Cloud for Busieness Managers: the Good, the Bad and de Ugly

May 2013

Independent Market ResearchCommissioned by

Cloud forBusiness Managers:

the Good,the Bad and

the Ugly

© Dynamic Markets Limited 2013Cloud for Business Managers: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly1

• 71% of companies have adopted cloud applications and line-of-business managers in all departments use them.

• 76% of adopters say their motivation was to get quick access to software, while 47% took on the apps to get access to more appropriate software for their department.

• However, 54% say their department has experienced staff downtime due to cloud integration problems and another 54% say project deadlines have been missed.

• 83% have been prevented from getting the best out of their departmental cloud applications - 1 in 4 blames poor integration.

• 75% say their ability to innovate using their cloud apps has been hindered and the main hindrance is a lack of integration (53%).

• Indeed, 1 in 2 companies has abandoned the use of at least 1 departmental cloud app in the last 3 years due to integration problems.

• Yet, 81% of all respondents think it is important that cloud applications are fully integrated with each other and with other software in the organisation.

• Among those who claim to have integrated cloud apps, integration seems to be only partial, covering some apps / processes / departments.

• Indeed, 68% of cloud adopters have attempted integration, but 55% of these have tried and failed.

• 42% have seen a data security breach in their department associated directly with the use of cloud apps.

Key Findings

Background and introduction:This research set out to investigate the ways in which line-of-business managers in large companies across the world with £50 million+ revenues are using cloud apps in their departments. It explores their motivations for adopting cloud apps, how easily they are able to share information generated within the apps across the company and any problems they have encountered in this respect. The findings show that the adoption of cloud apps across the world is remarkably high and in all departments, but that integration problems are endemic.

Customisation:

Best-in-class software:In an ideal world, all companies would surely want top-quality software to drive their business forward and give them the edge over their competition. The reality is, however, that 32% of these large organisations agree that the cost of top-of-the range software and IT systems has prevented their company buying best-in-class business applications. Almost 40% of MDs, CEOs & owners in the sample agree with this, as do 35% of finance professionals.

One of the reported benefits of cloud computing is the low total cost of ownership (TCO), and indeed, 57% of respondents agree that cloud computing allows access to top-quality business applications and this rises to 65% for companies that are currently using cloud apps. It seems that MDs, CEOs & owners and finance professionals are already sold on this concept, with 67% and 59% respectively, agreeing over this benefit of cloud computing.

Around the world, this opinion is also especially widespread in the APAC region (69%), but also in Spain (68%), Russia (70%), China (85%) and Singapore (66%).

Cloud adoption levels:

Use of cloud applications:The research shows that, overall, 71% of these large organisations around the world use cloud applications [Chart 1]. However, levels of cloud adoption vary significantly across the countries, with the highest levels found in the APAC region (85%), and specifically China (92%) and Singapore (94%), but these front runners are followed by the UK (78%), France (79%), Germany (83%) and Italy (80%).

In contrast, fewer companies in the UAE (49%), Turkey (38%) and Hungary (36%) have adopted the use of cloud applications.

However, there is much more uniformity across the industry sectors, with adoption levels rising from 55% for the public & not-for-profit sector to 80% for the telecoms, high tech & communications sector, but many sectors have adoption levels of between 70-75%. The research also shows that cloud applications are used by all departments across the organisation and 53% of finance departments use them, as do 57% of HR, 54% of those in sales, marketing & customer services / CRM roles and 75% of MDs, CEOs & owners.

Executive Summary


Motivations:Among those whose departments use cloud apps, 76% say their motivation was to have a quick way to get the software they wanted: this includes 53% who saw it as a shortcut to getting what the department needed, 31% who saw it as a way of avoiding the queue for the IT department’s time and another 31% who say it was a way of jumping the queue of IT projects the IT department had lined up.

