Posted by Mark de Simone

Cordys Cloudsourcing™  creates a unique business environment where everyone wins: Business users, Service Providers, Application vendors, CIOs, COOs, CEOs and CFOs

 

 

Business User, CIO, CFO, COO AND CEO
If you are a business executive and you have already experimented with the benefits of Software as a Service in Cloud Applications like Webex, SalesForce.com or Google Enterprise, you will certainly recognize that without easily integrating these Software as a Service to your existing processes and systems, the service based applications are destined to be no more than a simple alternative rendering of a stovepipe application. In order to be truly effective leveraging Cloud based applications, you must easily bring the process and data content of each one of these Cloud application services into a seamless and immediately integrated process with KPIs monitors and user-friendly visibility. All without waiting for “the experts” to execute the integration at the application platform level, database master data management level or User Interface level.

Mix and match
With Cloudsourcing, you are free to mix and match existing premised-based processes run on applications like SAP, Oracle, IBM Websphere, MS .Net or even early legacies with processes designed entirely on the Cloud. Without the need to translate business wishes into a complex requirement specification document.

Self service for business users
Furthermore, as a business user, you can use it right away! No need to wait. If you have the administrative access to do it, then you can. The Business User is now looking at the Cloud as a “Self Service” for continuous productivity. And there is no visible difference whether the process you are designing and using is consuming data and logic which is resident inside the Enterprise Cloud or coming from an external Cloud with a dedicated Enterprise tenancy.

Imagine being able to recognize a “Single Customer” as the “same customer” whether this information comes from the internal Billing Database from an Oracle application, or the Salesforce.com data coming from the account manager’s latest call report or the Google hosted Web Site. And imagine having user integrated views of all this and more information about the customer, their location, the revenues, the maintenance records, the executive visits, the profitability of their business with you and most importantly, being able to share this information have the channel partners with whom you are working being able to see the information you want to share. All along imagine your CFO being able to analyze all the aggregated data continuously to determine resource allocation. Imagine your compliance team having the right triggers along the entire value chain. Imagine your CIO and the IT team being able to focus on robustness and security of the existing transactional application infrastructures while letting the business users leverage the applications in many interesting new ways without having to hand hold them.  Imagine your CEO being able to change the company strategy and organization by not only producing PowerPoint presentations and spreadsheets but being able to act on operational decisions in minutes. All of this is possible, not only within the Enterprise but across all the elements of the value chain of the enterprise.
Imagine also Capital Expenditures down to negligible and operational expenditures only existing as a result of a revenue stream.

Service providers
Whether you are a Business Process Outsourcer; a Telecom Operator with a Hosting and System Integration business; a System Integration Company or an existing Software as a Service provider, Cordys Cloudsourcing can dramatically increase the profitability, client retention, customer satisfaction and development of your business with both existing accounts and new accounts.

Start small; think big!
In the case of Enterprises with complex businesses, the initial approach to the Cloud may be to start sourcing some of your less “critical” applications. For example, you could decide to eliminate the operational costs of maintaining a thick client model and move all personal productivity tools to a Google for Enterprise model spending only a few dollars or euros a year per employee or you may standardize on an online CRM solution like Salesforce.com or some other application which is provided as a service. The service provider can begin to serve these applications under its own Cloud construct and the Cordys platform provides the SaaS deployment framework which is needed to serve these applications in an integrated way.  It also meters the use of these applications and bills them. More importantly though, it offers the capability to offer services of value, to create specific user profiles and mashing up at presentation, data and process levels the key functionality of each application with existing applications which are already resident inside your customer’s own data centers. So you can offer not only the SaaS but a Platform as a Service which enables Google Apps and Google Docs to be integrated with the Salesforce.com data and presented together with an integrated “Weather Channel” whose data and not just rendering can now be an input to Salesforce.com. Equally through Google Templates, you can integrate the personal productivity tools of each employee with the applications which are running in the company’s own data center. You can use the Cordys Platform to seamlessly link the two in a completely transparent and secure way.

Increase service revenues
As the customer becomes more secure about the interaction and the dashboard provided by the Cordys platform, and you can monitor the usage by each user of any and all processes, whether they are running on the cloud or on the premise, you have an opportunity to sell additional services.  For example, you can encourage your customer to bring in part of its core application running on SAP into the Cloud while still maintaining an older Oracle based information inside the company’s own premises. By undertaking this move, the customer saves significant operational expenses, as well reducing maintenance and integration costs based on time and materials.  You can now begin to increase your revenues as well as offering further services to enhance the integration of disparate applications.  Fo example, enabling business users to see information from the mortgage department databases which was completely separate from that of the brokerage service department and the savings services department. With this information in a single integrated view, the business user can now decide on specific process changes and not only communicate them to their employees and partners, but execute on their decisions by provisioning instantly the new processes. If you have set up the contract on a value-based model, the revenues of enabling this decision can increase significantly. Furthermore, you are now able to compete very effectively without being afraid of switching from one provider to the other, due to the traditional complexities that such moves involved.

Application vendors become MashApps vendors
The application distribution channels have always been controlled by certain oligopoly players in the software market. This has created an efficient channel, but one where creativity and innovation may be stifled by the limits. Even the Open Source world separates the service delivery from the Intellectual Property. With the Cordys Cloudsourcing model, the Telecom Operator or Outsourcer can now enable true business innovation to be published in a service channel, one which allows each application to be mashed up and presented in a very integrated fashion for the Small and Medium Businesses. This is truly a magnificent service for the Developer community because their focus moves to increase the quality of how the business service is delivered across applications and delight the customers. The model is clearly defined in the site: www.theprocessfactory.com