How Cloud computing can drive innovation and improve customer loyalty with comments from the Cloud Industry Forum and including hints and tips on how to get started.

1. in association with
E-GUIDE
in association with
CLOUD
REVOLUTION
How cloud enables strategic advantage

2. in association with
INTRODUCTION business agility, boost efficiency,
“Cloud computing
and provide you with the flexibility
to scale up without compromising
can drive innovation on value. Chapter 2 will explain
these points in more detail.
and improve customer We know many of you will have
concerns around the security of
loyalty,” says Sophie cloud. It’s completely fair that you
would be cautious about where to
Hobson, editor store sensitive company information
– but cloud, when hosted by a
reliable provider, is almost always
You’ve obviously more secure than storing data on in-house
heard about cloud if hardware. Chapter 3 explains why.
you’re reading this The most entrepreneurial among you
e-guide. It’s one of will no doubt be thinking: can cloud actually
the hottest topics grow a business, beyond just making it
in technology and more efficient and streamlined? Absolutely.
management. One Cloud computing can drive innovation,
in three businesses quicken your speed to market, and improve
are looking to implement cloud in the next customer insights and relationships. Chapter
two years, according to recent YouGov 4 explains how.
research. Venture capitalists’ ears prick up Our e-guide ends with a practical guide
when cloud is mentioned in conversation. to adopting cloud computing within your
The tech crowd extoll its virtues. Your business. We know that the time it takes
teenage nephew will probably reference it to decide upon and move towards a new
in conversation this weekend. technology is a big barrier to its adoption.
Yet many people still can’t grasp what The aforementioned YouGov study found
cloud is exactly – even though they probably that, of businesses that weren’t yet using
use it regularly through applications like cloud, four in 10 said the delay was down to
Facebook and Gmail. It’s no surprise cloud “lack of time”.
is still misunderstood – it sounds abstract So we have written this e-guide with the
and technical, the conversational stomping aim of giving you a succinct and accessible
ground of web developers and IT managers. overview of cloud for business. And we are
So in chapter 1, we’ll explain exactly delighted to be partnering with IBM, who
what cloud is and how it works. We believe will be able to guide you in more detail
it’s critical to get to grips with cloud, and through any first steps you decide to take
how you can harness its power, if you want towards a move to cloud.
to compete in today’s world. So what are you waiting for?
Just what is it that cloud can do for your
business? In short, cloud can help you make Twitter: @sophiehobson and @londonlovesbiz
cost savings, ramp up productivity, increase www.londonlovesbusiness.com
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CONTENTS E-GUIDE
CLOUD
in association with
in association with
04
REVOLUTION
How cloud enables strategic advantage
Comment
By Andy Burton, chairman, Cloud Industry Forum
05 This e-guide is brought to you
by LondonlovesBusiness.com,
Foreword in association with IBM.
By Doug Clark, IBM UK & Ireland Cloud Leader LondonlovesBusiness.com is
06
the new digital newspaper
for established entrepreneurs
and executives of London’s
What is cloud? mid-market companies. We aim
to further the ambitions of
Let us demystify the jargon so you can start realising the London’s businesses, celebrate
transformative power of cloud good business and success, and
08
bring you frank debate about
the issues facing London
businesses. We are fast
Why use cloud within becoming the must-read
your business? website for London’s business
community through our mix of
Save money, turbocharge collaboration, streamline the latest business news across
management and gain long-term competitive advantage – all sectors, profiles of London’s
and that’s not all! greatest entrepreneurs, features
exploring the trends you can
10
capitalise on, and the best of
London lifestyle.
