Cloud Solutions Best Practices: 2013 Benchmark Study

Lindy Antonelli writes: How does your company stack up against peers in cloud software deployment and integration? The results of the Cloud Accounting Institute’s annual benchmark study are in! The 2013 benchmark study of cloud technology practices, outlook, and trends is  based on the following topics:

• Cloud adoption status
• Key expected benefits of cloud solutions
• Key concerns about cloud solutions
• Expectations of cloud solutions
• Integration

Cloud Solutions Best Practices: 

2013 Benchmark Study - Click To Download the PDF

Results and Analysis from the Cloud Accounting Institute 

In addition, thereport benchmarks some findings against the Cloud Accounting Best Practices 2012 Benchmark Study to identify emerging trends and established practices.

Study Highlights include:

- The rate of growth in cloud adoptions continues to accelerate, increasing over 43% in the last year to nearly 75%; a consistent number of respondents (18%) indicate that they do no intend to use SaaS applications.

- The most widely deployed solution areas currently are Accounting/Financial Management and front end applications such as CRM and Web Portal Development Tools; both were selected by 52% of those responding.

- Among those with plans to acquire SaaS solutions, 74% pointed to Accounting/Financial Management and 50% indicated Budgeting/Forecasting Corporate Performance Management Solutions

- New this year are questions concerning integration challenges and how they are managed; responses indicate a substantial comfort level with using native cloud integration methods in-house.

- Comparative ratings of current vs. SaaS functionality indicate that respondents believe that SaaS can deliver better ROI and increased efficiency; the demand for greater business process efficiency is a major theme in this year’s survey.