GROWING REVENUES In A Cloud Services Business By Steve Lanchak, Former SVP at HCL and currently a Strategic IT consultant Having spent over 25 years building and leading professional services teams in the enterprise technology space, I have seen technology progress from the mainframe to client/server to the Web and now the Cloud. I can tell you that the common denominator for services success and growth is delivering a complete business solution to your customer that creates tangible value. Today s Cloud based services are no different. Those of us in the industry are continually tempted to view these simply as SaaS technology projects and in doing so disregard many of the drivers of customer value that made us successful in the first place. Our goal should not be to just implement a particular Cloud based application, but to also help our customer round out their Cloud strategy, transform their IT organization, establish the cloud infrastructure to make it all operate successfully and perhaps most importantly optimize their business practices to create measurable benefits from their move to the Cloud. We also should not lament the fact that large, multi-year IT programs are now few and far between. Clearly, the Cloud has changed our customer s expectations for services. We must now get applications up and running in just weeks with little or no capital expenditure. Yes, this places extraordinary demands upon us as service providers, but the advantage we often overlook is that these engagements offer the opportunity for additional services and these engagements, if successful in their early stages, rarely have a finite end - in other words, a customer relationship for life. Peter Duflo Managing Director Strategic Ventures (MRINetwork) Executive Search for Cloud Leaders 860.643.4434 pduflo@strategicventures.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/peterduflo www.strategicventures.com Every month I ask a successful thought leader to contribute a winning strategy on accelerating revenues at information technology companies which are delivering their value proposition through the Cloud (e.g. - SaaS applications, Managed Services, Business Intelligence, Analytics, Big Data, Security, Mobility, Healthcare Diagostics, Consulting, etc.). This month, Steve Lanchak, a former SVP at HCL, and currently a strategic IT consultant, shares proven strategies for accelerating Cloud revenues at global IT consultancies. Additionally, I have included our All-Star Roster which includes profiles on exceptional Cloud leaders who are open to being recruited to a new team. Let me know if your company could benefit from their proven leadership or if you would like to discuss how our executive search services are helping other information technology companies accelerate their growth. Peter
Many of these additional services opportunities relate to the governance and management of the Cloud environment, e.g. monitoring, optimizing, metering, virtualization, etc. Clearly, these are not the sexy things that we love to do, but they are essential details that our customers are not prepared or inclined to think through. For instance, a publishing customer of mine wants to lift and shift their entire on-premises human capital management and financial environment to a hybrid cloud. Their legacy environment is highly customized and the CIO believes that by moving to the Cloud he can drive out needless complexity and, of course, cost. At the center of our solution are SaaS based application components, but we have also proposed a private and public cloud infrastructure that includes details on provisioning and metering the services and charging back for their consumption. Also, integral to our proposal is the migration approach - what exactly do you move to the Cloud and why, and when do you move it. There are lots of things to consider in a Cloud based initiative, but we must maintain our focus on what makes the customer successful. How do we ensure their success and resulting satisfaction with our services? My analysis has led me to the following: 1) On time and on budget project or phase completion, 2) Communicating exactly what the customer will get from the project and when they will get it, and 3) Providing a result that meets or exceeds their business goals and requirements. In short, predictable results that are measurable. I understand that this is easy to say and challenging to do, however, two important factors for realizing this are: 1. Investing in your customer - If the goal is to create business value for your customer and retain them for life, you cannot take a cookie cutter approach to Cloud services. You have to invest time upfront with the customer to understand their particular business model, their unique needs and what specifically they value in a service provider. Remember, you are a steward of their business and not just a provider of IT services. About Strategic Ventures Strategic Ventures helps Cloud based information technology companies build boards, C-Suites and middle management teams to help accelerate their growth. The value propositions of these companies may include SaaS applications, hosting, managed services, business intelligence, analytics, big data, security, mobility, healthcare diagnostics, consulting, etc. To provide our clients the highest quality Cloud leaders in the shortest possible time our executive search team has developed a unique network of candidates called the Ambassador Group. We have built this group by continually scouting and building relationships with All-Star leaders in the information technology industry. They are leaders with successful track records in executive leadership, operations, sales, delivery, product development, marketing and finance. To help our clients hire the most talented leaders and build global teams Strategic Ventures provides our clients a single point of contact to over 3,000 MRINetwork executive search consultants in over 35 countries. Our roster of satisfied clients includes multinational corporations, mid-cap and emerging information technology companies. We are committed to building long lasting relationships with both our clients and the All-Star leaders who put their trust in our search team.
