Survey Says! Consider The Cloud

The Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG) recently published a very insightful survey describing Cloud usage by Oracle customers.

The survey included over 360 responses from business and applications managers worldwide.  Survey respondents were segmented into those using one or more Cloud application for less than one year, for one to five years, and for more than five years.

I extracted five insights from the survey data about Cloud dynamics—how Cloud use changes over time.  Together these insights present a compelling case for committing to private and/or public Cloud applications and platforms now.

1.  No surprise, but cost savings remains important throughout the Cloud experience.

In my travels I meet two Cloud camps: those who focus largely on the cost benefits of Cloud, and those who put cost benefits second to other benefits like process standardization and simplification.

Survey respondents indicated cost benefits are consistently important over the Cloud Lifecycle.

• Cost reduction is clearly important when respondents were first considering a move to the Cloud

• Lower Cost of Ownership was equally important when they were evaluating Cloud proposals (though Vendor Reliability is the most important factor).

• And realized cost savings was the number one benefit received from current Cloud investments.

2.  Cloud users double the data they move to the Cloud over five years.

About one-quarter of survey respondents entrust Customer, Financial, and Employee data to the Cloud in their first year.  This commitment roughly doubles within five years.

One small surprise was the observation that survey respondents are least likely to commit Employee Data to the Cloud over the five year horizon.  This is a bit puzzling given the maturity and market acceptance of SaaS HR solutions.

3.     Benefits grow as experience with the Cloud grows.

Each set of columns show the percent of survey respondents who achieved the following benefits after five years of Cloud use.   

Over 40% of respondents reduced costs through standardization and consolidation after five years.   

More dramatic are the observed increases in Process Flexibility (first set of columns) and Security/Privacy (second set of columns).  For example only 3% of survey respondents indicated they had increased Business Process Flexibility in their first year, yet fully one-third of Cloud users had realized this important benefit within five years.

4.  Problems with Clouds look suspiciously like the problems people report with traditional on-premise software.

After five years of deployment almost 30% of Cloud users cite challenges with Cloud Integration, Vendor Lock-In, and Interoperability.  These issues mirror the issues we’ve heard from our clients who have adopted on-premise ERP systems over the past fifteen years.

5.  Two important Cloud challenges decrease over time, highlighting the business benefits gained from Cloud deployments.

Over 30% of survey respondents reported problems implementing New Processes/Policies/Roles and gaining Cross-Organizational Support in their first year of Cloud deployment.  After five years these challenges halve or more, with the challenge of gaining Cross-Organizational support decreasing to a trivial level.

Reported increases in support for Cross-Organizational Performance and new Processes/Roles suggest Cloud systems effectively change “how we operate, who we are” over time.  This ability to foster standardization is an important benefit—I know at least one global company who replaced their ERP system with a Cloud solution specifically to enhance global process consistency. 

For more about the benefits public and private Clouds offer, and how these benefits will lead SOON to rapid expansion of the entire Cloud world, I encourage you to read my February post “Cloud Will Be REALLY Big: Three Reasons Why” at http://tinyurl.com/6md5j5x. 

As always I'd love to learn what you think and what you're doing with Cloud applications and platforms.

Delivery Assurance: Proven Path to Implementation Success

Meridian has extensive experience providing Delivery Assurance support to challenged technology implementation programs.

Delivery Assurance is the process of objectively discerning how you should move forward, not whether you should move forward.  Over ten years we have encountered only one program that warranted a “shut-down” recommendation. 

Delivery Assurance support has been delivered across the implementation timeline, gaining traction when there is emerging evidence (and concern) that a program has lost its way and is somewhat-to-significantly at-risk.

The Principles guiding Meridian’s Delivery Assurance support include:

• We use our experience to deliver a clear view of where you are and what you need to do to succeed.

• We are committed to not slowing down the existing work-streams.

• We are committed to building on what you’ve already accomplished.

