With cloud adoption for BPM Software rising at a significant pace, it is clear that not just mid-market companies but Enterprises are looking to consume cloud based processes despite potential problems with delivering Business ProcessManagement as a Service (BPMaaS).
Here is a quick rundown of top 4
concerns of running business processes on cloud:
The primary concern today is that the core
strengths of Cloud based delivery models – elasticity and scalability may not
meet expectations. However, as Gartner’s Michele Cantara points out, “That can
be ok because most buyers don’t need all the attributes of Cloud. So it’s less
expensive to buy a business process as a contract for 100 users than it might
be to buy on-premise software, and while it’s not purely pay-for-use, it’s
still a saving”.
Security: Another obvious issue is of course
related to data security and IP rights. In a multi-tenant Cloud environment, it
is important to be vigilant about information security. It is a simple fact
that no security system is infallible (think Google and Sales Force.com). Data
security laws also vary with geographies and jurisdiction becomes an important
issue in this case. One needs to be aware of where exactly the BPM application or process related data will be hosted. Also, when it
comes to process governance on the Cloud, the vendor needs to have a robust
exception monitoring system in place.
SLAs: Any vendor offering solutions delivered
on Cloud is evaluated through hard bound SLAs and vendors delivering BPM
applications on the Cloud are no different. However, apart from the usual
parameters such as Uptime and Security which are the cornerstone of a
successful delivery, SLAs need to be stringently evaluated for actual process
performance. Does the process achieve the business aim it was meant to?
Accessibility and Mobility are not concerns limited to on premise solutions and
need to be evaluated for processes that rest on Cloud.
4 Pricing: Although
there are several hybrid pricing models available, typically, Cantara says, Cloud service providers price
their services based on a range of users; the customer pays for services
whether or not they’re being used. That is subscription-based, per-user
pricing. The
Process Café blog summarizes this well Costing models for BPM in the
cloud will need to be carefully scrutinised to ensure that they will not
inhibit the future development of the processes themselves. As such the owners
will need to understand how the costing is done and what will be the impact of
making a change. This will then need to be made transparent and matched against
the cost of implementing such a system as an in-house cloud system rather than
a purchased SaaS operation.
A
BPM Pilot that is tested on a critical process and modeled for the long term is
definitely an evaluation best practice. Our next post will discuss which
processes could be on Cloud vs On-premise.
An interesting concept, I would love to put the scenario on my own process improvement project as this will help me a lot. I am using a process simulation software for getting better results.
ReplyDeleteSecurity is definitely a big issue. Many businesses I've seen looking to improve their process efficiency will want to keep everything in house. Whether the threat is real or not, the perceived lack of control will delay the integration of the cloud.
ReplyDelete