Mark Nicholls: Navigating through the cloud: A case study in opportunities & risks. The IT Applications of the future have a number of attributes. Cloud based solutions is one of those. However, when it comes to cloud, recent research on the Australian take up of cloud solutions shows that just 19% of surveyed organisations are using cloud. So what are the characteristics of organisations taking up cloud based solutions for their applications? What are the unique challenges, opportunities and risks associated with a cloud based application deployment? And how are organisations navigating through these? This presentation will take a look at one government organisation that adopted a Software as a Service Enterprise solution. Not everything went as expected, but they did get through it and they did achieve their planned benefits, albeit at some cost. In some cases these challenge are unique to using cloud, while some exist regardless. About Mark Nicholls: Mark is the founder of Information Professionals Group (IPG) and Managing Director. He is one of the most trusted IT management advisors in Australia, and has managed, advised or reviewed some of the most complex IT and Change Management projects in Australia. A full outline of Mark and his Bio is available in your conference booklet.

1. Navigating through the cloud:
A case study in opportunities & risks
September 2015
Part of the “IT Applications Now and in the Future” Theme
ACS Conference Canberra 2015

2. Major Trends
• Mobility
• Consumer Creation
• As a Service

3. Mobility
Courtesy: http://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/Library/Corporate-library/Corporate-publications/australia-mobile-digital-economy
Jun-14 Jun-15
54?
65?

4. Consumer Creation
• Co-operative design started as early as in 1970
• Grew in pace through the 1990’s:
• User-centred design and customer centred systems
• Mass customisation emerged through mid-late 1990’s
• Continued in 2000’s:
• Design based on the Voice of the Customer in Six Sigma around 2002
• And:
• Emergence of Platform or network business models
• Apple App Store introduced in 2008, now 1.4M apps
• Powered by Amazon self publishing launched in 2011
• Open Data supports Consumer Creation

5. Cloud (As a Service)
Courtesy: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/8129.0Main%20Features32013-14?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=8129.0&issue=2013-14&num=&view=

6. What are the Reasons
Stated Benefits by Cloud User Percentage
Reduction in IT costs 34.0
Flexibility to either up-scale or down-scale services 33.1
Simplicity of deployment of cloud-based solutions 47.2
Increased productivity 46.3
Other benefits 9.7
No benefits 15.0
Courtesy: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/8129.0Main%20Features32013-14?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=8129.0&issue=2013-14&num=&view=

7. Additional Reasons in Government
• Cloud or As A Service / Cloud First Policies
• Contestability Agenda
• Shared Services
• Proving Value for Money
• Productivity Dividend – Are there cost savings?
• Keeping ahead of your clients
• The new Shadow IT – Emerging Brokerage Roles
• How many cloud services is your organisation using?
• How many that you don’t know about?

8. This Case Study
• Government Owned Organisation
• Owns Major Assets / Asset Management is core capability
• Information Management and ICT Strategy was the basis for
determining systems refresh and investment priorities
• ERP Implementation of Asset Management & Maintenance/Contract
& Property Management/GIS/Finance/HR
• Making parallel improvements to Content and Records Management
Systems
• Few hundred employees

9. How are Organisations Making the Move to Cloud
Opportunistic
• Specific problem solving
• Unique Architecture Stacks
• Unique Skill Sets
• Step Investments Required
Strategic
• Capability assessment
• Opportunities, risks
• Costs and performance
benchmarks
• Strategic Value
• Timing windows
• Return on Investment

10. The Risks of an Opportunistic Approach
• Cost, contract and service quality risks
• Integration and inter-operability
• Upgrades, adaptability and tailoring
• Skills and capability
• Client service agreements, standard service quality
• Emerging brokerage models
• Transition out options
• Market Capability

11. The Basics – What type of Cloud
• IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
• Access to supplier owned networks, servers, storage and
operating systems via the Internet
• PaaS – Platform as a Service
• Access to a supplier owned and managed environment
through which to create or acquire applications using e.g.
languages, libraries and tools.
• SaaS – Software as a Service
• Access to a supplier’s applications e.g. via a browser

12. Major Decisions Made
Application
Decision
Strategic
Opportunistic
IaaS
PaaS
SaaS
Why
- Scalability
- Deployment
Simplicity
Cloud Specific
Risks
- Costs, contract,
Service Quality
- Market Capability
In Parallel
Information Strategy
Information and Enterprise Architecture
ICT Strategy
ERP Project

13. What is a Strategic Approach to Cloud
INPUTS
ICT Services Catalogue
Policies
Procurement/Contracts
Activity Based Costing
Performance Benchmarks
Client Viewpoints
Strategic Assessment
Application Portfolio
OUTPUTS
Cases for Change
Implementation Roadmap
Sourcing Strategy
ICT Strategy
Supports
Cloud Solutions
Contestability
Shared Services
Productivity Dividend
Core
Business
BusinessProcess&
Data
Contract
&
Vendor
Mgmt
ERP
Hosting

14. The SaaS Systems Implementation Lifecycle
Workstreams
Phases >>>
Plan & Prep Business
Design
System Design Development Deploy Support &
Transition
Governance
Management
Business Process
COTs Functional
Software Development
Integrations
Data Management
IT Support
Legacy Systems Change
Organisational Change
Training
A SaaS solution will provide both acceleration
and some constraints in these areas.
Parallel activities to mitigate strategic risks

15. Systems Implementation Differences
Business Process • Can be constrained to SaaS supported process designs
COTs Functional
• Specific configuration / can be different to licensed software
• Understand the architectural direction and changing footprint
Software
Development
• Specific capabilities and restrictions
Integrations • Specific capabilities and restrictions
Data Management
• Some loading and cleansing tools may be available
• Specific business rules may apply / can be different to licensed software

16. Case Study Issues
• Cloud Specific Issues
• Market Readiness (Moderate-High)
• Contract (High)
• New Implementation Methods and Tools (Low-Moderate)
• Business As usual Issues
• Business Process and Data/Information Expertise (Subject Matter Experts)
• Program and Project Management Disciplines
• Mitigated Risks
• Enterprise, Applications and Information Strategy, Governance, Standards &
Policies
• Stakeholder Interests and Concerns

17. In Summary
• Initiate based on an opportunistic or strategic decision making
• If opportunistic, protect against strategic risks / mis-steps
• Market capability growing – Due Diligence
• Plan for impacts on the Systems Implementation Lifecycle

18. Closing Questions
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