Cloud base
Don't send your data straight to the cloud - do this with it first
There are huge benefits to moving software into the cloud. There are also risks. Much has been written on this, this article from Google is one of the better I’ve read. But most focus on the technical and commercial arguments for hosting software and data in cloud or on-premise servers.
I’d like to consider strategy.
Who owns the data stored and managed within cloud services? What are they allowed to do with it? Who owns the intellectual property they create through analysing it?
In the short term, you may be happy to give up ownership of your data to gain the benefits software as a service (SaaS) products offer. Low capital cost, flexibility, and pre-configured solutions developed specifically for your industry - allow you to show results fast.
You have access to your data with easy to use dashboards, and are gaining insights you’d never have been able to infer based on the manual records you were keeping previously. You’re making better decisions and the product is more than paying for itself.
Once easy wins have been realised. The next logical step is to automate decision-making based on the data you’re collecting.
Production scheduling
Materials ordering
Dispatch
Maintenance
Decisions made during these activities which maximise customer satisfaction and profitability typically require information from multiple sources.
Cloud services can bring fantastic benefits in the long-term. There’s great work being done relating to specific technology or industries. Suppliers of these systems use their customer’s data together with domain expertise to develop excellent solutions. But they necessarily focus on particular datasets.
Then there’s vendor lock-in to consider.
So how to benefit from cloud services and keep ownership and control of your data?
Rather than passing data to these proprietary systems directly, you should consider storing it in a system you have control over. Build a ‘single source of truth’ - one system holding the current status of all data points within your operations.
Then grant third party solution providers access to your database. In this way if a new product becomes available which is more competitive you can easily switch supplier without losing all the historical information built up. If desired you can even build in-house data analysis and software development capability. All the time still benefitting from the best solutions available on the market.
In the long-term ensuring your business has control and ownership of its data will give you a competitive advantage over those willing to trust theirs to third parties.