Here is a great reason to move to the cloud!
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I talk a lot about revisiting your underlying business processes and mapping back to the value chain before undergoing any kind of technology systems change.
I was working with a large, Fortune 50 client a few years ago who had been working with a homegrown, soon to be unsupported, legacy system to manage their business to business workflow. The “deals”, as I’ll refer to them, were customer initiated, and had the attributes of being high value, high touch, and low volume. This system was only available inside my clients firewall, so any interactions with customers had to be recorded into the system by someone directly in the department. It was a very labor intensive process and did not lend itself well to reporting transparency with key stakeholders.
By mapping out the business value and the ideal workflow based on business drivers, we were able to clearly see that a cloud solution would enable my client and their customers a way to collaborate more efficiently when working a deal through the system. This enabled an existing team to handle a greater number of deals over a given time period and accelerate revenues.
Ask yourself these questions when before choosing replacement systems:
- First, let’s state the obvious. Don’t let a vendor perform this step for you. It may feel like you are getting free work from field sales offices, but you are also getting a party with a strong vested interest in tilting the tables to their best interest. If you do not have these capabilities or available resources in-house, you should think strongly about retaining an experienced, independent third party to guide you through the process.
- What is the central value this system provides to customers and/or the organization. If you can’t explain this, or the value is not clear, you need to stay at this step until it becomes clear or it will make the rest of the process difficult.
- What is the business process from beginning to end? Can this be folded into other systems? Is there anything in the process that can be thrown away, or done better using current technologies? There are plenty of assumptions to test in the realm of business process as well as technology.
- Would a cloud solution allow me to shift work outside of the organization to improve customer engagement? (Be careful with this one!)
This line of thinking is targeted at mapping what is really needed to accelerate the organization and provide a strong ROI. Next steps would cover vendor selection; security testing, such as penetration tests; licensing per user or per site; etc.
Not performing this step is a real, lost opportunity! What is your strategy for modernizing your business? Call me to set up a time to discuss.
© Mark Travis – All Rights Reserved http://www.travis-company.com
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