Also, 47% took on cloud apps to get access to what they believed to be more appropriate software for their department: including 35% who adopted it because they felt the existing software and systems in place were not entirely appropriate to their department’s needs and 22% who felt the IT department was not helping to move their area of the business forward.

Across the different departments, supply chain managers, MDs, CEOs & owners, finance professionals and those in risk / compliance relate to more of these issues. The same is true for the more senior respondents in the sample (above senior manager level), and this group has been especially motivated by the prospect of jumping the queues for the IT department’s attention.

Problems with the cloud:

Staff downtime:Despite these high adoption levels, and the initial aspirations of departmental heads, the research reveals problems exist with the approach to cloud computing these companies have taken. Problems have included staff downtime and 54% of people in companies using cloud apps say their department has experienced this in the last 6 months, where people have been unable to perform their jobs properly due to problems associated with cloud applications not being integrated properly across the company. Among those who cited a figure, the average number of downtime incidents during the last 6 months is 11 per department.

From a statistical point of view, all departments across the organisation have been equally affected, but the highest

average number of incidences occurs in marketing, PR & communications (23) and in HR (35), while finance says this has happened to them 16 times on average during this relatively short time.

Interestingly, the research demonstrates that cloud app integration problems cause staff downtime in departments that do not even use cloud apps; indeed, those who say other departments but not theirs use

Chart 1: Adoption of cloud applications around the world

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Your department and other departments use cloud applicationsOther departments use cloud apps, but not your departmentYour department uses cloud apps, but not other departmentsNone of the departments use cloud appsDon't know


cloud apps have the highest average (40) figure for such downtime incidents.

The problem has been especially bad in the LATAM region, whereas fewer say this has happened in North America, but on a country level, more in the UK, France, Germany, South Africa, Singapore, India and Brazil have encountered this problem.

Missed project deadlines:In addition to this staff downtime, 54% of companies that use cloud apps say project deadlines in their company have been missed in the last 6 months due to a lack of cloud data being shared effectively around the organisation. On average, this has happened 9 times per company in the space of just six months. Awareness of this problem is high across all departments and MDs, CEOs & owners seem the most aware, with more of them citing a figure and fewer admitting ignorance on the subject.

Around the world, LATAM and APAC lead in terms of missing project deadlines, especially in Singapore, India and Brazil, whereas fewer say this has happened in the Nordics, Spain, Turkey, Hungary and the USA.

Cloud falling short:The ability to innovate quickly is a well-publicised and strong selling point for cloud computing; however, 75% of companies that use cloud applications say their ability

to innovate using their cloud apps has been hindered in some way [Chart 2].

The research shows that the main hindrance is being unable to integrate the cloud app with other software owned by the company (36%) or with other cloud apps (26%), and together this means 53% have seen innovation hindered by at least one of these integration issues. An inability to integrate has hindered innovation more in the APAC region (65%) and specifically in China (63%), Singapore (70%) and India (78%), and it has also affected Integration problems cause

staff downtime in departments that do not even use cloud

apps

Chart 2: Factors hindering innovation when using cloud applications

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% of sample whose organisations use cloud apps

Being unable to customise the cloud app to your specific company needs

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more companies with international offices (60%).

In addition, 83% of people say they have been prevented from getting the best out of the cloud applications their department uses for one reason or another and this applies across all the different departments. Once again, 26% blame poor integration with other software, and more people in the APAC region (34%) feel this way, as do a high proportion of those in China (36%), but figures are the same or even higher for France (36%), South Africa (38%) and India (41%).

Another problem associated with some cloud apps on the market is their inflexibility, and the research shows that 33% of cloud users say being unable to customise the cloud app to their specific company needs has hindered their ability to innovate [Chart 2]. Once again, China, Singapore and India have suffered more in this respect.

Functionality of cloud apps is another area of disappointment for cloud app users and 1 in 5 (20%) thinks their apps do not have the functionality they were expecting which has prevented them from getting the best out of their cloud applications.

