bestofbreed

Best of breed, often written best-of-breed and abbreviated BoB, is a procurement and IT design approach in which an organization selects the best-performing product in each functional category from multiple vendors rather than procuring a single, integrated suite. The goal is to maximize functionality and performance across the technology stack by assembling best-in-class components that best fit individual needs. BoB is contrasted with a single-vendor or suite strategy, where a vendor provides a bundled set of applications or devices.

In practice, a BoB strategy is common in enterprise software and technology infrastructure. Organizations compare and select separate CRM, ERP, data analytics, security, and networking components and integrate them through standards-based interfaces, APIs, and middleware. The approach can offer superior capabilities and avoidance of vendor lock-in in certain areas, but it can also introduce integration complexity, higher ongoing maintenance, and potentially higher total cost of ownership due to interoperability efforts and support fragmentation. Effective governance, architecture planning, and standardization of interfaces are critical to success.

The term dates from procurement and IT discussions in the late 20th century and has since remained a common descriptor for architecture decisions that favor best-in-class components over a single-vendor solution. In other domains, the phrase best of breed may also appear with related meanings, such as dog show terminology.