How to get the most value from a cloud solution

The most important factor in getting the maximum value from a cloud solution is ensuring that it closely aligns with your organization's strategic goals and needs. This may seem obvious, but without a clear strategy and well-defined objectives, the full potential of the cloud will remain untapped. However, there are other key preconditions that contribute to success. I’ve outlined four of them for you:

?Precondition 1: Optimally running processes

Let’s start with an example: imagine that a large number of products are suddenly being returned by customers. It’s possible that somewhere in the production process, a quality check was missed. That’s why it’s essential to verify whether the process is running as originally intended. Were any steps skipped? Or could it be done smarter and more efficiently?

?The IPC Infor Process Catalog helps with this. Combining the IPC catalog with Infor’s Process Intelligence, allows you to verify whether the processes being executed how they were designed. It offers a preconfigured business structure, which serves as the foundation for implementing CloudSuite and is duplicated for training, migration, and production environments. Also the processes can be modified by our customers if needed. By process intelligence, you get insights on the number of processes executed as designed, but also the deviations from the predefined processes. Often there is a business reason why the deviation occurred. Detecting those reasons quickly, will help you to optimize the business. More about this, you can read here.

Precondition 2: Efficient use of cloud capabilities – making the right choices

Effectively leveraging cloud capabilities begins with a deep understanding of your company’s needs and the industry in which you operate. For an automotive supplier, for example, sales schedules with cumulative orders work differently from the individual sales orders handled by car dealerships, even though both operate in the same sector (Automotive). The cloud provides tools to automate and optimize these processes, so you no longer need to work with unnecessary parts of a system.

Additionally, with cloud-native monitoring tools, you can anonymously analyze which parts of your system are being used heavily by employees and make data-driven improvements. Through automation and cloud usage monitoring, you not only save costs, but you can also scale your resources up or down efficiently, depending on demand.

Precondition 3: Having kpi’s that are at least comparable to competitors

Kpi’s have been around as long as anyone can remember, but thanks to the cloud and AI, benchmarking and discovering industry trends have become even easier. This also means that, as a CEO, you will have to look at graphs less frequently, as deviations are automatically brought to your attention.

Here are two tips regarding kpi’s:

• Tip 1: Want to know how to perform deep analyses and compare your performance to industry standards? Check out Infor Enterprise Performance Management. This system offers integrated tools for financial performance evaluation and provides insights into business processes to help make better decisions. Klik here for more information.
• Tip 2: Need help setting the right KPIs for your industry? Read this blog from APQC: ‘How to Set Key Performance Indicators.’

Precondition 4: Embracing CloudSuite by all employees

"The best UI (user interface) is no UI, especially in times of staff shortages." This is an idea worth reflecting on. It means that everything you can automate should be automated to maintain your competitive position. Fortunately, cloud solutions help eliminate boring, repetitive tasks more and more.

Cloud offers significant advantages for users because employees are no longer (as they were in the past) confined to rigid systems with fixed ways of working. Today, there is far more flexibility in how we collaborate. The focus has shifted from thinking in products to thinking in solutions, with integration being the key. A good example of this is the Infor ION API. This acts as a central access point for APIs, enabling companies to integrate their applications with Infor CloudSuite solutions or other external systems. All of this is designed to improve collaboration by increasing the accessibility of information in a secure and scalable way.

How do you get the most value from a cloud solution?

I’m curious to know what other prerequisites you think are essential for achieving success with cloud solutions. I highly appreciate your feedback.

Marco Hoogenraad