Apps not usable on mobile devices:No software company today can ignore mobile, especially when it comes to business applications. Yet, 20% of cloud app users complain that the apps they have are not usable on mobile devices, preventing them getting the

best out of them. The EMEA region (23%) is especially disappointed by this aspect of their cloud apps, compared to other regions, but India (44%) really stands out in this respect.

Across the departments, sales professionals are also especially disappointed with their cloud apps not being usable on mobile devices (30%), and this is a group who will tend to be working out of the office more than some of their colleagues.

Abandoned cloud apps:Such integration issues and associated problems have led 1 in 2 current cloud adopters (48%) to abandon the use of at least 1 cloud app in the last 3 years. Indeed, most of these have abandoned 3 different cloud apps during this time (i.e. roughly 1 a year).

Such cloud app abandonment has been especially commonplace in Singapore, India and Brazil, but least common in Spain. In fact, respondents across all the different departments report that their company has abandoned the use of a particular cloud app in the last 3 years and MDs, CEOs & owners are among the most aware of this type of behaviour.

Importance of integration:

Getting the full benefits:In light of all these problems, it is not surprising to find that 81% of companies think it is important that cloud applications are fully integrated with each other and with other software in the organisation in order to be able to reap the full benefits of cloud computing [Chart 3]. This figure rises to 88% for those organisations currently using

cloud apps, and even 65% of those who do not currently use cloud apps agree. Indeed, the more departments in an organisation that use cloud apps, the more the senior managers there believe integration is essential.

Companies in the LATAM region feel especially strongly about this issue, as do more people in the UAE, South Africa, Hungary, India and Brazil. While respondents across all departments think such integration is important, more MDs, CEOs & owners, finance professionals and those in production / operations / logistics think integration is essential.

For those in sales, marketing & customer services / CRM roles, integration is key to how they see the future, with 50% thinking data must be easily shared across all channels of communication and across various departments and business units in order to deliver a next-generation customer experience. Furthermore, this opinion is especially common among those who deal with customers as part of their job (56%), as well as among those who are currently using cloud apps (52%).

24 / 7 access to business applications from a mobile:Among the whole sample, 89% think it is important to their overall business strategy to be able to provide 24 / 7 access to core business systems to employees via their mobile devices. 17% go as far as saying this is critical, and another 45% describe it as very important.

Respondents across all four territories think it is important, especially in LATAM and North America, where more describe it as critical. At a country level, this feeling is especially pronounced in Spain, Italy, the UAE, South Africa, Russia, Turkey, China, Singapore, India and Brazil. At a departmental level, all respondents agree that this is important, but more MDs, CEOs & owners believe it is critical.

In addition, 83% of respondents think it is important for all senior managers to be able to access multiple business cloud apps on their mobile devices simultaneously where the apps can talk to each other and integrate business data and information from app to app.

Companies have abandoned roughly 1 cloud app a year due

to integration problems


Again, as would be expected, more respondents whose organisations are currently using cloud apps think it is important (91%), compared to those who do not currently use cloud apps (66%), but the latter figure is also very high. Also, the more departments that use cloud apps in an organisation, the more respondents there believe it is essential for senior managers to be able to access multiple business cloud apps on their mobile devices simultaneously.

Across the regions, more respondents in LATAM describe this type of access to cloud data as essential, as do those in South Africa, India and Brazil. While all these senior decision makers agree it is important, once again more MDs, CEOs & owners describe this aspect of mobile cloud working as essential.

Cloud strategies in place:Across the whole sample, irrespective of their cloud adoption status, 53% of organisations have an overall cloud strategy aligned with the strategic direction of the business that has been discussed and approved at CEO / Board level. Perhaps not surprisingly, more of those who currently use cloud apps have a formal cloud strategy in place - however, this only applies to 67% of this group.

What is interesting is that 17% of those who do not currently use cloud apps also have a formal cloud strategy in place. Also, the prevalence of such formal strategies is higher in companies with multiple departments using cloud apps, rather than just a single department.

