One of our partners recently told us a story. A potential customer whose business management and SAP audit team LOVED our product – loved the feature that grants authorizations automatically in multiple systems, the feature that alerts managers to risky authorizations and of course how ProfileTailor Dynamics can actually solve SOD conflicts. BUT, their IT department said – “We don’t need another system to look after! Our team is already trying to keep up with all the other systems we have.”
But then they asked the million dollar question –” Is there a cloud version available?“
Yes there is! With ProfileTailor Dynamics an organization can choose from an on-premise or cloud-based version and the transition between the two is a simple process.
This situation made us think about why IT teams prefer cloud applications over on-premise applications. Because, with many of our customers, the situation is opposite – “SAP data WILL NOT leave the organization” say the IT guys, “The Cloud is not secure enough to guard sensitive data from SAP.” But, we have been hearing more and more from our customers that IT guys really do prefer cloud applications…so we decided to investigate.
Here is what we found out:
Reason 1:
The main reason that the folks in the IT department prefer the cloud version over the on-premise version of Xpandion’s solution is that they don’t want the hassle of dealing with a new system. The IT department is responsible for each and every application in the organization. Thus, when adding a new system they need to make sure they are equipped to take care of its operations, create and verify a backup plan for the system, manage access control and emergency access for the IT team, include it in the disaster-recovery plan and of course take care of its day-to-day operations and success. If said system is installed in the cloud – it automatically becomes someone else’s responsibility and the IT team, if anything, just need to verify that the provider is giving the organization a proper level of service. At this point it becomes the problem of the IT management rather than the IT employee.
Reason 2:
IT teams will encourage users to utilize cloud-based applications when they feel that the system does not provide them with any benefits. Sometimes the CIO sees value in our system for the IT team (like being able to open/close users automatically which saves valuable time or being able to conduct access review processes automatically). If the IT department can identify the benefits to them they are usually more inclined to take responsibility for the software, but if benefits and savings are not recognizable they will prefer looking into the cloud option. This is typically the time when you find that the IT team is supportive for using the cloud application.
Reason 3:
The third reason of course, is money. Not for the common CAPEX vs. OPEX issues but from the “who’s paying for it” issue. From an enterprise point of view, taking a 5-10 year budget plan for a cloud-based application will always be more expensive than an on-premise application. If the software costs don’t come from the IT budget – they may prefer the cloud solution. It is less hassle for them and someone else is paying the bill. If the software costs are deducted from the IT budget – then they will prefer a perpetual on-premise solution.
Now we need your help. Can you think of more reasons that the IT team will encourage their users to use the cloud?