General Consultant Discussion

I got into a heated debate with one of my friends a few weeks back about the value of the cloud and he told me that my "cloud wokeness" was because I started selling Dynamics 365 CRM so I have a financial interest in rationalizing the cloud.

There's always truth to that type of bias and it did make me think through how my view of cloud software has evolved over the last decade. 

Originally, I never felt the need for cloud because my customers were just fine as-is. And many still are just fine with on-premises and experiencing the benefit of on-premises (faster, more control, not dependent upon internet speed, etc.).

But ... the reality is that I'm personally sick and tired of break/fix work. It's bullsh*t work. Customers are interacting with us only when they are angry about something broken and everything takes longer than they think so it's a bad psychological position to be in that business.

I prefer to actually help my customers with reaching their goals. I know most of us in 90 Minds are the same way. 

So the interesting thing about my buddy telling me I was rationalizing my view on the cloud because I picked up Dynamics is: he had it backwards. 

Four years ago, I saw the need for cloud solutions and unfortunately for my desires, Sage CRM didn't have a pure cloud solution. I investigated many different cloud CRM options and chose Dynamics because of it's strength and my belief in what I saw in their vision. 

I still love Sage CRM and still think it's the #1 solution for most (not all - there are always exceptions) customers already using a Sage ERP.​ But for other customers out there, it makes a heck of a lot of sense to look at cloud software and skip the fiddling about with servers and technology and focus on business needs.

Hopefully this perspective is useful to some of the group here. Maybe you all are like "no sh*t, Sherlock" and already figured this out long ago. :D

The One Simple Thing That Changed My Mind about Cloud Software (and Might Change Yours, Too!)

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The One Simple Thing That Changed My Mind about Cloud Software (and Might Change Yours, Too!) What's the big deal about the cloud? I admit it. I've never been gung-ho about cloud software. View this on Linkedin >

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Peter Wolf
Azamba Consulting Group
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​@Peter Wolf Great perspective on this question. I recently thought about Salesforce being used extensively in certain industries, specifically the film and music industries - huge in LA, but each of those also has locations in at least New York and probably London. It doesn't have to be Salesforce, but cloud is definitely an advantage with locations globally. The other factor within an industry is it soon becomes a standard, so implementation and training may not be required as much, as long as it's not heavily customized. As people move from company to company, it is similar to using Word, Excel and Outlook - second nature. Then there is the peculiar habit in those industries of using Apple products. The cloud doesn't care!

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John Hoyt
john.hoyt@formingsolutions.com
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