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guarantee compliance with the demands of regulatory authorities and customers by
supplying transparency regarding storage and handling of data (McAfee &
Brynjolfsson, 2012, p. 62).
6.2
Cloud Checklist – Example for a Business Case
For a company deciding to outsource their IT-infrastructure or parts of their IT-
related activities and processes to remote datacenters, it is necessary to determine
if there are specific business processes, which are suitable for outsourcing. In order
to answer this question properly, the company needs to know about its (IT-related)
activities (Hugos & Hulitzky, 2010, pp. 114-115). A common tool to visualize and
analyze processes within a company is to use process management software, like
for example Adonis. In most cases the crucial part is to really discover the processes
than to visualize them. Especially employees, who belong to the company for a long
time, fulfill their jobs and tasks without constantly thinking about what to do – most
of the daily business is done automatically. Thus it is not an easy task to determine
these specific tasks and processes required to provide the requested output. In a
first approach it can be meaningful to take a top-down approach by holistically
picking several areas comprising activities and processes suitable for outsourcing
into the cloud. According to Höllwarth (Cloud Migration, 2012, pp. 31-32) these could
be for a production company for example:
Communication
The internal communication needs improvement. A lot of work processes are
delayed or unnecessary due to lack of effective communication tools.
Particularly the coordination between specific customers’ requests and
distribution, as well as production planning is insufficient.
Distribution
Sales representatives should always have access to customer data, delivery
status, revenue per customer, open assets and so on regardless from the
location. The same should be applicable to external distribution partners (with
certain restrictions regarding access rights).
