5 signs that you are ready for Cloud

Cloud means different things to different people starting from most of technical aspects of IT to a standard business function provided by a vendor. How do you know that your organisation is ready to take advantage of cloud?

Here are five common signs indicating that you are potentially ready to explore cloud option:

1. Organisation’s core strategy - If your organisation’s strategy is to stick with the core business mission and not to manage IT capabilities for key common business functions like HR, Finance, procurement and CRM then you could potentially take advantage of available cloud solutions. In this challenging time, it is better to deploy your resources to more strategic goals such as innovation, better service for citizens than working on business as usual activities.  
2. Complex IT Operations – With many computer systems supporting today’s organisations, IT has become a more complex operation than ever. Moving some of non-strategic business functions into cloud, you could simplify your IT operations which can focus on delivering strategic business projects.
3. High Cost – Efficiency and productivity are high on organisations agenda to save cost but they have invested lot of money on standing current on-premise systems which have got high running as well as support cost. Cloud solutions could provide a modern option reducing operations cost with a business case to change.  
4. Rigid systems – Your current system is rigid, customised and is not meeting dynamic needs of your organisation. With a cloud solution you could get a modern and flexible system which can be provided as a service to you and managed by a vendor so no more pain of upgrading and keeping it up to date.
5. Business processes – Various business functions especially back office (Finance, HR) have industry standard business processes which could be easily adopted by your business. Some Cloud solutions can offer you most of these standard business processes out of the box that means further efficiencies and savings can be achieved.

There is a common perception in the industry that Cloud means moving capital expenditure to operational expenditure but there is a lot more to achieve with Vendors who are investing heavily in their R&D to provide most modern & efficient systems by reducing risk to your organisation and power to innovate you more.