An 'End-to-end Solution' or A '360-Degree Solution'? Is there any difference?

Question

Often I write about my company's services and try to make them class apart. The very general way of doing this is putting catchy titles or punch lines on the slides or banners of the website. Whilst We provide the best or industry-standard solutions is unambiguous and thus frequently used, at times, I come up with the captions...

A 360-Degree Solution
An End-to-End Solution

Do they mean the same? I think 360-degree solution is more complete than the latter one. Here is why...

For instance, we are a mobile app development company and if I say...

Contact us for a 360-degree solution

Will it mean that we do provide solution for your handsets? Hardware? The fact is we don't do that but since I wrote 360-degree, it includes right from the handset (device's) problem to developing an application, its usability, marketing and what not. After all, it's 360-degree solution. From ZERO, go round the circle, and back to ZERO!

Now, if I say end-to-end solution, does it mean that I just talk about mobile apps development and nothing about device/hardware or something the like?

*What is the difference between an end-to-end solution and a 360-degree solution?

Is there anything like 180-degree solution? Does it make sense in English? Is it an end-to-end solution?

Answer 1

The difference is in the metaphor within the idiom. Different metaphors create different contexts which create different usages.

End to end conveys a linear sense; a line or length of some sort, and an end to end solution covers the complete range. In software, this phrase would mean a solution that covers each piece involved, from the client interface to the data storage and everything in between. End to end testing is a very common example of this usage in the industry. This idiom has a common and generally well understood meaning.

360 degree suggests a circle, and such a solution would cover every possible angle. This would likely be used to suggest that the software works on every platform: desktop, server, phone, tablet, etc. This is because software is often spoken of as facing a particular platform or audience when supported (e.g. mobile facing, web facing). Alternatively, this could be taken to mean that the software provide any and all desired functions within its domain; users don't have use anything else to do what they need. This term is much more nebulous than end to end and is more likely to be viewed as marketing fluff.

If you have an end to end solution then you've got every necessary step in the pipeline or process covered; nothing is missing or needs to be supplied by a third party. If you have a 360 degree solution, then the solution works in all applicable environments; it covers all the angles and users can access their data from any entry point.

Is there anything like 180-degree solution? Does it make sense in English? Is it an end-to-end solution?

No, this is not a common term (I've never heard it before), and it does not mean the same as end to end. You could use 180 degree solution sarcastically to imply that a proposed 360 degree solution only did things in a half-assed fashion, because 180 degree means that only half of things are covered.