But will my data be safe? LondonlovesBusiness.com is
Concerned about the security of the cloud? published by Casis Media Ltd
This chapter is for you. Casis Media Ltd
56 Buckingham Gate
12 London SW1E 6AE
Using cloud to gain Editor: Sophie Hobson
sophie.hobson@
competitive advantage londonlovesbusiness.com
Drive innovation, scale-up and improve customer relationships
Business development director:
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Jenny Knighting
jenny.knighting@
londonlovesbusiness.com
5 steps towards adopting cloud 0203 394 1847
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COMMENT
DON’T LET YOUR
BUSINESS MISS THE BOAT
By Andy Burton, chairman, Cloud Industry Forum
Adoption of need to complete tasks for which resources,
cloud services skills or time don’t exist internally.
is becoming Operational cost benefits are also a
commonplace. driver for cloud service adoption. Of the
Today, 61% of UK UK organisations that have adopted at
organisations use least one cloud service, 76% state they
at least one cloud will expand their use of cloud services over
service formally, the next 12 months - largely driven by the
according to market analysis carried out by efficiencies they have achieved in their
the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF). Adoption earlier adoption.
has increased by over 27% over the last 18 Of the 39% we surveyed who had yet to
months, measured in terms of the volume of formally adopt a cloud service, 11% believe
organisations using such services. they will do so within 12 months, and a
Email, collaboration, unified further 13% expect to do so over the next
communications, portal and web services are 3 years.
the most popular workloads moved to cloud The opportunity presented by cloud
services. But almost all other application services is hugely compelling. In a world
areas are seeing adoption in cloud services - where markets evolve at a rapid pace, IT is
be that accounting, service management or a key enabler of competitive advantage by
business continuity solutions. permitting adaption.
The flexibility and scalability of cloud, What is really needed now is clarity of
delivered on a pay-as-you use commercial vision from business leaders: to leverage this
model, has opened up the market. Cloud tremendous capability to deliver IT in a way
enables small companies to leverage new that empowers business transformation and
technology, levelling the playing field and market advantage.
potentially changing the nature of business The language of cloud computing might
competition. be confusing at first, but it’s time to jump
In our market analysis, 92% of the on board. You don’t want your business to
businesses using cloud services stated miss the boat.
satisfaction with the experience and results.
I believe this level of satisfaction is based on Twitter: @UK_CIF
cloud’s flexibility and agility - driven by the www.cloudindustryforum.org
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FOREWORD merchandising and customer relationship
“Cloud has processes for the better, understand
customer behaviours and ultimately create
the power to better value for - and relationships with -
the customer.
transform the way The best cloud products empower
businesses to create better services and
business is done for improve the full length of their value chain.
the better, today They make your employees’ lives easier
and improve their productivity. They make
and in the future,” relationships with partners and suppliers
smoother and more efficient.
says Doug Clark, In summary: harnessing the full
IBM UK & Ireland capabilities of today’s cloud means your
business gains a long-term competitive
Cloud Leader advantage.
This is why adopting cloud is no longer a
decision being made just by IT staff and tech
companies. Moving to cloud is a strategic
Cloud is one of decision for your business, and managers
the most exciting across all disciplines are opening their eyes
and game-changing to the competitive edge cloud can give you.
technologies to have It’s no surprise that nine in 10 businesses
come out of the now expect to adopt cloud within the
digitisation of the next three years, according to research we
modern world. Cloud recently conducted.
has become the I believe that cloud has the power to
underlying enabler of the consumerisation transform the way business is done for
of IT. It can drill deep into big data. Cloud is the better, today and in the future. The
the driver of today’s mobility trends. question for you now is: how do you stay
For me, the really exciting conversations ahead of the trend to gain competitive
around cloud are about how it can drive advantage? The following pages will answer
business innovation. Sophisticated cloud that question in theory. And IBM’s cloud
products are able to collect data across products and services will bring you the
the full glorious gamut of sales channels, tools you need to execute your competitive
supply chains, points of engagement with advantage in practise.
customers and interactions with partners – Business is changing. Cloud gives you
and then analyse the data to improve the power to innovate in step with the
your business. revolution and ahead of the competition.
