Bluewolf: Most Companies Not Adapting to Cloud Infrastructure

NEW YORK, May 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Bluewolf (www.bluewolf.com), a leading agile business consulting firm, and Premier Salesforce.com Partner announced today the release of a new white paper, "The Salesforce ROI Paradox," which discusses the growing pains many companies are experiencing as they transition software and infrastructure to the cloud. The paper prescribes best practices for tapping greater ROI from cloud implementations, and asserts that most companies are making the mistake of treating cloud infrastructure – Salesforce CRM in particular – as traditional enterprise software, missing out on millions of dollars' worth of benefits.

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"Many are comparing cloud computing to the industrial revolution," said Eric Berridge, co-founder, Bluewolf. "While we see limitless potential, most companies manage cloud solutions like it's 1999 – ignoring them after implementation, just like old-school enterprise software, evidenced by the impact of Amazon Web Services' recent outage. Meanwhile, the solution and business evolve in separate directions, until the 'flexible' application is no longer relevant."

Bluewolf, which has managed more than 3,000 cloud-based implementations over the past 11 years, says many companies finally recognize this problem. They cite as evidence the fact that its fastest growing services involve not implementation, but rather post-go-live managed services, which continue to double year-over-year.

In their new white paper, Bluewolf enumerates best cloud deployment practices used by companies that continue to realize measurable ROI, including:

• Aligning resources to ensure that cloud technologies sync with business changes
• Shifting culture from a traditional enterprise "software management" mindset to an agile, adaptive one
• Continually considering cloud application development a "work in progress"
• Implementing a process to dynamically prioritize and pace a steady stream of well-defined innovations

Additionally, the paper recommends forming a governance board made up of leaders across all business units to help prioritize product enhancements, and using "timeboxing" – a practice in which each iteration is built within a well-defined period of time.

The paper also identifies three levels of cloud sophistication:

• Player: has made the transition to cloud technology, but hasn't mastered the process of adapting the application to changes in the business, achieving negative ROI
• Contender: has the basic resources and management processes to drive system development, but can't ensure sustained innovation, and achieving  around 100% ROI
• Leader: moves cloud technologies in lockstep with business changes, and makes the cultural shift necessary to consistently deliver new benefits over time, achieving 2-300% ROI

"The cloud lets you evolve your system along with the ebbs and flows of your business," said Michael Kirven, co-founder, Bluewolf. "'Leaders' are aware of this and never think cloud application development is 'finished' – not even for a period of several months – and create a culture that fosters continual innovation."

To download "The Salesforce ROI Paradox" white paper, please visit: www.bluewolf.com/blog/salesforce-roi-paradox

For more information about Bluewolf Beyond, please visit:

http://www.bluewolf.com/managed-services

About Bluewolf

Bluewolf is the agile business transformation company. We partner with clients to sync the business and IT to create a new level of business responsiveness. From customer lifecycle innovation, cloud implementations, IT staffing to agile managed services, Bluewolf helps clients to attain efficient, adaptive business performance. With over 3,000 clients, only Bluewolf can bring 10 years of best practices and guarantee success. Bluewolf is headquartered in New York City, with offices across the US and Europe.

To view client success stories, visit bluewolf.com/tv. Join the conversation on Bluewolf Twitter and Bluewolf Facebook.

SOURCE Bluewolf

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