2. Having the right set of skills on your team - Having access to a diverse set of skills on your staff or at the very least engaging a well-connected executive search professional who understands the Cloud services space is absolutely important. Simply understanding the core application or applications at the center of your solution is no longer enough. Cloud technology infrastructure as well as operations and governance skills coupled with resources that understand how to manage change and redesign processes are very critical. Accomplishing these two things will drive significant growth and ensure that your cloud services projects are not just projects, but multi-year journeys to the cloud that your customers will appreciate for years to come! ALL-STAR ROSTER Here are examples of All-Stars who are open to being recruited to a new team: Cloud Managed Services, SVP of Sales - This sales executive currently leads a sales team which sells enterprise managed services, cloud and outsourcing opportunities in companies of $500mm to $5B in revenues. His team is responsible for the sales process from Opportunity Qualification thru Close and has developed many Global 2000 marquee clients. This Sales VP just closed one of the largest deals in company history and is on track to significantly overachieve his 2014 team quota. As a player / coach this executive leads Strategic Deal management, Sales coordination, Solution Development and Sales Support for large complex deals encompassing various managed services offerings including - OS Management, Monitoring Services, Remote Managed IT Services, Full Infrastructure Management, Backup and Recovery, Technical Operations Center Support and Application Management for both SAP and Oracle. During this IT cloud sales leader's 20-year career he has managed P&L s between $150mm - $250mm at several industry leading companies including IBM.
Cloud Software Services, CEO / COO - This accomplished Cloud services leader, change agent, and entrepreneur has a track record of success driving revenues at the Big-4, SAP, Oracle and even startups. This leader s startup mentality drives innovation with over 25 years of finance, business, consulting, systems integration, and high tech industry experience. This rare combination of strategic thinking and ability to operationalize these strategies has led to impressive financial results such as: Developed a VC based investment model to achieve $1B non-linear revenue Managed Oracle North American and Canadian Commercial Consulting Business Unit; directly responsible for $425 million in revenue Booked $500 million in Oracle new business Developed strategy to gain 30 net new engagements in one quarter Managed $1 billion SAP consulting practice focused on commercial, financial, and public services vertical markets Cloud Software Services, CEO/COO - This software company executive has successfully grown and sold three emerging financial services software (Saas) companies to public companies in transactions ranging from $8MM to almost $40MM. These sophisticated equities post-trade analytics and revenue management software applications are used by many of the largest 20 global financial services asset managers. This successful CEO is very well rounded in software application sales, delivery and development. He is an innovative software architect with many years of experience in the design of complex financial services systems and was the creator of a sophisticated post-trade software analytics application which he subsequently sold to Citigroup. Cloud Infrastructure Services, CEO/COO/CIO - This executive has extensive leadership experience helping private equity firms such as; American Capital, General Atlantic, George Soros Commodity Investment Fund and Osprey International Opportunities Fund maximize the equity of their portfolio
companies in Agribusiness / Food, Oil & Gas and Internet technology services. This enhanced value was achieved through improvements in their information technology, operations, logistics, and organizational effectiveness. This leader has a demonstrated ability to manage complex projects and operational situations, overcome distressed and under-performing organizations, and managing diverse customers and strategic suppliers using a blend of people, process, and technology solutions. He is a thought leader who is frequently ask to speak on evolving IT organizational models, applying next generation technologies to drive business performance, leveraging technology suppliers and generating business value through technology strategies. He believes these technology approaches can be taken to any number of portfolio companies to gain competitive edge and he has conservatively achieve 15% to 40% reductions in annual IT expenditures at all the operating companies he has helped prepare for liquidity events. Contact Us Now We welcome the opportunity to discuss these high performance All-Stars and our executive search services. If this information was forwarded to you, let us know if you would like to be included in the distribution of this Scouting Report. Feel free to contact me at - pduflo@strategicventures.com or submit our online request form for more information. If you would no longer like to receive e-mails, simply reply to this with UNSUBSCRIBE in subject line.