Sunny prospects for cloud at Convergence Summit North

IT trade shows represent an interesting barometer on market conditions and this week’s Convergence Summit North suggests that there are sunnier prospects for cloud ahead! Here’s a quick personal round-up of some of the facts, views and people that caught my attention. First a subject close to my heart – the changing buying-selling landscape. Ian Hunter, editor of CommsBusiness got the ball rolling in his opening seminar, quoting Lucy Green of Larato’s findings that telemarketing just isn’t working for many partners and pointing to Gartner research on the declining significance of the reseller. It became a key topic in our panel debate on ‘Cloud sales opportunities for resellers’. My fellow panellists agreed sales teams need to be more commercial and business outcomes-led in their approach. Selling features and being a nice guy or gal just won’t cut it. I tend to agree with Lucy Green’s experience that the biggest competitor in the market right now is ‘no decision’. That’s probably at least partly due to the fact both suppliers and buyers struggle to identify compelling and relevant business cases and, as Paul Bryce of Node 4 pointed out, to map the right journey. Turning attention to technology, the ‘Collaboration apps in action’ session was all about video. Tim Stone of Polycom highlighted the need for video to be simple and not prohibitive in upfront costs or effort and suggested that finally that may becoming reality. It can’t come soon enough for the SMB, according to Graham Harris of Daisy. SMBs want and need to change the way they work and communicate – particularly with external parties. Meanwhile, in the exhibition hall there was a good buzz and talking with people like John Whitty of GCI (one of my fellow panellists) and David Green of 8×8, a general optimism about the market and growth in cloud adoption. This optimism was backed up in Alex Hilton’s Cloud Industry Forum presentation. In a climate of increasing cloud adoption, there are still 61% of companies using Windows Server 2003 which reaches end of support in July and the CIF forecasts a 90% increase in cloud adoption as a result. It’s not all cloud-cloud-cloud though. The unsurprising but clear headline news is that 80% of companies are pursuing a long-term hybrid IT strategy. Finally, these events are great for catching up with familiar faces like Richard Crossland of Alfred Ashley Group and Carl Taylor of Adepteo. I worked with Carl many years ago and it’s interesting to see how the professionalism and customer values instilled in us way back then are still guiding us today in a very different world. Ian Hunter asked what earth shattering developments had happened in the sector since the last summit and most of the responses were about incremental improvements. As Carl pointed out, we might really be the lucky generation to have lived through the incredible technology innovations of the last 20+ years and be able to appreciate first-hand how technology has changed our lives – and still have the energy and excitement to grasp the next wave of opportunity and earth-shattering change. As I said at the start, the future is looking up!

Business success in the cloud

‘The cloud’ has been a hot buzzword for some time now and, whilst the definitions and financial models are starting to become better understood, there’s still plenty of confusion out there.

Rather than simply jumping on the bandwagon, understanding the business impact and proper planning or 2 obvious but key factors that are emerging as critical to successful use of the cloud. Recently I’ve written several cloud-related articles which are collated here:

How to benefit from the cloud in 2014

2014 is the year of cloud predictions. All good stuff but, while the average mid-market company might be inspired by the big picture trends – and may indeed be pioneering change in their industry – the day to day pressure is how to grow revenue, manage costs and deliver profit to the shareholders. Pragmatism rules the day! This article takes a step back and looks at practical considerations for companies wondering if cloud is right for them

Read the full article here

A cloud world without resellers?
Imagine a world with no IT salespeople. A world with no IT resellers. After all, who would they sell to in a world with no internal IT delivery or support teams and where IT is bought at the click of a button?

It’s a bit extreme but it’s not far from the cloud delivery model trend that some are predicting and it’s creating interesting conversations in many reseller boardrooms right now. This article explores how to build a sustainable reseller business in the cloud.

Read the full article here

5i launches partner cloud sales enablement training

Knowing your market, your proposition and how to bring value to your customer is key to maximising business development success.

5i’s unique partner sales training is designed to support partners to quickly get up to speed in selling cloud and hybrid propositions. Underpinned by our core, proven sales methodologies and our commitment to delivering participative and engaging sales training that focuses on selling technology for business benefit.

Read the full article here

 

 

 

Making business sense of the cloud

‘Cloud’ is a hot topic but despite the sky high (excuse the pun) promises and expectations it’s not all things to all people or a panacea for all IT. Here we try to give you the low-down on what cloud can – and can’t – do for business.

At the moment it seems we have ‘alphabet as a Service’. Prefix aaS with any letter you like and it probably means something to somebody. We talk about ‘the cloud’ as if it’s one thing but ‘cloud’ services come in many different forms and what’s right for one company or one software application isn’t right for another.

The commercial story

We all know that the key business priorities are GROWTH (in a flat economy) & PROFIT, mainly through greater efficiency. To achieve these aims companies need to create operational versatility and join up silos to get everyone working together as ‘1 company’.

For IT this means 2 things

1. Engage more closely with business – IT as business enabler

AND

1. Control & manage costs through greater efficiency.

That usually means reduce complexity, reduce large capital expenditures and respond faster and more proactively to changing business needs. Sometimes these can feel like painfully conflicting demands yet a well-designed and streamlined IT environment that leverages & integrates cloud services in the right way delivers a platform that brings together and addresses these challenging demands. Critically, it brings this capability within the technical and commercial reach of the mid market in a potentially ‘game-changing’ way.

The cloud landscape

Understanding the cloud landscape is pretty complex even for cloud technologists but here are three aspects that can cause technical or commercial confusion.

1.’ Cloud’ is a very generic term for pretty much anything that is not delivered in-house! The most common forms of cloud are ‘Software as a Service’ i.e. the delivery of user applications as a subscription service and the delivery of IT services, infrastructure, resources or platforms as a service. There is no single definition and no ‘one size fits all’.

2. The level of support and resilience offered varies enormously from no guarantees at all to full Service Level Agreements and penalty clauses.

3. Cloud is not necessarily cheaper. Cloud moves much of ICT from a capex to an opex model and so it smooths costs over time and makes cost management more predictable. The real business advantage, and cost avoidance over time, comes from the flexibility and scalability to change, the freeing up of internal resources to focus on engaging with the business and from avoiding the costs and business barriers associated with running old and legacy equipment.

Business triggers

So when’s the right time to start the journey?

Common business triggers include

• Changes in how IT and business engage
• Changing working environments (eg mobility, flexible working)
• Business change programmes
• ‘One company’ initiatives and restructuring
• New business applications
• Improving collaboration with 3^rd parties or other locations

Common technology triggers include

• Server upgrades, refresh  or virtualisation / rationalisation
• New or upgraded applications (or requirements to extend  access to applications to new sites / partners)
• Technology review
• Back-up/business continuity requirements
• Security review
• Supplier / service contract rationalisation

The 5i Training view

So, with our feet on the ground, what’s our view of the cloud?

You only have to look at the market statistics and predictions so see that deployment in the cloud is a growing trend that is only going to accelerate as the commercial model becomes well-established.

We also know that one size does not fit all. It never has for on-premise solutions and managed services and it won’t in the cloud. Neither is cloud ‘all or nothing’.

Each company has its own start point and its own goals so each needs a joined up ICT plan that is based on what’s right for that specific business – commercially, technically and financially.

It’s far too easy to oversell the benefits of cloud without really quantifying the value a potential customer might receive. That leads to a pipeline that quickly withers at the qualification stage.

Those offering cloud services need to be clear about their value proposition and how it addresses the needs of their customers. With that understanding, and a clear methodology for customer migration, cloud providers can start to deliver on the promise of the cloud as a platform for business flexibility, efficiency and growth.