Across the regions, cloud strategies are especially

common in APAC (71%), LATAM (66%) and North America (54%), but least common in EMEA (46%), although they are common in Italy (65%), along with China (86%), Singapore (64%), India (74%) and Brazil (66%). In contrast, they are least common in the Nordics (32%), the UAE (33%), Turkey (26%) and Hungary (16%), where the cloud adoption levels are lower.

Integration levels:

Access to cloud data:As might be expected, almost all companies share information derived from cloud apps between departments. The good news is that 50% of respondents claim to have integrated cloud apps, where they are able to access cloud data in other departments directly from within the business application used by their own department, but this means roughly 1 in 2 have no such capability. However, among departments who do NOT use cloud apps themselves only 23% have this level of integration.

China also stands out from all the other countries in that 75% there say they have this type of integration across their departments. However, this observation holds the key, because as already discussed above, the research demonstrates that cloud adopters have had lots of problems due to poor integration / visibility and

Chart 3: Importance of integrating cloud applications

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China is among the countries that have suffered the most from such problems; thus it is surprising to find such a high percentage saying they have integrated cloud applications.

However, within the detail of the research, it shows that just as many of those who claim to have integrated cloud apps have suffered from staff downtime and missed project deadlines in the last 6 months, compared to those without access to integrated cloud apps. One interpretation of this fact is that the integration across the company is only partial for some apps / departments.

In support of this theory, 31% who claim to have integrated apps also say poor integration has prevented their company from getting the best out of the cloud apps they use. Also, 57% of this group also report that their ability to innovate using their cloud applications has been hindered by integration issues.

The research also shows that Excel spreadsheets are used to share cloud data / information in a significant proportion of companies within each country (28-70%), with the highest figure actually being for China where integration levels are supposedly significantly higher than elsewhere (75%). In fact, just 11% of respondents in China ONLY access cloud data in other departments directly from within the business applications used by their own department.

Integration attempts:

Attempts to integrate:With all these integration problems, it is not surprising to find that 68% of cloud adopters have attempted to integrate their cloud apps with other cloud apps and / or

Cloud app integration across the company is only partial for

some apps / departments

Chart 4: Issues associated with integration attempts

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*Some country sub-sample sizes are too small to be included in the comparative analysis. The data can be used in isolation but comparisons between countries are unreliable.


software and systems used by the company. Yet, almost 1 in 3 companies (29%) that has attempted integration says this activity was not anticipated when they first started using cloud apps [Chart 4].

Nevertheless, integration attempts have been more common in the APAC region, compared to in EMEA and North America, and they have also been very commonplace in the UAE, China, Singapore, India and Brazil. Companies with international offices are more likely to have gone down this route, and where multiple departments use cloud apps, more of these companies have tried to integrate the cloud apps they use.

Failed attempts:Among those who have attempted cloud app integration, 86% encountered negatives along the way. Alarmingly, 41% say their integration attempts were only partially successful and 18% say some were completely unsuccessful - indeed 55% of companies that tried did not have complete success with their integration attempts. Indeed, it is also interesting to note that just over 1 in 2 of those who claim to have integration says attempts were either partially or completely unsuccessful.

Across the world, significantly more respondents in APAC say the attempts were only partially successful (56%), and figures are very high for China (68%); this goes some way to explaining the fact that this country claims to have high integration levels, yet they still rely on Excel and other means of sharing cloud data and have had lots of integration-related problems. The EMEA region is less fortunate and more companies there report that their integration attempts were completely unsuccessful (23%), especially in Spain and Russia.

27% of companies who have attempted integration say the activity became a headache for the IT department, and this applies to more companies in EMEA, especially in the UK (33%), France (35%) and Germany (35%), compared to in China (15%). However, only 14% of respondents say the company was put off using cloud apps due to the integration attempts, but India stands out in this respect, where 31% report this has occurred.

