This is going to be about how the cloud is automating much of what IT did, (networks, maintaining emails, managed services) and how your technology partner will be giving you much higher value services instead.
Remember when you owned your own servers, connected your users via a network software and had some IT staff (or some outside IT firm) tell you when something was wrong, something needed to be updated or something was down?
That was certainly frustrating, and sometimes costly, always annoying as you explained to your employees, customers or vendors, that “computer glitches” were not allowing you to do the service or process that was required to be done.
All of that is now gone, so you can be frustrated by different things.
So what is going to happen to all these network people who did this stuff, now that the cloud has (will be?) taking over all these functions. You see, these people are smart and talented people, after all, they are computer people, right?
Well, in the short run, they will be migrating your on-premise Exchange server to the cloud, migrating your files to the cloud, and doing some fancy network security stuff (Active Directory Federation Services, or ADFS, impress your IT person when she talks about linking ADFS or getting Federated Services to work, and all you have to say is “Active Directory is a great security tool, thanks for making it work in the cloud”) to make the cloud experience seamless to the end users.
Ok, you are now server free, and everyone is happy running their new office tools and everything is working, so what now? What does all this networking talent do for an encore?
Some of these talented folks (a few, but fewer and fewer as time goes on) will work in these huge inter-connected server farms that are “The Cloud”. For the rest, they will migrate to higher-value technical services, which means you get “more bang for the buck” on the technical services they provide. But more significantly, your partner will provide functional expertise aligned both with your industry and your company’s goals.
For example, in choosing a CRM partner, expect a good CRM partner to know how to migrate contact, account data into your system, set up the SQL and CRM properly and make any integrations work well. But a good functional partner will also be able to discuss with you the advantages and disadvantages of sales and marketing processes that they understand work well in your industry (best practice processes), as well as processes specific to the way your particular company operates that optimizes your staff. In essence, you should expect both a good technical partner who understands the undercarriage of the business application and a good functional partner making recommendations on how to optimize the set-up of your system.
These are exciting times where technology is providing more and more value back to organizations. Partners, like KTL Solutions, who provide both the technical expertise and best practice process improvement with the adoption of new technology, add to that value and allow much “more bang for the buck” for your company.
STEVE HAMMETT | Director of Sales
Steve graduated from University of Maryland, Baltimore, with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.), in Economics and a few years later, a Master of Science (M.S.), in Information Technology. He has helped organizations for over fifteen years to solve business problems using technology. He is well informed with all Microsoft Business Solutions and is a Solutions Certified Sales Representative. For fun he looks to the outdoors, whether water, where he is a sailor (Coast Guard certified in Costal Piloting and Navigation), a PADI certified scuba diver, and a certified Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, or land, where he is a skier, hiker and mountain biker.