How? Cloud products can produce
invaluable insights into how a company Twitter: @cloudstuff
can utilise new efficiencies, overhaul its www.ibm.com/cloudsolutions/uk
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WHAT IS CLOUD?
Let us demystify the jargon so you can start realising
the transformative power of cloud.
You might not realise it, but you is called “the cloud”, because it implies
already know what cloud is. You’ve anything accessed via the cloud is floating
probably been using it since the 1990s. Your around in one big abstract place shared by all
first Hotmail or these different cloud
“
Yahoo address was services. Actually,
a perfect example Gmail, Facebook, data and applications
of cloud in action. Twitter, Spotify, on “the cloud” are
Those emails you
accessed and sent
Google Docs and simply located on
secure data centres
weren’t saved to Flickr are all clouds owned either by your
your desktop, but – as was your first business (private
were hosted (i.e.
Hotmail or Yahoo cloud) or hosted by
”
digitally stored) by an external cloud
Hotmail or Yahoo, email account. provider (public
in one of their data cloud).
centres. You were
able to access your account remotely, from
anywhere in the world. TYPES OF CLOUD
That’s what we mean by “cloud”: Public cloud: The provider of the cloud
storing and accessing your data and digital is a completely separate entity from the
services and applications remotely. In other person using the cloud. When you access
words, your documents, data, software, your Gmail, for example, Google is hosting
photos, apps, music and so on are not and powering the cloud – you simply use
saved on your own device (your PC, office their cloud.
server, smartphone, tablet and so on), but
to a remote data centre. Gmail, Facebook, Private cloud: The cloud is powered and
Twitter, Spotify, Google Docs and Flickr owned by the same organisation that uses
are all clouds, which is why you can access it. So the person or people using the cloud
your account from anywhere with internet on a daily basis are part of the same business
connection. or organisation that own the cloud assets.
As it happens, cloud can do much more The data and services stored on the private
than just store your data – but we’ll come to cloud are not accessible to the general
that in a minute. public, and the business or organisation
It’s a bit misleading that the cloud has tight control over who can access which
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parts of their cloud. Many businesses choose and developers. PaaS means you can
to operate a private cloud. access compute ability and a predefined
middleware stack. Examples include
Hybrid cloud: A combination of a public database or application server software via
and private cloud. cloud. Leading products in cloud computing
might offer PaaS and IaaS for businesses
TYPES OF SERVICE looking to gain competitive edge – IBM’s
SmartCloud, for example, provides both.
AVAILABLE ON CLOUD Also known as platform cloud services.
Cloud doesn’t just cater for data. The digital
services and software you use as a business Business process as a service
can also be stored and powered by cloud. (BPaaS): This is a mix of SaaS and a shared
The most advanced cloud products are services model – one business or organisation
therefore able to provide you with the tools provides business services like procurement
you need to become truly innovative and or employee benefits management to
gain competitive edge. numerous external or internal consumers.
IBM’s SmartCloud Solutions provide this
Software as a service (SaaS): This advanced functionality. Also known as
lets you access software and applications business process cloud services.
on cloud. Storing your apps on iCloud is the
textbook example. In a business context, Using cloud enables businesses to cut costs,
you might access, say, customer relationship improve security, increase business agility,
management software on a pay-as-you-use and streamline processes. Chapter 2 will
basis via SaaS, meaning you don’t need to outline this in more detail. Cloud gets even
worry about buying new licenses for the more interesting when it is harnessed to
software each time someone new needs to give your business a competitive edge.
use it. You wouldn’t, after all, pay for every Chapter 4 will tell you more about this.
seat on the bus if you wanted to take a bus It’s no surprise that a fair few technology
journey – so why pay for more licenses than analysts are predicting that in the not-too-
you need? Also known as application cloud distant future, we could ditch desktop data
services. storage altogether and work entirely from
cloud. Gartner is predicting that by 2016,
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): a third of an individual’s digital data will
Your business can access pay-as-you-use be stored in cloud. We’re well on our way
tech infrastructure services such as servers, to that statistic already - cloud technology
network devices, operating systems and underpins many of the mobile, data and
storage. Resources are accessed over the social business capabilities we all use today.
internet. Also known as infrastructure cloud As businesses’ need for more
services. sophisticated, intelligent, flexible, secure
and innovative technology infrastructure
Platform as a service (PaaS): This and services grows, cloud has nowhere to
is usually only used by advanced IT users go but up.
