Choosing is hard, especially when there's so much to choose from. One of the best things about my job is that I get to talk to hundreds of professionals each week about what tools they're using, what they're trying to replace, and what tools they want to keep.

Whether you’re a startup, growing business, or service professional, here’s my best-of-breed software list for digital marketing, web design/development, I.T. consulting, and accounting firms.

All Professional Services Tech Stack:

1. Email/Calendar/Documents: Google Apps
2. Accounting: Xero

Digital Marketing Tech Stack:

1. Project collaboration: Basecamp
2. Time tracking: Harvest
3. Project management: LiquidPlanner
4. Team chat: Slack
5. Sales pipeline: Pipedrive
6. Issue tracking: Zendesk
7. Social media: HootSuite
8. A/B Testing: Optimizely

Web Design/Development:

1. Bug tracking and software project management: JIRA
2. Team chat: Hipchat
3. Personal project management: Trello
4. In-app messaging: Intercom.io
5. Time tracking: Freckle

I.T. Consulting:

1. Project management: Mavenlink
2. Support desk: Freshdesk
3. VoIP telephone: RingCentral
4. Remote monitoring: GFI Max

Accounting:

1. Accounting package: Xero
2. Payroll: ZenPayroll
3. Project Management: TeamworkPM

All-in-one or best-of-breed?

Ah, the perennial debate - should I connect a bunch of tools together or go with an all-in-one system? Let’s look at the pros and cons of each...

A collection of tools:

Pros

1. You get to pick best of breed tools that often specifically address your needs — especially when you think about your problems and how to solve them.
2. The growth of APIs (and API connection services like Zapier and IFTTT) allow your tools to talk to each other.

Cons

1. You’re holding together a system with manual processes and weak links (APIs). Human error and software updates are bound to mess things up. As Bill Benjamin from Blue Bolt said, “Early on we did not want to go with “best of breed” solutions and live with integration issues.” And Bill is an integration specialist!
2. You lose transparency between tools such as reporting, quoting from a sales to a project, or seamless invoicing.

An all-in-one ServOps:

Pros

1. An integrated system: the areas of the system are built to talk to each other.
2. Training: the user experience is the same for each piece of the software so skills learned in one area transfer to the other… but make sure that the user interface is actually beneficial. Bill Benjamin from Blue Bolt notes, “Many older, entrenched ServOps Solutions that we looked at such as Connectwise, WorkEtc., and TigerPaw come from an ERP perspective, which means that their interface is very dated. AffinityLive has a user-friendly interface- this is very helpful for training.”

Cons

1. The workflow and ease of use usually fall short of individual tools.
2. You can’t piece together your favourite tools: if you like the project management and the sales, but hate the ticketing side of it, you’re stuck with the full bundle.

 John is a tech industry expert and the head Solution Engineer at Accelo.


We hope this helped you choose the right solution for your business. If you have any questions about our platform email us or sign up here for a free trial.