INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud
Swami Natarajan, SaaS Sales
Development & Strategy Leader –
ECEMEA, Oracle
“Integrated
HCM and ERP
cloud systems
improve
collaboration
between
departments.”
for budgeting purposes. Additionally,
integrated HCM and ERP cloud systems
improve collaboration between
departments, with 37% of respondents
noting that they use the cloud to
improve the way data is shared.
The report also reveals the human
factors behind a successful cloud
implementation, with employees’ ability
to adapt to change standing out as
critical. Among organisations that have
fully deployed the cloud, almost half
(46%) say they have seen their ability
to reshape or resize the organisation
improve significantly – as do 47% of
C-level respondents.
The productivity benefits have also
been significant. Nearly one-third of
respondents (31%) say they spend less
time doing manual work within their
department as a result of moving to
the cloud and that the automation of
processes has freed up time to work
toward larger strategic priorities.
Swami Natarajan, SaaS Sales
Development and Strategy Leader
– ECEMEA, Oracle, said: “As finance
and HR increasingly lead strategic
organisational transformation, ROI
www.intelligentcio.com
“As organisations navigate
technological changes, it’s
critical for the C-suite to empower
its employees to evolve their
individual business acumen.”
comes not only with financial savings for
the organisation, but also from the new
insights and visibility into the business
HR and finance gain with the cloud.
“People are at the heart of any
company’s success and this is why we
are seeing finance and HR executives
lead cloud transformation initiatives.
“In addition, improved collaboration
between departments enables
organisations to manage the changes
ahead and sets the blueprint for the rest
of the organisation’s cloud shift.”
The survey also reveals there is a
blurring of lines between functions and
individual roles as the cloud increasingly
ties back office systems together:
• Increased collaboration: 46%
of finance and HR professionals
say a full cloud deployment has
led to significantly improved
collaboration between departments,
and nearly half expect a significant
improvement in the next two years.
• This extends to IT as well. 52%
of C-level respondents said the
relationship between IT, HR and
finance is even better than expected
following their cloud implementation.
• Cross-Corporate intermingling: With
the new roles of HR and finance
professionals requiring them to work
more closely with data and the cloud,
43% of businesses plan to bring IT
people into these departments to
help employees take advantage of
new technologies.
• New skillsets: Desired skills
respondents want to improve
upon include: time management,
with 40% saying this is currently
an issue; active learning; problem
solving; mathematical reasoning and
analytical skills.
• The IT function also changes.
Post-deployment, 56% of C-level
respondents report that IT has
significantly improved when it comes
to producing innovations.
Natarajan added: “As organisations
navigate technological changes, it’s
critical for the C-suite to empower its
employees to evolve their individual
business acumen. Many businesses
understand this and it’s encouraging
to see 42% planning to provide their
teams with management skills training to
help them break out of their traditional
back-office roles. The learnings from the
move of finance and HR to the cloud will
ultimately spread across the organisation
as, together, they conceptualise the
shape of the next disruption.”
About the research
Oracle partnered with the MIT
Technology Review to survey HR,
Finance and IT professionals about
the state of their cloud transformation
and to gain insight into how moving to
the cloud has improved collaboration
among teams. In total, 700 HR, finance
and IT professionals were polled across
North America, EMEA and Asia. n
“37% of
respondents
note they use the
cloud to improve
the way data is
shared.”
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