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WHY USE CLOUD
WITHIN YOUR
BUSINESS?
Save money, turbocharge collaboration, streamline management
and gain long-term competitive advantage – and that’s not all!
Cost savings and added value welcome boosts on a regular basis. In
Cloud can reduce IT labour costs by up to fact, increased collaboration with external
50%. Cloud computing also removes the partners is the number one objective
need for hardware such as servers, reducing for adopting cloud, according to the
capital expenditure. It can provide more aforementioned IBV survey.
cost-effective web and
50%
email hosting. And because Accessible to all
cloud can scale up or down sizes of business
according to your needs, it Cloud is most certainly not
provides real value. The “pay just for huge corporations.
as you go” pricing model potential reduction Because it scales up and
means you won’t waste of IT labour costs by down to your needs, you
money buying more software moving to cloud get the level of service and
and/or licences each time Kristof Kloeckner, product that a blue chip
CTO for Cloud Computing
someone joins, nor do you would, but at a price point
at IBM
lose out if people leave and that fits your business.
licenses go unused. More
than 31 per cent of executives surveyed by Access your data and documents
IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) 2011 from anywhere, anytime
“The Power of Cloud” Research Study cited When data, documents, projects, services and
cloud’s ability to reduce fixed IT costs and pictures are stored in cloud, you’re able to
shift to a more variable “pay as you go” cost access them anywhere and from any device
structure as a top benefit. that has internet access. This can dramatically
improve overall business productivity.
Better collaboration
Cloud facilitates the sharing of information, More environmentally friendly
projects, processes and resources with Cloud is more energy-efficient and more
external parties, customers and employees, resource-efficient than alternative digital
meaning productivity and innovation get storage options – Salesforce.com has
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30%
estimated that using cloud provider (with plenty of
results in at least 30% less years’ experience) has the
carbon emissions and energy methodology and resources
consumption than on-site to best protect you – its
servers. For small businesses, less carbon cloud backs up your data
it rises to around 90%. emissions and energy automatically. If there are
consumption using problems, the cloud provider
cloud compared with
IT shifts from on-site servers will be quicker and better at
trouble-shooting to Salesforce.com fixing them.
business driver
Once you’ve moved to cloud, Greater control
IT workers find they have more time. There Any manager who has had contacts
is less troubleshooting and data back-up databases pinched by disgruntled ex-sales
time is dramatically reduced. In fact, cloud staff will have felt the sorer end of the
computing can improve capital utilisation by internal security spectrum. So choosing a
75%, and reduces provisioning from weeks cloud product that lets you easily manage
to minutes, according to IBM CTO for Cloud who can access what is critical. IBM
Computing, Kristof Kloeckner. This frees SmartCloud Enterprise, for example, lets
up IT staff and budget to focus on strategic you control accounts and permissions at
projects. Technology becomes a driver of your individual user level.
business rather than the thorn in its side. You
can read more about this in chapter 4. More secure
Despite what you might think, your data is
Streamlined management more secure hosted by a trusted, established
A good cloud product will mean a hugely cloud provider than on your office server or
improved administrative process for on your PC or laptop. Don’t believe it? The
managers without an IT bone in their next chapter is for you.
bodies. The most sophisticated cloud
products should be the simplest to use. IBM Long-term competitive advantage
SmartCloud, for example, lets you add a The best cloud computing products provide
new user in just a few quick steps. you with the IT infrastructure, tools,
management systems and deep analytics
More reliable and far less to drive your business forward in ways you
disaster recovery never realised were possible. Don’t believe
We’ve all been there: that devastating it? Chapter 4 will explain more about how
moment when you learn your office cloud can help you retain customers and
server has gone down just before a big become a truly innovative business.
presentation. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able
to recover your projects from a back-up Support
location. If not, you’ll have lost everything, The best cloud providers for business will
from accounts to strategy documents. Why ensure you are always able to contact a
take the risk? A reliable big-name cloud member of their support team for advice.
