Cloud computing kills application software competitive advantage Cloud integrated vibration and awe

Apps can be a competitive advantage in the past, and it's no longer the case. Cloud computing makes the competitive environment seem fairer.





in order to contribute to continuous success and development, many enterprises are looking for ways to gain competitive advantage. This is manifested in a variety of activities ranging from radically changing marketing and sales processes to optimizing back-end processes, from increasing understanding of customer needs to enhancing business agility.





20 years ago, many enterprises promoted these activities through enterprise application software to gain a competitive advantage. Rather, they implement custom packaged software frameworks to differentiate their processes and practices from competitors.





This custom implementation project requires two aspects: time and money. For example, customization of SAP software systems usually takes two years, costing 10 million of dollars, while customization of Siebel software systems can take up to 18 months and cost millions of of dollars. However, many companies are willing to devote resources to such customised projects because they believe that doing so can provide a competitive advantage. This is true for many companies, and their unique data architectures and workflows reflect this.





But then there was cloud computing.





Legacy Apps: No longer a competitive advantage





Today, the world is moving at a rapid pace toward software-service (SaaS) and cloud computing applications, and the idea of gaining a competitive advantage through legacy enterprise applications is no longer a viable option.





SaaS applications are so appealing for many reasons. They provide robust solutions for rapid implementation, seamless upgrades, and the actual testing of thousands of other users. As David Cearley, vice president of Gartner, a renowned research institute, claims that SaaS and cloud computing technology is "ready for a new IT approach that allows individuals and businesses to choose how they can get or deliver IT services without paying much attention to traditional software constraints." "It is no wonder that SaaS has been widely used, and Gartner predicts that global SaaS revenues are expected to reach $14.5 billion trillion in 2012."





In addition, SaaS applications, by their very nature, focus on configuration, bringing real value to customers without having to carry out long, expensive customization projects. Admittedly, every company has a slightly different approach to implementing salesforce.com applications, but it's actually the same as compared to the market pattern of 20 years ago.





Perhaps most importantly, because of the atomization and decentralization of traditional enterprise applications, configuration for multiple customers has become more homogeneous. Instead of purchasing a complete set of enterprise resource Planning (ERP) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite, customers order the best single point solutions in the same category, such as Intacct in the Accounting field, Zuora in the Billing field, Marketo in the field of marketing automation, Concur and many other solutions in the area of expenditure management. And each of these single point solutions look almost exactly the same in different customers.





Cloud era than rival above





How can companies gain a competitive advantage in the context of the increasing homogenization of SaaS applications deployed by different companies? In short, this requires combining a variety of single point solutions and the process logic that brings competitive advantage to each other in the cloud. At present, cloud based single point application software has two applications: one is to store data and the other is to provide application logic to perform a particular business function. For example, the customer support process is performed by a set of logic, and the expense management process is performed by another set of logic. This means that any process that is not limited to a narrow business function requires some integration between a variety of single point SaaS solutions.





as cloud computing enters the mainstream, companies need to choose the best combination of SaaS systems and integrate them better than their competitors to gain an edge. Fortunately, cloud computing applications have given greater control to business owners in making their IT decisions. Gone are the days when the CIO unilaterally chose a huge ERP solution for the entire enterprise; Now, business owners can choose the best SaaS solution in their class to support their specific requirements. As a result, the remaining challenge is to integrate these different best-of-breed solutions and to differentiate the business from other competitors.





looking to the future





So, where do we go from here? In the new cloud-centric it landscape, consider the following issues when considering integration strategies:





Is your SaaS strategy exactly the same as the cloud computing model? Is the deployment simple enough to offset the benefits of cloud computing? (In other words, you don't have to pay an expensive consulting fee for 18 months to integrate everything without ordering a SaaS solution.) Can your SaaS integration strategy bring competitive advantage through your unique business processes? (In other words, integration is not just about consolidating data, it's about consolidating business processes.) Do you have a flexible integration approach? Can they change rapidly in the face of rapidly changing business environments? (Deploying point-to-point custom integration systems is easy, but when your business needs change, these integration systems can be difficult and costly to change.) ）





used software to bring a competitive advantage, and now it is no longer the case. Cloud computing makes the competitive environment seem fairer. Large and small enterprises can now obtain a large number of SaaS applications, and the choice of more and more extensive. To compete in the cloud computing economy, you need to have an integrated SaaS strategy that promotes operational efficiency and flexibility, promotes innovation, and expands customer coverage.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)