When it comes to best-of-breed products, Hurkan Balkir, IT director of marketing solutions at Schaumburg, Ill.-based financial services company Experian, believes these products have their place, and their place isn't in IT projects that cost in the low-to-midtier range.

"I'm not saying that best of breed is a bad approach. I'm saying best-of-breed requires customization and expertise in many things," said Balkir. "It's a more expensive approach."

If a best-of-breed product can lead to a 10 percent performance gain, for instance, Balkir says he may be willing to forgo that gain because increasing the number of vendors the company has to deal with can increase costs as well, especially if it's an IT project that only costs US$10,000 to $50,000.

But if a best-of-breed product can deliver a 10 percent performance gain to an IT project that costs $1 million, then the extra cost of managing another vendor may be worth it, Balkir said.

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