Companies Beware! Business processes are not a competitive advantage anymore.
- Industry cloud applications: due to major advancements in cloud technologies, most of the strategic applications that are running on premise today are available on the cloud. The recent HANA Enterprise Cloud announcement from SAP is a pretty significant example of the revolution that is happening.
Think about it: we are talking here about core strategic applications that you can get up and running with all your data in a few weeks.
The adoption of cloud by small and large companies is a trend that is not going to stop and the number of available applications is exponentially growing. In a short future, if not already today, all the industries will have their own strategic applications running on the cloud that incorporate all the processes, best-practices and knowledge that individual companies need to have. And with cloud the entry point becomes really cheap.
- Challenging economic times: in all industries today, companies have no choice but to become growth engines. In uncertain times more than ever, investments should be focused on innovation and on developing the next generation of products. All other costs are being reduced and organizations have to do more with less.
The value of having highly customized applications is therefore decreasing in favor of more standard applications that are more agile, more transportable, and meet the requirements to run the business.
- Pace of the business: To survive, businesses need to adapt quickly to new realities, new trends and new consumer behaviors. What is a best-practice today can become obsolete in two years-time. Companies do not have the luxury anymore to go through lengthy implementation cycles that consume resources and are not in synch with the business models of today.