Partner Article

Skyrocket your business with the cloud

For many organisations, cloud computing has become a way of connecting the dots between multiple business functions, and if done properly, can help future-proof a business model and drive innovation. As the lines between business and technology continue to blur, more organisations need to view IT as an integrated part of the enterprise that can impact long-term success, rather than just a mere side project. Agility is the currency of the new economy.

What’s the solution?

One of the benefits of using cloud technologies is that businesses can use software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications to centralise and offload system operations. Rather than worrying about having enough server operational staff and allocate the time and costs to set up and manage infrastructure, customers can just “plug in” to existing solutions and configure. To give an example, for a retail company, moving systems to the cloud will ultimately drive sales. If you’re a retail business looking to improve your selling effectiveness, and ultimately the buying process simpler for customers, IT managers can use the cloud to adjust sales processes by using products such as Salesforce.com.

The infrastructure and core application system is easily provisioned for the users so the company can immediately plug into that and then focus on tuning the configuration for their business requirements. The focus becomes more on optimising the business process and less about the underlying technology. Additionally, if the cloud provider is a multi-tenant cloud platform such as Salesforce.com the customer will automatically receive frequent updates to new functionality, crowd sourced ideas from their customer base, and have access to a very rich development and integration platform to extend that core functionality.

By changing the way such projects are managed, businesses can become better organised and integrated and focus on their core business, not supporting functions. IT becomes more of a business enabler, and less about uptime, login issues, hardware management, etc. This may sound too good to be true, and while technically it does simplify the IT side of the equation, a company fully taking advantage of cloud technologies must recognise that it will change the culture of an organisation. This process often involves identifying specific individuals to act as advocates, helping to champion the change and ultimately helping to improve the company’s development in the long-term.

Communicating change

To my earlier point on culture, to have a truly transformative impact, IT and Business have to change the way they interact and companies have to invest in the changing the company culture to one that is supportive of collaboration and transparency. This isn’t just a marketing campaign or training, organisations need to embrace and enable this cultural change and clearly articulate the benefits.

It’s critical to define how new technology tools will help each group of employees do their jobs better. For example, telling a salesperson that they can use social tools to find the right product expert or be alerted when an invoice is paid, straight to their mobile device, is far more likely to get them to use the technology than a nebulous statement like “better collaboration”.

It’s also important to nurture and educate the internal community. One example of this is a customer of ours, Virgin America, which uses cloud and social technologies to ensure employees can stay connected and up-to-date on company information, regardless of their location or device. The airline uses an employee portal to keep a dispersed global workforce up-to-date on company issues, policies and HR information on the go. Staff can also use live chatter feeds to reach out to other members of the team to find out whereabouts and intended movements, ensuring the whole team is connected and improving working relationships across the board.

Putting it into practice

At Appirio, we believe strongly in the role of the enterprise architect: an employee which manages the company’s IT services with a view to addressing overall business requirements – we push transparency to an extreme and we encourage communication through all levels and parts of the business. We also believe that people work better in an environment where they care and are supportive of each other. Cloud communication tools such as Salesforce, Workday and Google allow us to easily do that without investing millions of £s in building bespoke systems.

Cloud is helping organisations to reimagine their business. By applying technology to overarching issues, companies can maintain an agile stance, benefitting from an integrated IT infrastructure and from employees who know how to use it to its maximum potential.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lori Williams .