Cost of integration attempts:What has the cost of this band-aid cloud integration been to organisations? While 43% say they do not know the amount of money spent on this effort, among those who were able to cite a figure, on average, companies have invested £121,857 to date, but figures rise to £8.5 million for one company. Proportionally more of the MDs, CEOs & owners cited a figure, as did those in finance, supply chain management and risk / compliance departments, whereas those in sales, marketing & customer services / CRM roles are generally more ignorant on this subject.

What is alarming is that the amounts of money spent on this task vary across the sample, but the cost of integration has been especially high in China where more people claim to have integrated cloud apps. Indeed, those who now claim to have at least some degree of integration of their cloud apps had to spend considerably more on integration than those whose integration

attempts were not successful; in other words, the more you spend on integration, the more successful it is. However, despite all the money spent in China, many are left with only partial integration.

Skilled staff?

Usability issues:When it comes to how user-friendly cloud apps are, the research shows that a significant proportion leaves room for improvement in this respect. In fact, 43% of those using cloud apps have encountered usability issues, including 23% who say staff in the department do not find it easy to use the apps, and another 27% who say staff do not have the right skills to get the best out of the apps they are using. Such problems can only be made worse by the integration issue and by changing software so frequently due to cloud app abandonment.

Such usability issues are especially common in the APAC region (56%), and in Singapore (61%) and India (63%). Across the departments, those in risk / compliance roles stand out with 61% complaining of usability issues, as do 41% of finance professionals, 41% of HR and 39% of those in sales, marketing & customer services / CRM roles.

Reliance on IT:Ironically, one of the key motivations for adopting cloud applications was to avoid having to heavily involve and be dependent on IT staff. However, 30% of cloud users have found that, in practice, they have had to do just that and this group says this issue has prevented them

1 in 3 companies that has attempted integration did not anticipate this need when they first started using cloud apps

The more a company spends on integration, the more

successful the integration attempt is


from getting the best out of the cloud applications their department uses.

Indeed, more of those who have attempted integration of cloud apps (34%) say they have had to rely on IT for help with their cloud apps. APAC (40%) has been especially reliant on IT to help with the apps, as has China (45%).

Compliance:

Cloud data breaches:Security of cloud data was one of the biggest concerns about cloud computing and much has been talked about this issue over the last few years. However, while this topic may not be at the top of the new agenda any more, the problem is certainly alive and kicking. The research here shows that, in the last 12 months, 42% of respondents whose departments use cloud apps have seen a data

security breach in their department associated directly with the use of cloud applications [Chart 5]. This is equivalent to 25% of all companies around the world and 35% of companies that have adopted cloud applications.

No single department has escaped from such data breaches, and the problem has been especially bad in the risk / compliance department (57%), but fewer in HR (31%) say this has occurred. Also, a staggering 43% of finance respondents say this has happened to them.

Among those who cited a figure, the average number of individual security breaches per department is 6 a year. All regions have seen at least 1 such departmental cloud data security breach, but the problem is less pronounced

in EMEA (36%) and North America (33%), compared to APAC (54%) and LATAM (64%); indeed, LATAM has the highest average number of incidences of departmental security breaches (19).

No single department has escaped from cloud data

breaches, and the problem has been especially bad in the risk / compliance department (57%)

Chart 5: Number of cloud data security breaches

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Difficult compliance:It is not surprising then that, among those whose departments use cloud applications, 73% say having cloud data handled externally by one or more cloud vendors makes it hard for their department to be compliant. This applies to all departments, and to 77% of those in finance and to 71% of those in HR. Indeed, roughly 1 in 10 of those in finance, HR and risk / compliance thinks it extremely hard to be compliant under these circumstances.

There is a correlation between how difficult respondents think compliance is and the occurrence of data breaches, with more of those who have had a cloud data breach thinking the way cloud data is handled externally makes it hard for their department to be compliant.

