We recently attended the Business Cloud Summit in London, an event which hosts real world practical insights, stories and advice from influential thought leaders on how the Cloud is evolving. With big influential companies such as NetSuite, My Customer, Adobe and CloudWorks in attendance the event was sure to be a great success.

Cloud Conversations

‘A system that runs an entire business, rather than just a department.’
Titled the ‘next big thing’, Zach Nelson President and Chief Executive of NetSuite emphasized that Cloud computing was all about changing the way people think and work by experiencing what  you do at home at work.

Times are changing, service companies are becoming more like software companies – users want every single touch point with them anywhere, i.e. I can order ‘one item’ from John Lewis online quickly and easily but at work I can’t order the 1000s of items which I would normally order from your suppliers in the same way. ‘The internet and the cloud have essentially made the world ‘on’ all the time. Nobody in business or leisure is ever out of contact anymore via email, social media and mobile phone. Systems have to enable businesses to be the same – too many businesses are much more paper based than their staff are in their personal lives.

‘Every company should be Cloud focused’ states Nelson
John Deer Tractors are now gathering data and sending this back for analysis. The data is so valuable that  it has actually become more useful than the tractors themselves
Users want that “apple like experience” at work, whether that be tracking a sales opportunity to managing the most complex service and renewal processes or keeping track of your ecommerce site, users want to have access to their business anytime, anywhere. Apple knows who you are at every single touch point without having any kind of human interaction. This kind of technology is not available with traditional technology systems. A cloud structure makes complex tasks more straightforward when approaching system changes, process changes. Technology is evolving and companies who do not embrace the Cloud will see their revenue shrink.

Towards the end of his presentation Zach was asked, as he is every year, to make IT predictions for the year ahead:

• Without the burden of IT maintenance service companies would become more like software companies in terms of the multi-channel touch points they harness.
• Companies are more likely to embrace a multichannel service model
• NetSuite will offer an ‘apple like experience’.
• Traditional application vendors who don’t move quickly to the cloud will suffer

The Cloud, Marketing and the Social Business

‘Chief Marketing Officers are spending more on IT than the IT department themselves’.
Analyse the effectiveness of the marketing department – accountability – there must be some form of digital identification to show where leads are coming from. By analysing all areas we are able to justify marketing’s existence. Find out what you want to achieve from social media then measure collaborations by analysing what opportunities were gained or lost – adjust strategies for future growth

Keep your business engaged across the entire organisation – ‘A business must be social internally to be social externally.’ By following what our customers do socially, we are able to get vital intelligence into their behaviour and habits. Be creative and build on what you already know by interacting with both your customers and employees – target and engage all touch points and focus on areas that work best for you. This may be across departments, geographies, content and business apps.
Mobile/Social interactions are the future, with Cloud being the enabler.

Consumers are shifting from software to information based business model – the needs of a business as well as the requirements of IT must be met in order to ensure regulatory compliance, operational efficiency and overall revenue growth.

The Cloud, Your Data, the Law and Security

When a business considers whether a Cloud solution is right for their business there is certain things they need to know:

• How is the data managed and moved around the organisation?
• Can you control the location of where your data is held?(It is legal for cloud providers to transfer data outside of the UK/EU)
• What type of Cloud is your data held in?
• Nationality of your Cloud Provider? Is there a reseller involved?
• Where is the backup server? And can we also have our data on premise?

The Data Protection Act states that the Cloud provider is not responsible for the customer’s data: the customer is. On the 25th January 2012 the European Commission proposed a comprehensive reform of the EU’s 1995 Data Protection rules to strengthen online privacy rights and boost Europe’s Digital economy.

Technological progress and globalisation have profoundly changed the way our data is collected, assessed and used – most big brands would not risk their reputation by having badly managed/controlled databases and there are very strict regulations that need to be adhered to.

The Cloud is happening.

Business users and leaders of today and of the future will need to embrace the Cloud in order to stay competitive. Cloud technologies are faster to deploy, require minimal technical know to manage and cost less than on premise technologies. This lets business users focus on what’s most important: growing their business. The approach to the cloud should be the same as everything else, know who you’re dealing with, know how they operate and know who is responsible for what.