Platform vs Product: Why it matters and what it means for your business

One of, if not the biggest, differentiator between BookNow Software and other vendors in the space is BookNow provides businesses in the leisure & entertainment a platform, versus a product.

Let’s explain what we mean by that.

A product solves one high-level, specific problem for an audience.

A platform is the interconnection of multiple products working together to solve multiple problems, all in the same place, on one login across all of your venues.

So looking at this in the realm of our industry, our competitors that are more product based will be able to solve the problem of a booking system for your business, perfect if your needs are simple.

But BookNow Software works differently to this, in that we are able to solve multiple problems, thanks to the depth of the platform and the ability to integrate with other solutions that businesses like yours are using day in, day out.

For example, the diagram below illustrates how this would work in both instances:

Effectively this creates something known as a “data silo”, covered expertly here by our pre-sales engineer Stephen – but some of the problems that arise with a product approach & data silos are as follows:

Inefficiency: Data silos can result in duplication of effort, wasted resources and time.

Lack of data integrity: Data silos can create inconsistencies in data quality and accuracy.

Difficulty in making informed decisions: Data silos can make it difficult for an organisation to gain a comprehensive view of its operations.

Ineffective Marketing: Data silos can restrict access to information, making it difficult for marketing teams to target customers based on segmentation.

Limited Data sharing and collaboration: Data silos can limit the ability of different departments or teams to share data and collaborate effectively, slowing down decision-making and damaging customer experience.

Security Risks: Data silos can create security risks as well as compliance issues, as data is not centralised and therefore not well protected.

Cost: You have to pay each provider for their software.

Now let’s look at a platform approach…

As you can see from the above diagram, a platform like Salesforce provides a unified view of the organisation’s data, making it accessible and usable for various business needs.

It allows for Customer 360, which means that data from different sources can be combined and analysed together to provide insights that would not be possible with a product setup with data silos.

A platform like Salesforce provides tools for reporting, security, and marketing automation, which can help organisations manage and protect their data more effectively. Additionally, data platforms can enable collaboration and data sharing across teams and departments, which can drive innovation and improve decision making.

Overall, a data platform like Salesforce allows organisations to make the most of their data by breaking down silos, providing a single source of truth, and enabling data-driven decision-making and targeted customer marketing. 

This closing statistic sums up the growth of platform versus product in the space:

“94% of company executives would prefer to utilize a unified platform to integrate their apps and implement process automation than rely on several platforms.” 

Source