Educated cloud buyers?Yet the research shows these senior, departmental, line-of-business managers to be somewhat naive when it comes to how the cloud industry mainly operates. Indeed, 81% of respondents were not completely aware that many niche cloud application vendors contract out to other cloud vendors data management services, meaning a client’s cloud data is not looked after by the cloud vendor it might have a contract with. 24% had no idea this might be the case, while 49% only suspected it - just 19% were completely aware of this fact.

Perhaps not surprisingly, more respondents in organisations that currently use cloud apps are aware of this fact, and the more widely cloud apps are used around the organisation, the more aware respondents are. Yet 13% of those with a formal cloud strategy had no idea that the industry operates in this way.

It also seems that with increasing seniority of the respondent there is an increasing awareness of the cloud data service supply chain. Yet respondents across the different departments demonstrate varying degrees of ignorance of this fact, and such ignorance is especially high among sales, marketing & customer services / CRM respondents where just 10% were completely aware of this fact. In contrast, the respondents that are most aware of this fact are the MDs, CEOs & owners, R&D, HR

and supply chain managers, as well as those in risk / compliance and production / operations / logistics.

The findings also show that if a department has had a data security breach in the last 12 months, people there are more aware of how things work in the cloud industry - but even so, only 31% of those affected by a recent cloud data breach are completely aware of this fact.


Methodology:This report was commissioned by Oracle and details quantitative research with senior decision makers in large organisations in 17 countries around the world (the UK, France, Germany, the Nordics, Spain, Italy, the UAE, South Africa, Russia, Turkey, Hungary, the USA, Australia, China, Singapore, India and Brazil). A total of 1,355 surveys was collected from companies with revenues of £50 million or more. All respondents confirmed prior to interview the size of their organisation by turnover, as well as their job role / department and level of seniority within it.

Quotas were placed on the sampling according to the 17 constituent countries covered by the survey, where some of the larger economies have bigger samples (100

for most and 250 for the USA) and the smaller ones have close to 50 completed interviews [Table 1].

Collectively, 76% of companies have either customers and / or offices located in a country other than its own. 58% have customers located internationally and another 48% have offices / sites in other countries. Only 22% say none of these international elements apply to their company and 2% are unsure / declined to comment. Among these senior decision makers, 63% deal with suppliers as part of their job on a regular basis and 72% deal with customers in this way. Just 9% do not do either of these.

The sample is made up of companies of different sizes, with 19% being very large corporations with turnovers of over £1 billion [Chart 6]. However, the sample is fairly evenly distributed across the various turnover bands.

The sample covers a wide variety of industry sectors and all the main sectors are well represented. Manufacturing companies are strongly represented among these large organisations.

The sample includes respondents at a variety of levels of seniority. Collectively, 48% are at director level or above, including 18% who operate at C-level or VP level or above this, and 30% who are at director level; while 52% are at senior manager level. The sample includes a wide variety of line-of-business managers and all the main departments are adequately represented across this large sample [Chart 7]. IT professionals were deliberately

Chart 6: Company size by turnover

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Table 1: Country sample sizes

Countries: Region: Number of interviews:

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Germany 100

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UAE 51

South Africa 50

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Turkey 50

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Singapore 50

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Brazil LATAM 50


excluded from the sample.

The findings of the survey have been analysed and compared according to various parameters, and where any differences exist that are significant at a 95% confidence level and are relevant to the overall findings, they are described accordingly in this report.

The interviews were conducted using a global online panel between 25th March and 10th April 2013. Before and during the interviews, respondents were not aware that Oracle had commissioned the research.

Chart 7: Departments covered by the sample

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15

10

8

4

17

10

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

MD, CEO, owner

Research & development (R&D)




Finance

Human resources


Risk / compliance


% of sample


Contacts:

Report Author:Dr Cherry Taylor

Managing Director

Dynamic Markets Limited

Tel: +44 (0) 870 707 6767

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.dynamicmarkets.co.uk