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BUT WILL MY
DATA BE SAFE?
Concerned about the security of the cloud? This chapter is for you.
There’s no getting around it: doubts So let’s just think about this logically
about the security of cloud are one of for a moment. Who, really, do you think is
the greatest obstacles to its wide-spread better equipped to keep your data safe, your
adoption among British businesses. But services and applications up-and-running
views around cloud security are changing. at all times, and the necessary hardware
In an IBM Thought Leadership maintained to keep your IT network alive:
Whitepaper survey conducted in 2010, 66% your small IT team and the couple of
of respondents said security was their top servers you have in the office? Or a global
concern when considering cloud. IBM’s IBV technology leader with decades of experience
Global Risk Survey from the same year found in all these issues and multiple data centres
more than three in
“
four respondents
believed using cloud Credible cloud providers
made protecting work incredibly hard to make
privacy more
difficult. Yet today
services safe, because they know
there is still so much uncertainty
”
in 2012, 85% of US-
based IT professional around cloud.
are confident in
cloud providers’
ability to provide a secure environment, that are kept secure, up and running, and all
according to findings from Chief Information backing up one another? Exactly.
Officer magazine. Credible cloud providers take data
Of course, it’s entirely understandable security hugely seriously and work incredibly
that a business manager could initially hard to make sure things are watertight,
feel uneasy about entrusting their most precisely because they know there is still so
confidential data and many of their business much uncertainty around their services.
documents and administrative functions Plus, using cloud means your data is
to the cloud. Cloud, for many people in backed up in a more straight-forward and
this country, still seems like a fairly abstract safer way. It also means that if a work
concept. Scaremongering articles in the laptop or tablet loaded with sensitive
mainstream media about cloud security information is lost, there’s no risk of a data
hardly help. leak, because whoever finds the laptop (or
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11. in association with
67%
steals it) won’t be able to firewall (unlike the public
log on to your private cloud, cloud – see chapter 1 for a
where all your data and reminder of the difference
projects are stored. between them). Only the
IBM offers a number of people you choose, within
of respondents saw
services to help organisations value in cloud for their your organisation, can
effectively manage their organisation’s risk and access data areas – and you
data so that risk from any resiliency efforts control who sees what.
disruption is minimised. IBM 2011 Business Resilience To give you an idea
and Risk Study
The SmartCloud Archive, of security on the private
SmartCloud Managed Back- cloud, let’s look at one
up services and Virtualised very well-known example.
Server Recovery programmes make sure Wimbledon.com is hosted on the IBM
every possibility has a secure and safe answer. private cloud. During the 2011 tournament
There is still a fear that if you store the website saw a tremendous volume
confidential company information in of traffic with 15 million unique visitors
the cloud that the cloud provider could and 451 million page views. It also faced
access that data and either use it to their up to 80,000 cyber incidents each day. By
own commercial advantage or share providing a scalable, robust and secure
or distribute it in ways you – and your website, these threats were mitigated,
customers – have not approved and would protecting data and ensuring the website
never want. This is where the private was available and responsive 24/7. So you
cloud becomes such a valuable tool for can check up on your favourite tennis
business, because it is behind your own players as and when you like.
APPROACHING YOUR SECURITY STRATEGY ›
Security needs to be looked at end-to-end taking a business-
driven and holistic approach to securing your cloud computing
environment. This helps you to:
• understand threats and vulnerabilities in terms of business impact
• respond to security events with security controls that optimise
business results
• prioritise and balance your security investments
Security should be “baked in” at conception and some kind of
consulting, scoping out a strategic and comprehensive cloud
infrastructure security programme, is a good starting point.