• Our aim is to ensure you agree that our assessment has materially contributed to your project’s ultimate success.

Six cases illustrate how we've helped clients pull out of the tech-disaster ditch.

Retailer

Mid-Program Assessment & Acceleration

A $5-billion retailer was overhauling all elements of its Supply Chain, moving from a Direct-To-The-Store Delivery model to a Just-In-Time/Warehouse-driven supply chain.  To enable they were concurrently implementing ERP retail, financial, HR, and advanced Supply Chain functionality.  The program was viewed as flawed by the business and, in the words of one SVP, “certainly a failure.”  At the Board of Director’s urging we were engaged to assess the risks surrounding the program.  We quickly pinpointed numerous technical, process, and project problems and built consensus from the C-suite through the project team around remediation.  We were subsequently engaged by the project’s sponsors to provide support through the successful completion of this once-troubled program.

“The smartest thing we did during this project was to hire Meridian.” Client CIO

 

Consumer Products, Assessment One

European Go Live Assessment & Assurance

A $13-billion manufacturer of consumer products had a three-year ERP program underway.  We were engaged by the President of European operations six weeks before their first Go Live to assess and help manage the Go Live's impact on pan-European operations.  Our team identified five critical issues that needed immediate assistance and a host of other issues that could be staged around and following Go Live, significantly accelerating organizational preparations.  The first Go Live was a strong success.

 “No one else saw these issues, and you made the difference.”  President

Consumer Products, Assessment Two

Latin American Go Live Assessment & Assurance

Based on our European success the President of Latin American operations engaged us to conduct an assessment of the organizational, process, and technical aspects of their pan-Latin American ERP roll-out.  Our ‘frank, but honest’ ^{(client’s words)} assessment led to a significant improvement in the program’s implementation path, and two expert Meridian resources subsequently worked with the client’s chosen integration partner to deliver a successful, on-time Go Live.

  

Consumer Products, Assessment Three

North American Mid-Program Assessment & Acceleration

Based on our European and Latin American success the CEO of this global Consumer Products firm engaged Meridian to conduct an assessment of the organizational, process, and technical aspects of their North American ERP roll-out.  This program was seriously at-risk due to an overly complex implementation strategy and some shortcomings in basic program management.  Our “Assessment” turned into an intervention within the first two weeks, shifting from identification of problems to a very tactical, hands-on re-working of the program strategy, plan, and program management methods.  This firm’s CEO had us certify the organization’s readiness to Go Live, an endorsement that “gave me the confidence to give the go-ahead to what has been an overly difficult and certainly overly risky initiative.”

 

Financial Services

Mid-Program Assessment & Acceleration

This Financial Services client had invested over $40 million in a re-engineering program targeting global financial and treasury operations.  We were engaged eight months prior to Go Live to evaluate the extent to which the technology and the organization would be ready to work in an integrated environment.  Key findings focused on specific, actionable features of the program that required immediate improvement.  We were subsequently engaged to supplement the implementation team, providing expert resources to help accelerate the development of process contingencies, the completion of organizational preparations, and the development of Post Go Live support structures.  We also served on the project’s Steering Committee.

Medical Devices

Mid-Program Assessment & Shut Down

Our client is a global manufacturer of a broad array of medical and surgical devices.  This client committed to a hybrid custom development/off the shelf software implementation with the hopes of fostering a common approach to business operations worldwide. 

We were engaged just before the programs expected mid-point, though in fact the program was far behind schedule.  The shared assumption was the program was behind schedule and at-risk because of spotty support from their chosen consulting partner.  Since the consulting partner had considerable executive support the CIO asked us to complete an objective assessment of all parties involved in the program, specifically asking us to help this executive team understand the issues they faced and the actions they needed to take to deliver success.

We completed an actionable global assessment in four weeks. 

The company's CIO showed character and courage, initially challenging us to find ways they could advance the project but ultimately recommending project shutdown to the company's CEO.