SaaS in the City – a 2012 tipping point?
Over the summer, there’s been an increasing amount of buzz in the finance sector about the potential of SaaS solutions and the Cloud in the Financial Services sector – and not just for non-core activities. BBVA’s deal with Google earlier this year looks like something of a signpost, and many banks are weighing up the options for non-core, non-differentiated activities. But Accenture are putting their money on a much more substantial shift, where Cloud applications become vehicles for rapid rebundling and differentiation of banking products in a more dynamic market. Read their original report here.
Of course, there have been reports of Cloud becoming the dominant method of IT delivery in Finance for years but it is only recently that those predictions are becoming a reality. Any industry with a heavy IT legacy investment and regulators to keep happy is going to want to be certain of their ground. So early adopters in this market can expect a good deal of scrutiny as the majority judge the best moment to make the move.
We have asked some of these early adopters to be with us for CEO tales: SaaS in the City (6-9pm, 23 Oct, Tower Hill, London). If you’re weighing up the case for Cloud or SaaS in your organisation, come along to meet them and the businesses making SaaS happen. Registration for interested parties is free but space is limited.
The biggest obstacle is data security. It’s the major disadvantage of utilizing SaaS, but I’d say the benefits and cost savings outweigh this. If a SaaS provider can prove that the data is safe, then they will switch over.
Very true, Steve, and I guess explains why banks are mostly sticking to private cloud for key activities. The onus is on SaaS providers to come up with watertight strategies for data security if they want to move further – hopefully we’ll explore some of those on Oct 23rd.