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USING CLOUD TO
GAIN COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE
Drive innovation, scale up and improve customer relationships.
Customer expectations have
changed radically over the last few years, COMPETITIVE
in our increasingly digital world. They want
to buy and engage in the way that best
ADVANTAGE AND
suits them, at the time that best suits them. ADAPTABILITY TO
This makes the challenge of catering to MEET CUSTOMERS’
their needs increasingly complex. How can NEEDS ›
you manage customer relationships spread
across so many online and offline channels? A third of execs believe one of the main
How can you analyse the reams of data benefits of cloud is market adaptability
your business can collect and harness it – being able to improve business agility
to improve your business? How can you and responding more rapidly to market
retain your edge in evermore fragmented demands, according to the previously
markets, and in a world where customers’ mentioned study by IBV. Why? Because
attention is scatter-gunned across more cloud lets you quickly adjust services,
processes and products to respond to
digital and real-life attractions than ever
changing market needs, and to innovate
before?
ahead of competitors’ businesses. You
Cloud computing can help you achieve
might choose to make a service easier
all these things – yet its power to drive
to use and more flexible for customers
business innovation is still little understood
by making it a cloud-based service. You
by the business community. Only 16 per might make your business interface more
cent of executives currently use cloud to seamless for customers by providing
drive business innovation, according to the products on a cloud-based infrastructure.
aforementioned IBV study. Or you might, perhaps more simply, stay
There is a phenomenal host of constantly tuned in to the most relevant
opportunities to explore once you start customer analytics for your business,
using cloud services in enterprise, from then adapt how you cater for customer
entering new lines of business or industries demands by scaling services up or down
to dramatically improving your value chain on the cloud.
to even reshaping your entire industry.
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BETTER ANALYTICS, SCALABILITY ›
BETTER VALUE,
BETTER EFFICIENCY › Cloud doesn’t just facilitate IT scalability.
It allows you to access resource instantly
As much as 80 per cent of data collected as and when you need it, without scale
by companies is unstructured, IBM limitations and without you having to
estimates. Imagine what you could worry about setting up extra provision.
do if you actually extracted and used Cloud scales up or down automatically to
that data? The best cloud products accommodate peaks in activity. The film-
do exactly that: they make your data streaming website Netflix, as an example
actionable. IBM Smarter Analytics cited in the IBV study, experiences big
crunches your data to help you make peaks in streaming capacity and activity
strategic decisions and to find new during certain peak hours. These peaks
efficiencies. It enables you to better meant its own data centres were, at
manage uncertainty throughout your peak times, struggling to accommodate
supply chain, while predictive analytics activity on the service. A move to a
help you plan and forecast. A tool like cloud environment meant peaks could
this is an invaluable aid to stock control, be handled automatically, scaling up on
customer relationship management cloud. That meant Netflix could grow its
and merchandising management, not customer base without worrying about
to mention business planning and risk building a new, bigger data centre to
management. handle growth.
HOW IBM CAN HELP ›
IBM Smarter Commerce helps to put the customer at the centre of
all operations, analysing critical customer and operational data –
from multichannel buying behaviours to social media content – and
build business processes that help companies buy, market, sell and
service their products accordingly. The depth of its analytics will allow
you to discover new efficiencies, improve margins, and utilise new
opportunities while providing better value. Most importantly, insights
into customer behaviours can be harnessed to create better customer
relationships and experience, meaning improved customer retention.
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5 STEPS TOWARDS
ADOPTING CLOUD
2
Reaching this chapter means you’re It is a good idea to
now officially cloud savvy. You’ve learnt start with the smaller
exactly what it is, how the cloud can help projects. These cloud-based
secure and scale your business. Now how additions can often see
to start implementing cloud systems? Our immediate returns without
guide will send you on your way. completely overhauling your IT systems.
