With 2020 (finally) drawing to a close, it’s the time of year to discuss New Year’s resolutions; the goals and promises we set ourselves to make the next year better than the last.
It’s undeniable that 2020 was not the year that anyone expected it to be. But as difficult as 2020 has been to endure, the past 12 months have culminated in one important lesson: you cannot plan and predict for absolutely everything. Whatever your resolutions or plans might be, things can change with minimal warning and maximum impact.
So perhaps the best advice to organisations going into the new year is to remain flexible, as no one can predict what direction the market will take next.
What can organisations do in 2021?
Clouds are on the horizon
The Cloud is in the future for a great many organisations, but it doesn’t have to be the be-all-and-end-all that certain mega-vendors make it out to be. Oracle and SAP encourage the ‘Cloud-first future’ projection that has resonated across the market, but unlike other providers such as Amazon and Microsoft, Oracle and SAP exploit this focus to move as many customers as possible to their respective Clouds.
This might be more acceptable if Oracle and SAP provided Cloud solutions that enable flexibility for organisations. However, moving to Oracle or SAP’s Cloud requires a full reimplementation, and altering processes to suit the capabilities of the software, rather than the other way around.
And the mega-vendors would have you believe that this is the only way.
But this is the New Year. A time for optimism, and for focusing on what’s new. So, don’t listen to the pessimists Oracle and SAP. Cloud solutions can be flexible by nature – it just so happens that Oracle and SAP’s aren’t.
As there are no longer the limitations of hardware, being in the Cloud enables organisations to easily scale their estates more effectively. Cloud solutions offered by Amazon or Microsoft enable organisations to lift and shift what works for them, and essentially manage their estates to their own design, not their vendors.’
One common setup is for organisations to keep older, well-integrated legacy systems on-premise, and venture into the Cloud for newer applications and technologies.
But the best way to make the Cloud work for you and retain your flexibility, is to keep control of your roadmap.
Helping customers reach the Cloud
We’ve already helped numerous customers on their journey to the Cloud. One organisation, a market leader in the transport industry, needed to modify its systems in line with franchise requirements. The organisation needed the flexibility to scale up or down as it onboarded new franchises or removed franchises.
However, the organisation was using Oracle Managed Cloud, which couldn’t provide the flexibility required. In addition to this, the support from the vendor was too slow in response.
Naturally, the organisation wanted both a support partner and a Cloud solution that would satisfy its current and future business needs. By switching the organisation from Oracle Managed Cloud to Amazon Cloud (AWS), we met these requirements and gave the organisation more autonomy over its own systems, and the flexibility it needed to manage so many franchises.
Be sure to visit our Customers page for more case studies. You may find other organisations (or even competitors) that faced similar situations to your own.
A new year, and a new support partner
The Cloud may be a part of your organisation’s future; alternatively, you may be a little uncertain, and want to maintain your estate as it is now. Either way, one certainty to expect in the New Year is Oracle and SAP’s rising support fees, and frequent pressure to upgrade.
It’s going to be difficult to remain flexible for whatever 2021 may bring, if working to a vendor’s demands and/or time frames. A key problem with Oracle/SAP largescale projects is they are not liquid. A largescale upgrade could take three years of work; but once an organisation has committed, the project has to be completed one way or another. If the project isn’t finished, the money is wasted, and it can be difficult to reverse what has been done so far.
Equally, if your organisation therefore decides to delay your Oracle/SAP projects for another year, it avoids this potential risk, but it will still involve another year of paying the mega-vendor’s extortionate support fees on stable, functioning software.
Fortunately, there is a way for organisations to delay/avoid unwanted upgrades and make huge savings on their support bills at the same time.
A New Year’s revolution
Forget the traditional New Year’s resolutions this January; an appropriate end to what has been a very untraditional year.
Organisations need a means of recovering from 2020 and preparing themselves for whatever 2021 may bring. Flexibility has become more than just what customers want: it’s a necessity. Organisations should focus on flexible vendors providing flexible solutions, such as a collaborative support partner that cares about organisations achieving their business objectives.
And if your vendor isn’t prepared to provide it, then this could be the time to start looking at other contenders in the market – such as third-party support provided by Support Revolution.
If you’d like to know more about how our third-party support can help your organisation, visit our Guides section or use the link below to get in touch with our team.
