Organisations usually consider moving over to the Cloud as the next technological step forward.
However, user experience may not necessarily improve with a step like this.
Organisations with a technology landscape comprising largely of bespoke software applications would find this especially true.
Often, these organisations would have contemplated moving to the cloud to simplify the IT service management landscape.
In the post, we explore if moving to the Cloud is always a step forward.
What is the Cloud?
“The cloud” refers to servers that are accessed over the Internet, and the software and databases that run on those servers.
What are the Advantages of the Cloud?
The key benefit of a Cloud service is that software upgrades are managed as part of the service.
Moving to the Cloud is in many ways analogous to giving your IT department an equal say in what needs doing.
This is because the IT managers of the software are not subservient to your business.
They will decide the future revisions of their product based on their goals, therefore widening customer base needs.
What are the Consequences of Cloud?
This results in two consequences that can seriously impact user experience:
1) You may not get all the features you want
Some SaaS providers run a cog-wheel concept, where your feature requests are voted on by other users of the software.
Depending on the extent of the demand, the SaaS provider may choose to prioritise what needs working on.
Also, it is worth remembering that a SaaS provider usually has a wide customer base. The IT team will often look for low hanging fruits, e.g. fixes requiring low effort and resulting in high positive impact.
2) A SaaS product may not suit you if you change business direction
An in-house IT team can change direction if the business direction requires them too. In most cases, a SaaS provider is not likely to.
Your choice may work very well for you today. However. you will need to be open minded about changing over to another better suited product over time.
How to combat the Risks?
The best ways to combat these risks in your journey to the Cloud are:
1) Adopt your ways of working – not adapt the SaaS product
It is always a good idea to swim with the tide. Moving over to a cloud solution is a submission into a standard way of working as prescribed by the software provider.
2) Undertake a cloud readiness assessment
Cloud readiness assessment is a process in which a systems integrator first understands your business processes. Then it matches your requirements with the features of the cloud software. The best providers tell you what you can do about the gaps.
3) Client delivery support team
The greatest risk to an IT Cloud transition programme is when users often get first sight of the solution. The design phase is when this usually happens. These users have in-depth knowledge of the L3 and L4 processes.
They are therefore able to discover and articulate gaping holes in what the technology offers. This is exactly where a strong client delivery support team with the right functional and technical skills can help.
They ensure that any design decisions balance business needs with as-is usability of SaaS.
What’s Next?
At Mindful, we specialise in provision of client-side delivery support teams – especially for Oracle Cloud transition programmes. We do this through our Managed Services offering.