1
IBM SmartCloud for Social Business
Begin with a thorough has this first step covered. This package
audit of what does is designed to help you work seamlessly
and doesn’t work with the people inside and outside your
about your current organisation. Cloud is the close friend of
IT infrastructure. It collaboration – it enables your workforce to
should cover the type of problems that share and connect, crossing boundaries and
regularly arise, worst case scenario failures speeding up insight.
of your current system, cost, flexibility of This package offers familiar tools such as
the system, its ability to scale with your email and calendar in cloud but also a range
business, its ease and speed of use for of exciting cloud collaboration tools such as
employees, and so on. a social business dashboard (think Facebook
From this, you’ll be able draw out the for your desk), a snazzy web meeting
areas that most urgently need improvement, platform and all the mobile applications you
and then the issues and opportunities you need to get the office on the go.
3
hope to address in the mid- to long-term.
IBM’s Strategy and Transformation team Once you’ve got the
can help. They can help you to identify, office on cloud, it’s
analyse and prioritise cloud-enabled time to think about
business model opportunities. It’s important how you deal with
to understand how cloud is relevant in the your customers. How
context of your own business model. The can you improve their experience of your
set of technology strategists will help you business with cloud services?
achieve end-to-end transformation from Last year, an IBM survey estimated
strategy to implementation. that much of the $15 trillion lost globally
through system inefficiencies comes from
waste in inventory backlogs, failed product
launches, wasted materials and ineffective
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4
marketing campaigns. Draw up a
Cloud can help you to manage and timescale and project
swiftly adapt to customer and industry management plan for
trends across marketing, selling and service how cloud services
processes. Using cloud can help you create will be implemented
more relevant marketing campaigns, in your business. Hopefully by starting
increase supply chain intelligence and secure with the smaller projects before moving
brand loyalty. onto the more integrated changes, the
So where do you start? IBM’s Smarter transfer will be easier than completely
Commerce package provides everything you overhauling your IT infrastructure in one
need to make sure your customers are in the hit.
forefront of your mind as you move towards Involve your IT staff throughout
cloud. the process. There is a risk they will feel
IBM’s Smarter Commerce products threatened by a move to cloud, as most of
are flexible and united solutions looking the day-to-day firefighting tasks they’re
after all commerce phases. We’re talking used to will be eradicated. Help them
about buying activities such as sourcing, understand this will free them up to work
controlling and procuring of goods and on more exciting, strategically important
materials; targeted and personalized technology projects.
marketing capabilities across all customer Involve your cloud provider in the
interactions; sales and fulfilment of training of staff so that everyone involved
products and service across all channels; and understands how they can get the very most
service, responding to all customer needs of the cloud for the business and for your
throughout the relationship. clients.
NEED MORE INFORMATION?
GET IN TOUCH... ›
Join the Conversation on Twitter using #ITWeek
Or Tweet:
@VickyGillies
@londonlovesBiz
Or visit: www.ibm.com/cloudsolutions/uk
15

16. Smarter technology for a Smarter Planet:
The cloud that transformed
the economics of a fishing industry.
At the University of Bari, Italy, a new computing model is creating new business models. Using an IBM SmartCloud,
their team built a solution that allows local fishermen to auction their catch while still at sea, helping them respond
to market demand more efficiently with less waste. Incomes have increased by up to 25% and the time-to-market
has been cut by 70%. Now the team is scaling the solution to create new business models for the winemaking and
transportation industries. Find out what cloud can do for your business. A smarter planet is built on smarter software,
systems and services.
Let’s build a smarter planet. ibm.com /cloudsolutions/uk
This advert includes a visualisation of simulated data.
IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Let’s Build a Smarter Planet, Smarter Planet and the planet icon are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and
service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. © 2012 IBM Corporation. All rights reserved.

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