All in One vs Best of Breed HR Technology

There is a familiar promise in HR technology. One platform. One login. Everything you need.

It sounds efficient. Clean. Simple. But there is a question most organisations do not stop to ask. “Simple for who?”

Because when you look a little closer, all in one often means compromise.

All in one HR systems position themselves as the single source of truth for everything. Payroll, onboarding, performance, learning, engagement, compliance. And to be fair, they do a lot. But rarely do they do everything well.

What typically happens is this. One or two areas are strong. Several are good enough. The rest become workarounds, manual processes, or features that never quite get used.

Over time, organisations start adjusting their processes to suit the system instead of the system supporting how they actually want to work. That is where the friction begins.

Best of breed has always had a reputation problem. People hear it and immediately think multiple systems, integration headaches, more complexity. That might have been true once. It is not the reality anymore.

A modern best of breed ecosystem is not about stitching together random tools. It is about intentionally selecting specialised platforms that do one thing exceptionally well, and connecting them in a way that feels seamless to the user.

Think about it like this. You would not expect one person to be your lawyer, accountant, architect and doctor. So why expect one system to be exceptional at everything HR?

Forward thinking organisations are moving away from the idea of a single HR system and toward a connected ecosystem.

In this model, payroll is handled by a dedicated payroll platform. Recruitment lives in a specialist ATS. Learning is delivered through a purpose built LMS. Employee experience, onboarding and lifecycle moments are managed through platforms like Simon.

Each tool plays to its strengths. The value comes from how they work together. There is a natural concern that this makes things harder. It used to. Today it does not have to.

With modern integrations and smart data flows, employee data can move between systems without friction. Experiences can be triggered across platforms. Reporting can still be centralised.

From an employee perspective, it feels like one cohesive journey, not a collection of disconnected tools. From an HR perspective, you are no longer constrained by the limitations of a single vendor.

At Simon, we are very clear about what we do, and what we do not. We are not trying to be your payroll system. We are not trying to replace your ATS. We are not trying to be everything to everyone.

What we focus on are the moments that matter most in the employee lifecycle. Onboarding. Changes. Compliance. Performance. Offboarding. We sit across your ecosystem and bring these moments to life, connecting your systems, your processes and your people into a cohesive experience.

Because great employee experiences do not come from one system. They come from how everything works together.

Choosing an all in one platform can feel like the safer option. But over time, the hidden cost is compromise. Compromise on capability. Compromise on experience. Compromise on flexibility. Compromise on growth.

Best of breed flips that.

It gives you the freedom to evolve your tech stack. The ability to choose the right tool for each function. A better experience for employees and leaders. And an architecture that grows with you, not against you.

So instead of asking which system can do everything, a better question is this.

What combination of systems will give us the best outcome?

That shift changes everything.

We’re so proud of the partners we’ve developed sophisticated integrations with to help make our customer lives easier. For example our partnership with JobAdder, because we know they do recruitment well. CloudPayroll, because payroll compliance is critical and MindTools Kineo, because learning systems help develop your workforce and keep talent at the core of everything you do.