Sujit Panigrahi, Co-founder and CTO Convergent Technologies

April 27, 2012

Cloud Technology: Opportunity for MSMEs FISME’s Seminar on Cloud Computing, April 27, 2012, Hyderabad

Talking Points

• Brief Introduction of what I do

• What is Cloud Technology?

• Life before the Cloud

• Large Enterprise Segment vs SMEs

• Why Cloud makes sense for SMEs

• Business Benefits

• Technology Infrastructure

• Cloud-based Applications

• Securing your Cloud

• Challenges and Opportunities

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• Tertiary Sales Capture

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Partner Connect

• Partner Loyalty Program

• Redemption Engine

• Targets v/s Achievement

Partner Plus

• Daily Sell-in, Sell through and Stock in hand

• Issues

Daily Sales Report

• Fleet on Street (FOS) Sales Force Tracking and Communication

• Issues

FOS Tracker

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Everyone is talking about the Cloud. What does it mean?

• Rich Portfolio of On-demand Applications +

Pay only for what you use

• Cloud Offerings

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)

• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

• Range of Enterprise Applications

• You do not pay for the whole infrastructure, but only for the Services used

Applications What they do?

CRM To connect with Team, Partners and Customers (Sales, Marketing

and Servicing)

Document Sharing Online Storage and Sharing

Project Management Project and Task Management

Screen Sharing and Conferencing

Business Productivity Suites Email and Calendar, Office Web Apps, Websites, Team

Collaboration, IM and Online Meetings

Life before Cloud Computing

• On-Premise Solution or Solution hosted in a Data Center:

• Variety of Hardware and Software Required to run an

application

• Whole team of experts to develop, install, configure, run

• Multiply this effort across dozens or hundreds of apps

Easy to see why the best IT departments of large

enterprises can’t get the apps they need – smaller and

mid-sized businesses don’t stand a chance!!

Cloud Computing: A better way and it costs less!

• Evolution of Industry Requirements and IT Standardization

• Convergence of Technologies and Easy-to-Integrate Applications

• Management and Operations Discipline

• Great value from business standpoint: • Elastic, Scalable, Nimble and Flexible Architecture

• On-demand Provisioning, Freedom and Agility

• Eliminate the headache of who is managing the hardware and software

• Shared Infrastructure means it works like an utility • You only pay for what you need

• Upgrades are automatic

• Scaling up and down is easy

• Applications can be up and running in days or weeks • Just open a browser, log in, customize the app and start using it

Mobility and Collaboration

• Most traditional Business Productivity Applications are adding the Mobile Front-

ends

• Employees, partners and customers can be anywhere for accessing and

sharing information

• Mobility and Collaboration

• Collaborate between Teams

• Work from anywhere

• Use Mobile Devices for Business Productivity Workflows

• ERP and Business Productivity Apps

• Core Business Functions, Finance/Accounting, HRMS, CRM, Project

Management, Email and Task Management, Collaboration, Team Sites,

Communication and Conferencing, Corporate IM

• Employee Self Service Apps

• Leave Applications, Reimbursements, Task and Appointments, Travel Desk

5 key Challenges in Cloud Technologies

• Challenge # 1: Possible downtime: Cloud computing makes your small business dependent on the

reliability of your Internet connection. When it's offline, you're offline. • TIP: Look for Application/Server Provider’s reliability. Most of them do!

• Challenge # 2: How safe is your data? I do not want to use cloud to store organisation data that I am not

comfortable having on the Internet.

Switching to the cloud can actually improve security for a small

business!

Established, reliable cloud computing vendors will have the latest, most

sophisticated data security systems possible as they want your

business and realize that data security is a big concern.

• TIP: Look for assurances of encryption technologies, privacy protection, and

solutions for offline accessibility

5 key Challenges in Cloud Technologies

• Challenge # 3: Cost: At first glance, a cloud computing application may appear to be a lot

cheaper than a particular software solution installed and run in-house,

but you need to be sure you're comparing apples and apples.

• TIP: To be sure you're saving money, you have to look closely at the

pricing plans and details for each application.

• Does the cloud application have all the features that the software

does and if not, are the missing features important to you?

• SaaS (Software as a Service) applications will have lower total cost of

ownership for the first 3 years because SaaS applications do not

require large capital investment for licenses or support infrastructure.

• After that, the on-premises option can become the cost-savings

winner from an accounting perspective as the capital assets involved

depreciate.

5 key Challenges in Cloud Technologies

• Challenge # 4: Inflexibility: Be careful when you're choosing a cloud computing vendor that you're

not locking your business into using their proprietary applications or

formats.

• You can't insert a document created in another application into a

Google Docs spreadsheet, for instance. Also make sure that you can

add and subtract cloud computing users as necessary as your business

grows or contracts.

• Challenge #5: Lack of support: Customer service for Web apps leaves a lot to be desired -- All too

many cloud-based apps make it difficult to get customer service

promptly – or at all.

Sending an email and hoping for a response within 48 hours is not an

acceptable way for most of us to run a business.

BOTTOMLINE: Cloud According to Your Comfort Level

• Cloud computing is a great opportunity for small businesses to off-load

the hassle and costs of IT management

• Security issues related to having their business data 'out' on the Internet

seem to be the number one concern of small business owners.

• Start cloud computing slowly; choose the most critical business

applications to replace and see how it goes

• Suggestions: Start with Business Productive Applications like hosted

email, group/one-to-one messaging, online documents repository and

team sites

• Over time you'll become more comfortable with it and able to reap even

further by adopting other cloud based business applications

Contact Information

Sujit Panigrahi CTO, Convergent Technologies Email: sujit@convergenttec.com Phone: +91-98102-59395

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