Don’t Get Lost in the Cloud!
Terms like, the cloud, on-premise,co-existence: these are just but a few of the current strategies that most organizations contend with today in determining how they are going to manage their enterprise applications that run their businesses. It can feel like a daunting task, often equal parts confusing and overwhelming. The truth of the matter is, it doesn’t have to be. The choices available today by the large ERP software providers are actually giving customers incredible flexibility to map out a strategy on their terms and timeline.
But like the quote in the movie Spiderman, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”
Organizations have a tremendous opportunity to build a strong, long-term strategy to help them reduce their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by assessing their various businesses, processes, IT infrastructure, resources and strategic plans (such as acquisitions and divestitures). Organizations that plan their path with regard to which systems belong in the cloud and which systems belong on-premise have a much better chance of getting there in the long-term.
Careful, well-thought out plans with your ERP provider and key consulting services partner can help make this path much easier and manageable. For many, the thought of going to the cloud versus which systems to leave on-premise, at this point, raises more questions than answers. It doesn’t have to be that way. Take this opportunity to do the strategic, up-front planning now so that you are not asking these questions at the wrong time. Considering the financial investment you are making in these systems for the next 5, 10, 20 years, it makes sense to plan wisely.
In doing so, you can save significant dollars on your overall investment in resources, customizations, maintenance and infrastructure costs over the long-term. If you are a CIO, CTO, Director level in IT or the Business side, it really is a great time to have these opportunities to leverage what’s available to you from a technology perspective, whether in the Cloud or On-Premise. These changes taking place hold great promise for the future for companies to run more efficiently and effectively by taking advantage of these great choices in a very competitive, global marketplace.
Planning the future of your strategic apps direction is no time for platform or methodology zealotry. Having a lot of flexibility can sometimes be confusing, but if harnessed and leveraged correctly, you can take advantage of it successfully and save a lot of money that can hit directly to your bottom line.
