Johannesburg, 17 May 2017
I'm a technology guy. I have spent much of my career working late nights, setting up large on-premises systems and then trying to figure out how we exploit it. Traditional technology is most often reactive, a giant hammer brought in to hit a very specific set of nails. But, if you wanted to change the hammer or add more nails, it would take months - even years - to accomplish, not to mention the cost.
Technology had become a necessary evil in business, something you needed to get the job done.
Then, along came cloud. Technology is suddenly promising the world, but with a gauntlet wrapped in a velvet glove. Cloud will take your business to new heights, but ignore cloud and you will eventually go under, says Quinton Pienaar, CEO of Agilitude.
If the change is so profound, then it is important to understand this cloud movement, right? That's what conventional wisdom would say, but I'm inclined to disagree. At Agilitude, we have wholly undertaken to bring cloud services to the business world, particularly Salesforce implementations. We have made some remarkable changes for many of our customers. This has taught me to look at technology in a new way.
In the world of cloud, the least important thing is cloud. All that matters is what can make your business better.
To give a simple example, one of our customers had a straightforward request. They did not have any proper visibility over their salespeople. A busy travel itinerary and ambitious expansion plans made this even more problematic.
There are numerous reasons why traditional business technology systems can't fully meet that demand, but the leading ones are time and money. The pound of flesh such a system would require weighs heavily on a company's evolving strategy. Even if they take the plunge, chances are that the system would dictate the terms. Worst of all, the expense of the investment meant they'd have to over-buy with the next few years in mind.
High cost and low flexibility - two things no company owner wants to hear.
We had a solution ready within weeks, integrated with the customer's existing system, fiscally managed through a consumption-based model. They got exactly what they needed, on their terms, and at costs they could comfortably justify. If they needed more, they simply order more, and if they had too much, they can just scale it back.
This customer didn't buy cloud. None of our customers do. Even though that is all we sell! Instead, they said: "I have this thing in my business I want to add, but the technology to do it is too big, expensive and stiff."
We don't talk cloud to our customers, because they do not care. Instead, what they see is the collapse of barriers. The notorious 'No' of business - technology's slow and difficult grip on progress - is being replaced by technology as a commodity, a utility on tap.
This is not just in how it is provisioned. Cloud makes it easy to bring different systems together. There is no good reason why you can't manage your people with Salesforce, share files through Dropbox and enjoy dynamic discussions over WhatsApp. To add, there is also no reason not to decide one day that Slack is better than WhatsApp, then make the change without losing sleep over money down the drain.
Everything around technology that once held companies back now takes companies forward. Speed, cost and choice are now all negotiable. That is really all you need to know about cloud.
Use your time instead to look at what you want in your business. Cloud is simply a methodology. It gets you where you need to be faster and cheaper than traditional avenues. Not by mere steps, but several factors. This is why the mantra of 'adopt cloud or become extinct' has been so resounding. Disregarding cloud is tantamount to holding on to horse wagons while your rivals buy delivery vans.
But you don't need to know how a car works in order for it to work for you. Nor do you need to get stuck on what the cloud is. Instead, you are finally able to think about business again without sweating the technology implications. Make your decision, make it known to your technology partners, and let cloud come to you.
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