actually.

If a platform does what you want and does it well (or, at least, well enough), go for a single platform – as long as it doesn’t restrict your growth or trap you. It is a better solution.

But bear in mind, surveys are no longer just fieldwork, tabs, and a few charts in PowerPoint – at least not in a lot of cases. Increasingly, surveys take multiple, different paths, and research agencies need to be ready for this.

MRDCL is ready for this, too. While some clients use our software exclusively, most use our platform for part of the process – to make that part as flexible and efficient as possible, without restricting the paths surveys take. Flexibility and interoperability are key to success for most agencies.

What it really comes down to

The question in the title was never really about a number. It was always about fit – whether your tools are genuinely working for you or quietly working against you.

The agencies that tend to get this right aren’t chasing the most comprehensive platform. They’ve carefully considered where friction lives in their work and chosen accordingly. I can’t say whether MRDCL will improve your workflow. Why? Because it depends. But it might.