The end-to-end or all-in-one platform has been the holy grail of the software industry. Vendors tried for decades to create the "ultimate" software that would cover all the company's business needs.

This article is co-written by G2 analysts Michael Gigante and Gabriel Gheorghiu

Why aren’t there more end-to-end platforms?

New technologies like cloud computing made all-in-one platforms possible for SMBs, but large companies in complex industries such as manufacturing still need to use multiple systems, often delivered by separate vendors. This has made it difficult for manufacturers to rely on only one product that can truly manage the entire lifecycle and production of a product.

Even though major players like SAP, Oracle, or Infor offer products for all departments of a company (from accounting and procurement to sales, marketing, and operations), these solutions aren't always the best options for all companies. Since companies can have very different needs, providing functionality for every type of business is impossible. Therefore, the best way to deliver end-to-end solutions is through partnerships between vendors.

SAP and Siemens to create end-to-end industrial solutions

SAP and Siemens recently announced that they are partnering to provide "integrated end-to-end software solutions across product lifecycle, supply chain, and asset management." Even though SAP sells product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions, the vendor will offer Siemens Teamcenter as "the core foundation for product lifecycle collaboration and product data management."

At the same time, Siemens will provide its customers with SAP Intelligent Asset Management and SAP Project and Portfolio Management solutions. It is not yet clear if the partnership will extend to Siemens' Xcelerator portfolio of digital transformation applications, which includes MindSphere, Siemens Cloud Solutions, Mentor, and Mendix.

Video Source: Siemens

Partnership challenges and the way forward

One of the significant challenges of this new partnership is that many manufacturers may not want to rely mostly on SAP and Siemens technology; especially those that already have systems in place in various combinations such as multiple ERP and PLM solutions from different vendors.

The ideal end-to-end platform should be vendor-agnostic, which is impossible to achieve at this point. We hope that SAP and Siemens will extend their offering to include other major ERP and PLM players, which would give companies more options to choose from.