Your Software Company Has Its Own Software Company
There is a strange problem with buying software built entirely on someone else’s platform - IE Netsuite, Workday, Dynamics, etc.
Your software company has its own software company.
The wrapper vendor does not control the underlying platform’s:
- Pricing.
- Licensing model.
- Release schedule.
- API limits.
- Performance.
- Authentication model.
- Security architecture.
- Core user experience.
- Infrastructure.
- Deprecations.
- AI roadmap.
- MCP capabilities.
If the platform changes its pricing, the wrapper vendor cannot stop it.
If the platform changes an API, the wrapper vendor has to adapt.
If the platform has a performance issue, the wrapper vendor cannot patch the infrastructure.
If the platform’s roadmap does not prioritize accounting firms, the wrapper vendor cannot redirect it.
They control the layer they built.
They do not control the ground underneath it.
That does not make wrappers inherently broken.
It does mean firms should understand the dependency they are accepting.
Ask the vendor:
- Which parts of the product can your team directly change?
- Which problems must be escalated to the platform provider?
- What happens to our price if your platform costs increase?
- What happens if the platform changes something your product depends on?
You are not only betting on the vendor you selected.
You are betting on the vendor they selected.
...one common theme between all of them - they could care less about you, the CPA firm!
